Julian and I drove down to Bristol together on 20
th,
and Julian got very grumpy about the state of the boat. There was too
much to do before we left on the 21
st and the work we had
had done was not obvious, except in negative ways. We bent the main
sail on easily enough, but when I came to run the main sheet the
shackle which held the block onto the horse fouled the tiller. It
seemed as though when the horse was put back into the cockpit it was
set about 5mm lower than before, so there was not enough clearance
for the shackle when the tiller was centred. Julian ended up making a
shallow grove in the tiller so the shackle could run freely.
I went up the mast again, to re-run the topping lifts. I had put
the rope the wrong way round in the blocks before, so they were
fouling themselves.
I suddenly noticed that the main cabin lights were on. I must have
left them that way when I was last on the boat a fortnight ago. Then
Julian checked the solar panel and realised that when he replaced my
chock block connections with a more solid soldered one he had
accidentally connected them up the wrong way round. Our battery had
been trying to charge the solar panel not the other way round, and
that combined with the lights being left on meant there was not
enough charge left in the battery to start the engine. Even when we
tried switching batteries to “both” the engine did not have
enough power to start. Hand cranking did not help.
We bit the bullet and bought a new battery. It will replace the
old one (which should have been replaced in 2016 at Tobermoray).
Julian hunted on the web, and found the best deal was at GO Outdoors.
Luckily there was a Bristol branch and I could drive and collect it
in the morning.
I had damaged the water pump when fitting the new filter,
resulting in a constant drip from the connector. Julian had a look at
this while I drove to get the battery and some supplies, and decided
that the simplest thing to do was replace the whole pump. The new
pump solved the leak, so I filled the water tanks that I had cleaned
on the last visit. Another job ticked off the list. What with £74
for the battery, £71 for the pump, and paying for a month and a
half’s mooring at Bristol it felt like an expensive day, and we had
not even left the berth yet!
When I got back with the new battery we found we could not get the
old one disconnected and free from its snug housing. In the end we
used the new battery to jump start the engine. This worked fine, and
we warmed up the engine, then came off the berth at 10:30. Ready or
not we were due at Junction Bridge for the bridge lift I had booked
last week at 11:00. We motored out of the marina, and through a flock
of small Pico dinghies, crewed by even smaller sailors, then headed
up the harbour, to have a look at the SS Great Britain from the
harbour. Julian bent on the stay-sail as we traveled.
The bridge swung for us (and only us) just on time, then we were
in the Cumberland Basin and waiting for the duel carriage way bridge
to swing and let us into the lock. We waited for what felt like ages,
and I began to panic slightly. I was certain the harbour master had
told me that once the Junction Bridge swing was booked everything
else was too, but what if I was wrong? A slightly panicked radio call
to the HM reassured me that they just had to wait for the crew to get
from the Junction to the Basin bridge, and everything would happen...
We were in the lock, once more having it to ourselves, by 11:20.
This was the last lock out of the day, nearly high water, and we only
had to drop 2’ before we were released into the river.
Down the Avon toward Cardiff
We left Bristol in bright sunshine, and motored down the river.
The depth gauge was not hooked up to the chart plotter yet, but at
high water, and with our inbound track to follow I knew we did not
need it. The river was just as interesting heading down as it had
been heading up, but unfortunately the sky clouded over just as I
suggested we should have our bread and cheese picnic before leaving
the river.
Big ship entering Avonmouth docks as we exited the river, saw 2
other yachts heading for Portishead
I raised the main sail, it was past time I did that again rather
than always leaving it to Julian, and bent on the no 1 jib. We then
sailed most of the way to Cardiff, making 7 knots at times, but the
speed mostly due to the tide as the wind was very light. Kept engine
on most of the time to charge main battery, only used it once, in the
middle of shipping lane when we lost steerage way and needed to get
across pronto rather than drifting down the middle.
Took the inshore route, vie North Cardiff buoy, the one I had
bottled out of when Julian wanted to take it on the way to Bristol.
The river “water” was more like thin mud, with thick clumps of
denser liquid swirling on all sides. I was sure that I felt the keel
dragging on mud a couple of times, but we hardly slowed down, so I
was probably imaging it. None the less Julian ducked below and
connected up the depth gauge to the plotter so we could check the
drying areas marked on the plotter had not moved too much and there
was enough water. There was. We turned the engine off as we
approached Cardiff, and the quiet was wonderful!
Once we reached the entrance channel for Cardiff docks at the
North Wrass buoy the engine had to go back on as the wind was now on
the nose. I dropped the main, then three fishing boats powered past
us to make the 16:45 lock in. They were friendly and waved, but the
wash was a bit nasty. I heard them calling up the barrage lock to ask
which one to use, and they were told no 2. By the time I called them,
at 16:40 just as Julian headed Robinetta into the side channel to the
barrage lock, I was told no 3. They had obviously cycled the lock
early since there were already three boats in it.
Hanging around in the lower lock basin for half an hour gave us
plenty of time to get the bowsprit in and ropes and fenders sorted.
Once in the lock (by ourselves again!) it was crash filled, with
water surging everywhere. We were at dead low water, and there was a
long way to go up. I was glad we were alone and tied on with our
newest lines!
Our antics were watched by tourists on every side and when I waved
as we headed out of the lock we got a lot of friendly waves back.
We intended to go to the Cardiff Yacht Club for the night. They
had been very welcoming back in October and their free pontoon berth
made them even more attractive! First we decided to go to the Town
Quay “pay and display” pontoons; at £1 an hour, maximum stay 24
hours, it was not a bad price, and very cost effective for a larger
boat. There was plenty of space and we could haul
Worm out of
the water onto the wide pontoon. After a good look round at the wide
range of restaurants we ended up at Carluccio’s and had a very nice
meal with wine.
We got back to
Robinetta at 21:00, just as the last light
left the sky. Once we had put Worm back in the water and switched on
the running lights I backed us carefully out of the berth with Julian
checkeing we were clear at the bow, then set off to follow our
chartplotter track to the Yacht Club. Julian suddenly announced,
“It’s dark. Lifejackets!” and dashed below to get them.
Once we were properly dressed I decided to speed up a bit, and put
the throttle forward. Nothing happened. No change in the engine note,
no increase in speed. We were in gear, and moving forward, but at
only 1½ knots. Luckily it was not far to the yacht club, and the
engine did come out of gear when I wanted to slow down in the
approaches.
Robinetta carries a lot of way, and it takes her a
long time to slow down unless I give her a burst of power in reverse.
I was sure that option was not available to us. We were safely tied
up by 10:00, with
Worm once again hauled up on the wide
visitor pontoon.
The club house was deserted, so we lit
Robinetta’s
paraffin lights and relaxed for a little before getting out the bed
and turning in. There was no point looking at the engine problem in
the dark, especially after a bottle of wine!
Posts
