God says "Buy a bigger boat"

While I was in Berthon Lymington Marina they put me on a big boat pontoon. Here's a picture of my fenders disapearing under it:

And if that wasn't bad enough, here is a picture of the whole pontoon. The yellow arrow points to the topmost tip of my mast:

I think this is the universe telling me I need a bigger boat.

Tracks

Here are the trip tracks.
Overview of the week

Saturday

The Ferry incident - Portsmouth harbour

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Saturday

Holiday Part 2

OK last we left off, the boat and I were in Lymington with Steve on board. After checking finances I decided that I could not risk getting stuck in Poole for a few days so decided upon Southampton instead. This would also be Steve's departure point as he had to get back for work. We sailed into the wind again but this time with the tide and made excellent progress. Once in Southampton Water, the wind died completely and we lost steering as a result so had to motor up to Ocean Village Marina. Although not the best marina in the Solent, it was certainly a refreshing change from Yarmouth and close enough to the town for a walk in.
The following morning, Steve left on the train bound for the Westcountry and I was left solo on the boat. The only forecast I had seen predicted an easy F3 NE which would be behind me all the way to Cowes which was excelent news. It was raining hard but that was forecast to end by around 2pm. Sailing with the wind behind me was magical, albeit in full waterproofs. There was no sound at all except the pitter patter of raindrops on my suit, and the gentle murmor of the boat in the water. At this point I was the happiest man alive sitting on my own boat with not a care in the world. I had only put up the headsail and was averaging 4 knots through the water all the way down Southampton Water. This should have been my first clue, but with a following wind all seemed well. My speed gradually built to 5 knots, and the waves started to get a bit bigger just as I reached the Solent. By the time I got out to Bramble Bank, the waves were getting big and I had some ferrys to play with. About half way accross I recorded a 6.6 Knot speed, although this is not unusual for Live Magic, it would usually be with a good tide and over the ground. In this instance it was through the water surfing down a huge wave! I managed to reef in some of the sail and things calmed down a bit. By the time I reached the Medina entrance, I was tired and wanted more than anything to tie up and sleep. This was not to be. Unfortunately the calm of the river I had been expecting was now a maelstrom of bucking waves, and everything in site was chaos. Since I was near the western bank where the waves were breaking on the shore I started the outboard and motored to get to the other side of the river. The prop spent more time out of the water than in, and made scary revving noises while out of the water. After several changes of plam I got to the ferry terminal and all was calm. Within 10 minutes I was tied up at East Cowes where the lady asked if I had called in whereupon I informed her that the radio had been in the cabin and if I was going to make a trip down there it would more likely have been for a lifejacket!
I spent all of Friday in the marina in glorious sunshine drying the boat, cushions and everything else that was damp from a week of boating and bad weather. Saturday came and I slipped the lines at 09:00 to head for home. After only a single tack which was probably unnecessary I reached West Pole in no time at all after a great day on the water. A quick clean up and a long unload of the boat and I headed home a more experienced sailor.

Holiday

I'm currently on a two week trip out on Live Magic. The plan was to head west as far as possible in the first few days and then stroll back at whatever pace. Unfortunately my brother Steve and I left Emsworth Marina on Saturday and we've had constant westerly winds ever since. We had a cracking sail all the way from Emsworth town quay all the way over to Bembridge on day one. We then tacked and headed for Portsmouth still with the intention of heading towards Cowes. By the time we got to Portsmouth, however, it was clear we probably couldn't make it that far west and so decided upon Haslar for the night. Entering the harbour entrance against the tide we were making very little progress. Little progress is better than none, so we persevered until the engine cut out about half way into the entrance. I tried to restart a few times but quickly it became clear that we would not make it and so I unfurled the headsail (the main was still up at this point). The harbour master came over to help since we had been drifting in the channel witout steering. By the time he got there we were under control and declined his assistance. He seemed happy for us to sail back out but did point out the continental fast cat followed by a continental ferry coming right for us. When I say right for us, they were actually going sideways in the current!
Thanks to the strong tide we sailed back to almost the pier in the five minutes it took us to get the engine started again. It then took over an hour to motor into Haslar.
Day two saw us sailing from Haslar to East Cowes Marina again against the wind. We were not in a hurry so sailed all the way with long wide tacks accross the whole solent. We arrived in plenty of time for a sizzler at The Anchor and a pint of Fuggle De Dum.
Day three, we headed for Lymington against a strong westerly. We were with the tide so only took around 3 hours to get tied up in Berthon Marina. This marina has the absolute best facilities in any marina I've seen, only Portavadie comes close although Emsworth aren't bad now they've opened the new block.
Day four the plan was Poole. This plan stayed in place right up until we got out of the channel and saw the state of the Solent! Instead we headed to Yarmouth which took 2 hours and some motoring against the tide since I had left early to line up for Hurst for when the tide turned. Yarmouth I am not fond of for many reasons. Once ashore it's a great place and I have no issues there. It's the marina/harbour I don't like. We are for some reason rafted up despite there being plenty of space around. We didn't get clear instructions on where to go despite the fact that the berthing master is in a boat and could have shown us. We were also charged just £3 less than Berthon, a difference which will easily be made up by the pay per minute showers. The toilets are also in appaling condition - why not use some of the extortionate fees on a cleaner!?
Oh well, easterlies predicted for tomorrow so fingers crossed we might make it to Poole after all.

Chain Locker

When I bought the boat, there was a length of chain and rope attached to the anchor which went through the deck via a hawse pipe and into the cabin. In the cabin was a washing up bowl into which the chain was placed. This all sounds very neat in theory but in reality the chain just dropped into the bilge and water, mud and sand ran down and made a mess. The reason for this is that there was no way to place the bowl under the hawse pipe. To rectify this, I decided to put some fibre glass and wood in to stop the chain and much from going down into the boat, effectively making a chain locker at the bow.

This picture is the bow from inside. The post you can see goes up to the samson post on deck and the grp at the top of the image is the forward bunk to which I glassed the wood. To measure up I used corrugated card and cut to shape, fitting it to the hull shape in line with the front of the bunk to add strength. Once I had the outline shape, I cut this from 4mm marine ply and covered it in resin and glass mat.

This photo is the wood in place, covered in resin but not yet glassed into the boat. Before putting it in place I sanded the hull with 90 grit paper to ensure a good bond with the resin. You will notice that there is no drain hole present, I considered fitting one but I don't see that much water getting in so I'll see how it goes. It's easy enough to add one if it becomes necessary in future.

I then ripped squares of chopped strand mat which would secure the wood to the hull. I mixed 100ml of polyesther resin at a time because it has a short pot life and this is a difficult location to get to. In total I used 200ml to glass into the boat and around 300ml to cover the wood at home.

Here is the finished work. As you can see there is no obvious line of new glass, this is why I ripped it instead of cutting. Thanks to Harbour Chandlers in Emsworth Marina for that bit of advice!