Spring Equinox

I spent three days last week cleaning painting and varnishing, so I was quite desperate to actually sail this weekend. Luckily the weather on Sunday looked promising, so Julian and I headed to Shotley with a car full of things that came off Robinetta in the Autumn. We sail through the year, but it's been too cold to sleep on board, so we emptied her out.

We got to Shotley by ten, and our pontoon was already really busy. I don't know about the rest of the marina, but it felt like everyone who had a boat in the water was there today! It was warm, and sunny, and although not much wind was forecast it seemed like a waste not to go out. We did the normal "whose skipper ?" and decided it was my turn.

We had Robinetta ready by eleven (it took longer than normal because of getting the crockery etc., on board), and headed out for the Walton Backwaters. We'd missed the last of the ebb and the wind was really light at first so we only just stemmed the tide even with the top sail up, so we motor sailed until we were well past the Harwich breakwater. Luckily the wind picked up a bit then, and we had a good sail out to Pye End. At that point I asked Julian to put the GPS on. We've only been to Walton once before, and as skipper I should have reviewed the pilot (but hadn't...). Last time we were here is was really busy, with lots of yachts anchored at Stone Point, but today we had the place nearly to ourselves with no one to follow.. I was helming, and feeling a little stressed at having to tack in the narrow channel, but Julian navigated well and we made it into the Walton Channel.

The wind had picked up nicely, and we were doing over three knots, with our destination (Stone Point) in view, when Julian suddenly asked if we should get the top sail down. I had forgotten all about it (I was not a good skipper today!), but luckily we were on starboard, so down it came, and we continued up Walton Channel, past Stone Point, until we got all the sails away.

It was nearly high water when we dropped the anchor, and with no other boats to guide us we anchored a little too close in. Julian cooked us a nice lunch, but we had to eat it quickly, and get the anchor up sharply in order to avoid going aground. We managed it though, and will know better next time.

We had a nice fast run out of the Backwaters, with main and stay sail goose-winged, and the tide with us to Pye End. After that we were stemming the tide again and our speed halved, but the wind stayed constant and it was a lovely sail back to Shotley with Julian on the helm. We got the jib out once we turned onto the broadest of broad reaches, and felt no need for the top sail. Our speed over the ground hardly topped two and a half knots, but it felt much faster through the water and we were in no hurry to get home. Today is the equinox, and there was still some light in the sky at half six, when Robinetta was tucked up in the berth.

I've still got more painting and varnishing to do, and the ensign mount needs mounting, but days like today Robinetta repays all the labour, and gives us a great day out.

Window of Opportunity

Had a really busy time at work recently, and without kids at school, no half-term to punctuate the season. Back end of this week was a welcome lull in the schedule and had hoped to take a day or two to work on the pram dingy I'm building in the garage but we took a peek at the weather last night and it seemed like a sailing day.

Finally got around to fitting the new stay-sail and the new furling line we bought at the boat show. Low water was at about 2:15 and the wind was due to be southerly backing easterly. So we really should have gone out into the bay with the ebb and come back with the flood. We'd have had to beat out but had either a run or a reach back in. Visibility wasn't very good when we got there and we felt it would have been a bit ghostly out there so we decided on the Stour instead.

Decided to use the low water to get to know the upper reaches a bit better. Took her as far as the no.7 buoy and chickened out. I'm sure we would have got most of the way to Mistley but it was just as well we turned back because by the time we were down river of the Holbrook cardinal the promised rain had come and it was starting to get unpleasant. The flood was quite strong for the day after neaps and the wind was backing round and weakening and we found ourselves going backwards. It really wasn't nice enough to linger and beat our way out so we turned the engine on and motor sailed back to Shotley.

We got home tired and happy.

A Sunny Sunday

The lock at Shotley is due to close for its annual fortnight of maintenance tomorrow, so today was our last chance to sail for a while. Coupled with that it was an absolutely beautiful day, with just the right amount of wind forecast (12-16 mph). Only one problem; it was cold, very cold. Forecast was 1-2°C at Ipswich, so less at Shotley, plus wind chill on the water....

When we got to the marina we could see a skin of ice on the water round the edges, and thick frost made the pontoons slippery. Robinetta's foredeck cover collects water when it rains, and the top two inches of those puddles had frozen solid. It was only 10:30, so the frost on the cockpit/boom cover had not had a chance to melt in the sun either, so I discovered how difficult it is to fold up frozen canvas while Julian created mini ice bergs in the marina out of the foredeck puddles.

There was obvious wind over tide on the Stour when we arrived, so I had a look at the Orwell entrance which seemed calm and decided that was the way to go. We'd have a couple of hours of flood to help us up river against the wind, then we could run back with the ebb. Going out to sea would have meant the tide always against us, and greater wind chill from the wind. Getting Robinetta ready to sail warmed us up, but I put a lot of layers on before casting off!

We called up the lock to ask to lock out, and they told us that the fender pads had already been taken from one side of the lock prior to the maintenance, so we would have to tie up on the control tower side. This is not a problem, but it made me realise that given a choice we always tie up on the other side; habit is a strange thing!

We were out on the river by 11:30, and heading up the Orwell as planned. Apart from the temperature it was indeed a perfect sailing day, and we saw four other sailing boats on the Orwell, plus the same number of motor cruisers. None of them were going the same way as us, oddly enough.

There was still a little snow on the hill from Friday night's fall.

Robinetta looks fine in her bright varnish but there is really still a lot that's a bit ragged.


We picked up a buoy on the other side of the river from Pin Mill, and Julian cooked swordfish steaks for steak sandwiches. Very nice. We didn't bother bringing our dinghy with us so there was no chance of rowing across to the Butt and Oyster for a drink, but a cup of tea is just as welcome on a cold day (for me at least!).

We sailed off the buoy and headed down river with the tide, the current and the wind with us. Since we were running for the first part we did not bother to unfurl the jib, and even when we went onto a broad reach after Levington there did not seem much point getting it out. There was enough wind to take us home at a comfortable speed, and faster would have been colder... The sun went behind a cloud just before we reached Shotley and the temperature seemed to plummet. We were only out for three and a half hours, but it was time to go home.

We put Robinetta on her pontoon stern first, (Julian has really got the hang of doing that,) and re-rigged all the covers. Our car's external temperature gauge showed 1°C when we got there, and 2°C when we left, so it won't have been above that on the water, but we had a thoroughly enjoyable sail despite the cold.

Hopefully we'll have another sunny day next time we get a chance to take Robinetta out!

Gentle Stroll

Just a couple of hours of light once we got there. Alison working but Ben fancied a sail.

basically chilled whilst pottering up towards Levington, then turned round and came home again. Very little wind in the Orwell but another boat had 27 kts in the bay!

Lovely Day!

Seems like ages since we went out on Robinetta. After a weekend on a Dufour 40 and three days on a Swan 38 it was interesting getting used to her again.

When we got there the working battery was flat - 8 volts! But the other battery was fine and we got a good charge back in during the day. We think the solar cell had been too much in the shade. It was throwing out 25 V in the sun so definitely working.

So much to get wrong! We managed to get the starboard jib sheet on the wong side of the staysail.

But the weather was gorgeous. Perfect blue sky, 12-15 knots of wind. We went out into the bay and around Stone Banks and then up the Orwell to Woolverstone to have a look at the Marina in case we sail up to the AGM next week.

Jolie Brise took our picture and posted them on yourboatpix. Many thanks.

What everyone should do...

is practice safety drills. It's what you're tested on on every pracical sail training course I've ever been on, but I have to confess that we'd never done a man overboard drill on Robinetta before. I decided that we should definately do some this weekend, no wimping out, so that was our intention when we left Shotley, heading out to Pennyhole Bay.

The forecast was good for October, force 4, WNW, with sunny spells, and we had a good sail out into the bay with main, jib, and staysail. We were doing well over four knots over the ground, against the tide, and soon passed Pye End. I was helming, and began to feel rather overpowered, she had a lot of weather helm and kept trying to round up no matter how I trimmed the sails. Julian had put the cornish pasties in the oven, so I told him to turn them down and come back on deck; experience said that Robinetta needed reefing, so we put a couple of turns around the boom. I love how easily she reefs now we know how to do it! The key is to unhook the topsail from the topping lift and let it hang down. Otherwise the topping lift tries to wind the topsail yard into the reef! We also furled the jib away, thinking that would slow us down nicely while we had lunch.

Sea state was slight, but increasing, and the wind kept getting up. We were tuned to Harwich Harbour VTS, and several people asked for wind information which they reported from the Landguard cardinal (very close to where we were) as 20-25 knots WNW, which is force 5-6. Helming was still hard work, and I decided this was not the place to risk our best bucket and fender doing man overboard drills! I gave Julian the helm and we tacked round the Pennyhole Bay buoy before heading back into the Harbour.

Yachts were racing out of the Walton Back waters, some spinnakers flying, and once they rounded Pye End they came our way, heading for Pennyhole. Julian steered us nicely through the pack, and we were soon in the relative shelter of Harwich harbour.

We had to tack up the Stour, and Julian took us in close to Halfpenny Pier while I made a cup of tea; there was a shanty festival on, so we became a photo opportunity!

Wind over tide made the main channel a bit rough; Robinetta was dipping her bowsprit in the water on a regular basis which I hadn't seen before, but she felt perfectly safe, and not even too uncomfortable! We had not planned to do the drills there as it would have been a very antisocial place to mess around, but I was glad to reach the more sheltered waters of Erwarton bay. It was nearly high tide so there was plenty of water there, and our bucket and fender man went over the side.

Julian had first go, under sail, and we did get the bucket back on board, but it took us two goes to get there and we did not quite stop. I did it under motor (by dropping the peak and loosening the stay sail halyard to de-power the sails) and got back in one, but had similar problems staying still. We both need more practice.

The other drill we decided we should try was heaving too. I've done it successfully in Bermudan Sloops, but knew it would not work with a self tacking staysail! We unfurled the jib, and backed that, with the helm hard over, and she hove too making 2 knots of lee way. We got that down to 1 knot by loosening the staysail halyard, but we were drifting back into the main channel, so we called it a day, rolled away the jib, and headed back to Shotley.

We should do man over board drills more often, conditions where someone might end up overboard and more likely to be like Pennyhole than Erwarton, but you have to start somewhere....

Walton Backwaters

The forecast for the whole weekend said "light winds" so I did not have much confidence that we would get anywhere when we went to Robinetta on Sunday. We bumped into Melvin on the pontoon, and he said he was just back from Walton backwaters, motoring all the way because the wind was too light to sail. None the less we decided to head out because the wind had risen in the afternoon yesterday, and might do the same again today.

We were out of the Marina at 1205, just before low water, and got all the sails up including the top sail. That did give us enough speed to sail; Robinetta does well in light airs and what there was was in a good direction for Walton, so we headed out as we had planned. The sky was clear blue, and warm (especially for September), all in all a good day to be on the water.

There were quite a few boats taking the rising tide into the Backwaters, and several were already anchored at Stone Point. We were just there to explore though, so we sailed on after all the other boats had put their motors on. Tacking into the Walton Channel while motoring yachts kept clear of us was fun, but hard work. One eye on the yachts, one on the boays, one on the depth gage, one on the GPS plotter, keeping track of the wind direction, all in a narrow channel we'd never been in before.... I was helming, with Julian as skipper navigating and tacking the jib.

We did not go far up the Walton Channel, just up to no 11 buoy, because the wind was virtually on the nose. We gybed round and headed out again, then went up the Hamford Water for a short way. Julian took the helm for that; much easier sailing than tacking into the Walton Channel which had exhausted me!

The wind got up a little as we headed back towards Shotley, and we were very broad reaching all the way. All in all a lovely afternoon's sailing. I don't know how many more we'll get this year!