Rowing out to the mooring for an evening check

While driving past the mooring this morning I noticed that the crutches was hanging off the boom rather than supporting it, so Julian and I rowed out to Robinetta after work to see what had happened. I had a bag full of kitchen items that I had forgotten to put aboard Robinetta before launch that we need when we are sleeping on board.

The topping lifts were holding the boom up properly, but the crutches were dangling over the side, with one of the legs broken off. We both got on board, and when I opened up the cabin I found that the bilges were so full that the water was beginning to spill over the floorboards. Julian got on with freeing the broken crutches and tightening up the topping lifts, while I turned on the bilge pump. This was working, but the float switch was stuck in the down position, so had not triggered the automatic pump.

The pump was still running after Julian had sorted the boom, so he filled the prop shaft grease reservoir which was getting very low while the pump did its work. 

We do have a spare set of crutches, unvarnished pine rather than varnished teak, so we will take them out to Robinetta in the next couple of days. We need to start going out to Robinetta at least once a week to check on the float switch, which might need replacing.

Heading back to Rosneath

 We left Holyloch under engine at about 16:00, having filled up the fuel tanks and spare cans at the marina. We expected to be motoring all the way home as there was very little wind, but Julian got the jib set up ready and hoisted the mainsail. What wind there was came from due East, so we headed south east at first, in the hope that we would be able to sail across the Clyde on our way home. 

We turned the engine off, and tried sailing, but were not making against the last of the ebbing tide, so  after 10 minutes we furled the jib and the engine went back on. All this was in bright sunshine, but looking up the Clyde the visibility was terrible. We could hardly see Helensburgh, and the rain was heading our way.

Within minutes we were motoring into a force 4 headwind. Did we want to use the wind to sail? Not really. The rain was pouring down and we had only brought our light weight walking coats rather than our wet weather sailing gear. I stayed on the helm for the whole trip while Julian took shelter below for a little, but he soon joined me in the cockpit again. The wind dropped to force 3, but the rain continued pounding down. 

Once the tide turned in our favour we sped up, and we did motor sail a little as we started to curve round into the Gairloch, but I was getting cold and Julian agreed that we just wanted to get home as quickly as we could.

By the time we were passing Rhu marina the wind had died completely, and the rain had gentled to drizzle. Julian got the main sail down and bagged the jib under way. By the time we were through the Rhu Narrows the rain had died away to nothing.

As soon as we picked up our mooring buoy at 18:45 I headed below to put the kettle on for a hot drink and change into dry clothes. Julian was not got as wet, and stayed on deck, getting Robinetta stowed away. The cabin felt wonderful and warm!

Next time we go sailing, however good the forecast, I WILL take my full set of foul weather oilies and footwear!

Engine service complete

 After a damp Monday morning leading to a lovely afternoon Tuesday came in with a bang. Bright sunshine, no wind. Julian headed off to work on a picnic bench by the marina car park, while I made sure the bilges were not too wet, and took out the cockpit sole to give more light in the engine bay.

Two engineers turned up around 10:00, took pictures of the filters to make sure they got the correct size, wrote down the engine serial number to make sure they knew exactly what Yanmar they were dealing with, then turned on Robinetta's engine to warm up the oil before leaving again.

As I looked at the engine gently chugging away I noticed that the prop shaft seemed to be going round. On a closer look I realised that the shaft was still, but the fitting on the end of the stuffing box was turning. This is not normal, but I would not have noticed it without the extra light streaming in through the normally closed off cockpit. I then walked up to have a chat with Julian. 

When I got back the engineer apologetically told that the fuel cut off from the diesel tank was not working. Very strange, until I realised that he did not know there were two tanks.... I should have hung around! He had tried siphoning off the fuel to stop it dripping, so was able to tell me that the it was really clean, with no sign of bug, which was good to know.

It seems that having paired fuel tanks is unusual, although two water tanks is pretty common.

Once the engine service was done a specialist in oil burning arrived to see if he could find the cause of the burning oil that Julian keeps noticing. The only possible cause was an oil drip that had been noticed before the oil filter was changed, so I hope the problem is over.

After that they tightened up the nut on the stuffing box, and tie wrapped it in place. The problem is that there is no where obvious to fix the tie wrap too, and we will need to keep an eye on it.

All in in great service from Swordfish Marine at Holyloch Marina

Sailing to see the engineer

 Robinetta's engine has not had a proper service since it was installed, just an oil change in 2022. This is pretty unforgivable since Julian constantly smells burning oil when the engine is run at anything near top revs and we want the engine to last.

There is a Yanmar approved engineer based at Holyloch Marina, so I tried booking a preseason service, only to discover that they are so busy that I needed to wait until Tuesday 21st May for a time slot. I kept an eye on the weather, and the days leading up to the service looked virtually windless, (2-5knots) but Sunday would be bright and warm, so Julian and I decided to take Robinetta over to Holyloch that day.

High water (which is when it is easiest to launch Worm off the beach) was around 10:30 so we launched her at ten and rowed over to Robinetta. The wind was light, but stronger than forecast, certainly enough to be worth getting the sails up and we were not in a hurry. The number 1 jib, full main, and staysail gave us 2 knots, and with the tide under us there was no need for the engine.

We had a pleasant and gentle beat out of the Gairloch, and Julian put our mackerel line out, although we were going a little too fast to expect to catch anything. When we turned onto a very broad reach down the Clyde at 3-4 knots we were definitely too fast and he pulled the line in.

It seemed a shame to stop sailing in such perfect conditions, to we headed into Loch Long. Unfortunately that put the wind almost behind us, and after half an hour I began to wish we had turned down the Clyde instead. With the flat sea, and no obvious movement I was beginning to doze off. We tacked round and headed down Clyde instead.

We passed the entrance to Holyloch, and the car ferries coming to and from Hunter's Key made sure to avoid us, but the wind dropped away to almost nothing as we got closer to the foot ferry terminal at Dunoon proper. That was when a pod of porpoises came past us, only about 50m away which is much closer than I am used to. We also saw guillemots as well as the usual gulls. 

With so little wind we decided to head back towards Holyloch, and we had enough steerage way to turn, but then we started going backward with the tide, so it was time for the engine again. It started fine, but it took a while for the revs to increase, which felt as though the engine was being starved of deisel. Looks as though the fuel filter overdue for a change (not at all surprising!). Luckily it corrected itself within a minute, and the wind came back within 15, so the engine went off again and we sailed towards Holyloch making about 3 knots.

There was a small gaffer beating out of the loch, which turned to come and see us. While it was on its way a motor launch called Late Edition slowed down as it passed us and circled around taking pictures, which they will try to sent us later. The gaffer turned out to be a Capecutter19 and it was fun to chat as we passed each other at 6 knots closing speed! He recognised Robinetta as being moored at Clynder so had obviously seen her there.

We sailed into Holyloch on a run, then got the engine on and sails down just before entering the Marina, where we were moored up on a finger berth at 16:00 after a lovely and varied day on the water. We will be in the Marina until the service is completed on Tuesday before heading back to our mooring.

A Sunday excursion

 Julian went out to check on Robinetta on Saturday, which was the first calm day since she went in the water. There he discovered that we had not plugged in the solar panel, and had accidentally left the radio on. A week of rain meant that the automatic pump had run quite often, so now the battery was flat.

Robinetta has two batteries, so he switched to the second one, and started the engine to charge the flat battery as well as hooking up the Solar panel. Running a marine diesel engine designed for propulsion solely to charge a battery is not good for it, and we had guests coming for lunch, so the battery only got a short charge. He manually pumped the bilges before coming ashore, as the electric pump did not seem to be working.

After our guests left we rowed out together as Julian wanted to check the electric pump connections. He immediately discovered that he had been trying to use it from the flat battery and it did work! However it was nice to get on board.

Sunday was another windless day, although rather damp. I had thought it might be good to motor round to Kilcreggan and anchor to go to the pub, but the rain put me off. None the less we headed out to Robinetta, with the idea of motoring up the Gairloch to charge the flat battery. The engine started without problem on the spare battery, and we dropped the mooring buoy at noon to head up towards Faslane.

By the time we were half way up the loch the drizzle had stopped and we were able to enjoy the surroundings. We were nearly past Faslane when I saw a plastic drink bottle floating on the water. This was a great excuse to have a play at maneuvering. Not exactly man overboard, but plastic flotsom retrieval is always a good idea...

It took fifteen minutes before Julian managed to get the boat hook on it (I had failed three times to catch it in a bucket) and I have no idea what any watchers at the base thought we were doing, but success and the better weather made us decide to go all the way to the head of the loch and pick up one of the 3 moorings supposedly belonging to the Anchor Pub.

There are several moorings near the pub, all of them different, and none labelled as belonging to the Anchor Pub. Given there was no wind, and very little tide we were happy to pick up any of the vacant moorings in deep enough water and row over in Worm to the pub for lunch. 

The Anchor is a pleasant pub, with good beer and food. Well worth the visit. They were surprised to hear we had arrived by boat, and none of the staff knew which were their moorings, or when they were last serviced, although the lady working in the kitchen could remember that they used to be serviced... We will go again, but probably only on a calm day like today.

We arrived back on our home mooring at 15:50, with a fully charged battery, having had a pleasant trip exploring our local surroundings.

Back in the water

Robinetta was launched for the season in pouring rain, but thankfully light winds.

The launch procedure has changed slightly from last year. Last time we boarded Robinetta just before the launch vehicle headed down the slipway, but this time we were told we would have to wait until she was floating in the slings. This meant getting into Worm and rowing round the launch trailer before scrambling aboard, trying not to hit our heads on bits of the launch trailer, or get Worm tangled in the sling. The engine started without problems (always a concern after a winter ashore) and I backed Robinetta out of the slings, with Julian keeping a careful watch to make sure Worm did not get caught on anything.

Julian and I took Robinetta straight to her mooring as the weather was too miserable to want to do anything else, but we will need to take her over to Rhu Marina soon to clean and fill the water tanks.  

Worm had filled with rain water up to the level of the duck board by the time we transhipped to her again for the row back to Mark's Landing. It was high tide, so we could row all the way to the top of the beach, where we tipped out the rain water before carrying Worm back to our garden. 

It was lovely to see Robinetta back on her mooring

Working on the bow

Last year at the OGA rally in Oban Robinetta 's bulwarks were damaged. We did a jury rig to hold them in place for the trip home which worked so well we forgot all about the need to repair them. Once Robinetta was out of the water I cleared the foredeck of the extra ropes, with only a vague memory of why they were there, and once I put the tarpaulin on the foredeck I forgot all about it again.

The need for repair suddenly became urgent when I got a launch date of Sunday 7th April. I was checking  the state of the rope on the bobstay when I put my hand on the bulwalk and felt it move slightly. As soon as I actually looked at the bulwalk area adjoining the stem post I could see that it had pulled away from the stem post. It needed to be pulled back into place and refastened.

The first step was to get the bowsprit out of the gammon iron (the metal hoop that the bowsprit goes through, which is bolted through the stem post). Then I removed the metal plate that reinforced the area of the bulwalks that the bowsprit goes through. The wood underneath it had not been painted in a while, and needed repairing or replacing before it could be re-screwed into the stem post. Once Julian had a look he decided on replacement, so he suddenly had woodwork to do, and not much time to do it.

Luckily (or not) the wind got up, and our launch date got pushed back to Wednesday 10th, giving us a little more time!