Sleeping on the boat at the end of March

On Wednesday night Julian and I were at the Cruising Association, picking up an award for my log of the trip from Tollesbury to Southwold. Duncan Wells, the judge for the award, said that he kept waiting for the next breakage, with the expectation that it would be the newly installed engine. Well done to French Marine for that not being the case!

Our aim for the next week is to continue that cruise north now that all our breakages have been mended, so we headed to Southwold by train and bus. Walking from Southwold to Walberswick, weighed down by our bags tired me out, so it was just as well that the weather forecast would not let us leave that day. Ah, the weather... After 3 sunny weeks of Spring Winter came back with a vengeance. We saw snow lying from the train, and the north easterly wind was blowing at force7, gusting 9.

We bundled up against the cold to sleep, and were quite cosy in double sleeping bags, woolen base layers, pajamas and hoodies. This morning we have snow flurries, a temp of 4C, and a wind forecast of force 6 gusting 7 until 4pm. When I got back to Robinetta after a trip to the shore heads and the deli Julian had porridge on the go, and the spirit heater alight, which made the cabin feel toasty warm after my walk. I don't think we will be gong anywhere today.

Getting ready to move on

I have not been back to see Robinetta since October, but she has not been abandoned! Julian rebuilt the gaff over the winter, and I have been sent regular photos by friends who live locally. The yard have kept on eye on her which was especially useful during the storms of February.

Julian and I drove down south on Monday, to stay in a cottage in Walberswick while we got Robinetta ready to move on. The weather was lovely for March, dry with bright blue sky, but the wind was strong and the temperature hovered between 5C and 10C.

 Our first check was on the covers, which are showing their age, with some of the stitching coming undone and ties that have frayed through. The bow mooring line was also damaged, but being braid the core was still strong enough to hold the bow in, even though the braid sheathing had vanished. We immediately replaced the rope.

Once we got the covers off and folded away I opened up the cabin, to find the expected grey mould on most of the surfaces. We took the seat cushions back to the cottage and washed them there, but it took me a full day to wash the paintwork down. Meanwhile Julian got on with repairing the boom. It needed some epoxy reinforcement on the end, so that was taken to the cottage too, where conditions were warm enough for the epoxy to set.

The engine started first time, the radio worked, as did the depth gauge and chart plotter and by the end of Wednesday we had Robinetta habitable, and the main sail bent on. We will be back at the end of the month and, weather permitting, will resume our passage north.

An Autumn check up

Julian and I drove down to check on Robinetta on Saturday. The Yard had taken off the cockpit cover to see what needed doing, but not started any work. They had not put the cover back either, which together with the fact that they has isolated the batteries thereby disabling the automatic bilge pump meant that when I stepped down into the cabin I trod on floating floorboards. Not a good start! Luckily the water had only just reached the level of the floor boards, and the cabin was not nearly as damp as when a similar situation happened at Holyhead.

Initially I thought that the float switch had failed to work and tried to use the automatic pump. When that did not work I went for the manual cockpit bilge pump, but luckily for my arm muscles Julian thought to check the isolation switch and the electric pump was soon working away. The water was well below the level at which it would damage anything, but I am glad we went to see Robinetta when we did.

After a night on board we woke to an amazing morning mist with the sun coming through it.

We tied Worm, the tender, to the car roof, and took her home. We also took the broken gaff with us, to remove the fittings for re-use after Julian builds the new spar.

End of the trip

Our trip to Southwold yesterday was plagued by gear failures. This was meant to be a shakedown cruise, but too much had been shaken for comfort. There was no safe way to carry on without work on the boat, but the Harbour Master had six boats booked in for the next night, with no space left for us unless they cancelled.

Our inability to reef was explained by the reefing drum coming loose from the boom, but that was not the only problem with the spars. The glue joints on the gaff had de-laminated, and a new one would be the simplest solution.

Luckily the boatyard had a spare berth on the Walberswick side of the river, so we moved Robinetta there while the tide was in our favour. When I went to put the sail cover on the staysail I found that even this sail had suffered, with the piston hanks being noticeably abraded. 

We were not going to be going anywhere soon, and the main sail had to come off for the work on the boom and the gaff. It was really depressing to be folding it up, having only bent it on on Tuesday....

However Southwold on a sunny Saturday in September was a pleasant place to be, and the afternoon felt like a holiday as we met up with friends and strolled around the harbour before heading to collect our car ready for the trip back home.

Trying again

We set off next morning with the new main sheet in place, and a plan to sail out of the harbour and see what the sea state was like. After a lovely gentle sail down the River Orwell we headed across the Stour channel, avoiding a small trawler and a large Stena Line ferry, and out past the Harwich Shelf. The wind was easterly, a much better direction than yesterday, and the sea state also said "Go for it!" Julian put in a course towards Lowestoft, and we motor sailed to let us head closer to the wind.

Then we had the first of our gear failures. The starboard jib sheet block, which should have been held down on the cabin roof, came loose. The nominally stainless steel screws holding the attachment plate down had rusted through. Julian went forward and tied the block back into position between the grab rails. Something similar had happened before, and we knew exactly what to do.

By the time we reached Orfordness the sea state, and how often Robinetta was pumping,  made us reconsider our destination. Southwold was closer than Lowestoft and we knew there was a wooden boat competent yard there to reassure us that the pumping was just her taking up. Or not. I phoned the harbour master to make certain we could get a berth, and was told to come onto the pontoon just by the Harbour Master's office.

When we first plotted the Southwold course the chart plotter told us we would be there by 18:00. We knew this was not true as we were about to lose the tidal push. Even with less than a knot in our favour at the time we could be nearly 2 knots slower in three hours time... 

Julian heard something crack, and I noticed a distinctively shaped piece of  wood on the cockpit floor. One of the dead eyes used to tension the starboard stern shroud had broken. Julian went forward and tied the shroud down as tightly as he could. We would have to be careful not to put too much stress on the mast.

The sea state got up once we were out of the protection of the Aldeburgh ridge and the wind also came round until it was more on the bow, so we were having to tack more often. Our arrival time changed to 20:00. Julian checked the pilot book, and we would be okay to get into the river as long as we arrived by 21:30...

Motor sailing extremely close hauled (for a gaffer) made Robinetta roll uncomfortably, and I decided that a reef would be a good idea. It was, but unfortunately the boom just would not roll the sail away. For the first time ever we could not reef. The sail had to come down all the way. Under engine and stay sail, with the tide against us and waves knocking us back we were fighting to make 2.5 knots.

By the time we reached Southwold it was totally dark. Having been into the river before we knew where we were going, and the chart plotter told us exactly where we were, but there was a strange object in the way... this turned out to be a barge working on one arm of the harbour entrance, but it confused us hugely as we approached.

We were on the Harbour Master's pontoon by 21:00, and securely tied up, with the engine off five minutes later, to our great relief. The last three hours of the trip had been very hard work. We wanted to get off the boat, and go for a drink, but the pub looked very dark... However there were lights on in the sailing club, so we headed there.

A small group of members were sitting around with pizza boxes in front of them, socialising after a cruiser race. They made us very welcome, and we were able to get our drinks, and even buy a pizza each as they had just had a delivery of 50 for their freezer. A lovely end to a trying day.

Failure is allowed

 We left Shotley in perfect time to take the first of the ebb up the coast towards Lowestoft. The track out of Harwich past the Felixstowe container port heads due south and we were running - this didn't bode well for trying to get north.

Nevertheless we made good time beating between the Felixstowe shore and the shipping channel and by about 10:30 we were north of Bawdsey and well out to the east.

But the sea-state was pretty nasty and Robinetta was starting to pump every 5-10 minutes. We didn't feel like we were in any danger but neither did we feel we had any safety margin.

Progress was going to be almost non-existent with the waves knocking us back and the wind on the nose.

We decided that carrying on was not the prudent decision.

Alison had noticed that the main-sheet was very worn in places. We didn't want another rope parting in-use so we decided to go to Suffolk Yacht Harbour and visit the Classic Marine chandlery there and buy some of their buff polyester braid - a significant upgrade on the three-strand polypropylene synthetic hemp we had.

FInally heading north

We have been planing to take Robinetta to Scotland since the spring of 2020, and now, at 6pm on the last day of August 2021 we were actually able to leave Tollesbury and head north. We motored down Woodrolfe Creek, keeping a careful eye on the depth gauge. We were within an hour of high water, but it was neaps, and there was very little water at the head of the creek. We raised the staysail as soon as we could, but waited until we were in Mersea Quarters before raising the main and setting the jib. It was 2 years since we last did this, and I wanted plenty of water around. The engine faltered for a moment as we reduced speed, and I wondered if the old fuel in the tank had got contaminated, but it picked up immediately so I relaxed.

It was late in the day to start a voyage north, and there were only Northerlies or North Easterlies in the forecast, but as we sailed out of the Blackwater Julian put in a chart plotter course to take us towards Lowestoft. I already felt tired, and Julian has been having trouble with back pain, but we could hope!

The sailing was lovely. The forecast was for force 4-5, so we had the no 2 jib and a small reef in the main, and Robinetta romped along at over 4 knots. The tide wash helped us through the Wallet, and we only had to put in 2 tacks to avoid the sands. Because we were heading for Lowestoft Julian had taken us out from the coast rather than hugging it, and by midnight we were 6 miles off Walton pier. The wind had got up, the seas were uncomfortable, and we had lost the helpful tide. It was time to change plans and go into Harwich.

I put in the new course and went down to put the kettle on for a cup of tea, when Julian suddenly called me back on deck. I heard him say the gaff had broken, but it was actually "just" hanging down the mast. We furled the jib and Julian got the engine on and held Robinetta head to wind while I lowered the gaff and stowed it along the mast. Then it was a slow slog into Harwich, with Robinetta rolling all over the place with only the staysail to steady her, and a new engine we had been told not to over rev until it had bedded in.

We were safely berthed in Shotley Marina by 04:30, and went straight to bed.

In the morning we could actually see what had happened. The throat halyard had parted about a meter above the deck and needed replacing. That meant my first trip up the mast in a while. The only 3 strand available in the Shotley chandlers was white, so now we have mismatched ropes for the first time, and the lingering fear that we should have replaced other ropes too. At least we already had a new peak halyard...

The engine performed well, and my fears about our 2 year old diesel having been contaminated proved unfounded. If the seas in the Wallet could not stir up sediment or diesel bug in the fuel tanks I doubt anything will.

We will set off north again with the tide on Thursday, having taken a much needed break at Shotley  doing repairs after our shakedown voyage.