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.
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
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.
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.
Monday, 1 August 2011
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!
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!
Monday, 27 June 2011
Sunday
Having had a great day of sailing in the fog then sunshine (Pics to follow), we sailed back up Chichester Harbour to Emsworth. In an effort to wait for the tide to come in further I dropped the main early and left out half the genoa to cut speed. We were on a beam reach going with the tide so going slowly was not easy! Since it was such a nice sunny quiet day I left it until nearly the town quay to start the engine which usually starts second pull. It didn't start and we were getting closer and closer to the town quay so I gybed around and sailed back towards the waiting pontoon since I didn't fancy trying for town quay in an easterly with only 0.9m water and no engine.
This was my first attempt at sailing up to a pontoon so I'm sure you can understand how I felt. There was luckily space on the end of the leeward side of the pontoon so we got fenders and ropes ready in advance as we headed toward the pontoon. While we were still a way off, another boat pulled in to our planned spot. I was gutted but fair enough, they had just as much right to be there as we did and worst case there were plenty of mooring buoys about that I could sail up to. As it turned out there was a space just my size on the windward side of the pontoon so I took the opportunity and went for it. We swapped the ropes to the starboard side of the boat and made what can only be described as a textbook aproach; even if I say it myself we were more graceful than the other boat had been under engine (no offence if you're the boat!!). The genoa was furled quickly and we tied up ready to look at the engine.
Problem 2 is that this was also my first engine problem afloat so I checked the fuel, checked the spark plug then felt a bit stumped. Thanks to many "wasted" hours reading forums and magazines I then thought "carb rings a bell, might be that". I've never taken the carb off before let alone taken it apart but I wanted to get home so strip it I did. There's more fuel in this than I expected so I'm glad I had a newspaper on board. I stripped the carb and cleaned then refitted everything. As luck would have it the engine started immediately and we were on our way and tied up with the BBQ lit in the marina shortly after.
I was lucky that the weather was so good on this day so this being my first time wasn't overly traumatic but the moral of the story is, don't leave it until you have to to take things apart and practice maneuvers. Although I had sailed up to buoys on numerous occasions I had never before tried a pontoon. I had changed the spark plug and impeller on the outboard before but always though I would get to the carb another day, I guess I was right.
This was my first attempt at sailing up to a pontoon so I'm sure you can understand how I felt. There was luckily space on the end of the leeward side of the pontoon so we got fenders and ropes ready in advance as we headed toward the pontoon. While we were still a way off, another boat pulled in to our planned spot. I was gutted but fair enough, they had just as much right to be there as we did and worst case there were plenty of mooring buoys about that I could sail up to. As it turned out there was a space just my size on the windward side of the pontoon so I took the opportunity and went for it. We swapped the ropes to the starboard side of the boat and made what can only be described as a textbook aproach; even if I say it myself we were more graceful than the other boat had been under engine (no offence if you're the boat!!). The genoa was furled quickly and we tied up ready to look at the engine.
Problem 2 is that this was also my first engine problem afloat so I checked the fuel, checked the spark plug then felt a bit stumped. Thanks to many "wasted" hours reading forums and magazines I then thought "carb rings a bell, might be that". I've never taken the carb off before let alone taken it apart but I wanted to get home so strip it I did. There's more fuel in this than I expected so I'm glad I had a newspaper on board. I stripped the carb and cleaned then refitted everything. As luck would have it the engine started immediately and we were on our way and tied up with the BBQ lit in the marina shortly after.
I was lucky that the weather was so good on this day so this being my first time wasn't overly traumatic but the moral of the story is, don't leave it until you have to to take things apart and practice maneuvers. Although I had sailed up to buoys on numerous occasions I had never before tried a pontoon. I had changed the spark plug and impeller on the outboard before but always though I would get to the carb another day, I guess I was right.
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Pictures of the trip
I finally got around to uploading the pictures from the recent trip. Sorry it took so long but I had 2 cameras and a phone to upload from and left one of the cameras on the boat.
The Bounty in Cowes
In Cowes Marina
Click here for the whole album
Haslar MarinaTuesday, 7 June 2011
Weekend sailing
This weekend I fitted a TP10 tiller pilot (photos to follow) and went sailing out in the big world of the Solent. This was my first trip out of the harbour in Live Magic since buying her in February. Unfortunately the weather forecast was not what I'd hoped with mentions of F7 and F8 for a couple of the days. In reality this never seemed to happen although I admit I don't have wind instruments so who knows.
In all we covered 63nm over 4 days. By "we" of course I mean myself and the boat since nobody seems to like sailing quite as much as me.
Thursday 2nd June: Left Emsworth as soon as possible and motored against tide to the harbour entrance in order to catch the tide westwards. As a consequence of this I ran out of fuel at the entrance just as my neighbors from the marina passed with their camera out ready to capture my voyage. This was quickly rectified while holding steady with the sail up against the wind and tide. I then proceeded past Horse Sand Fort and on to Cowes.
Friday 3rd June: Left Cowes despite a poor forecast. I decided to leave the main down until I could see what the sea state was like outside. This was a mistake since it was a little lumpy and I therefore opted to leave the main down rather than risk going into the sea myself. With the wind behind me all the way and the sea also coming from behind I could really have done with the extra sail up to gain speed and also steady the boat. The sun was beaming down all day despite the wind and waves and I could feel myself burning despite the sun cream I'd applied. By the time I got to Lymington I felt like I'd done a full day so decided not to carry on to Poole as planned. I called in to Berthon marina who were fully booked for the night. I then called Lymington Yacht Haven who also said they were fully booked. I knew that Yarmouth was fully booked already so was a little worried at this point where I would end up for the night. After 5 minutes, I got a call from LYH to say they'd found me somewhere as a berth holder was away for a few days. I gratefully accepted and tied up shortly after. After tidying the decks I went and paid my dues and stopped in The Haven for a cold cider sitting in the darkness out of the sun. It was at this point I noticed it was only 12:30 and that I would have had (and still had) plenty of time to make Poole. I spent the rest of the day below out of the sunshine before going out to a local pub for a gammon steak. While on the pontoon I was asked what kind of yacht Live Magic was. I guess she looks as good as I'd hoped.
Saturday 4th June: I left Lymington early in the morning to catch the tides back to the east. Again there was a terrible forecast but I thought I should start heading back just in case. Having learned my lesson, I raised the main as I exited the marina. Although I left the motor running until I was on the straight leading out to the Solent, it was in Neutral almost immediately. The wind was in a good position and gave me 4 knots once the genoa was unfurled. Once the ferry passed I turned for Cowes and made my best speed yet reaching Cowes in just 2 hours despite having a slow patch at Thorness Bay where I sailed into the lee of the island to have some food and drink in the calmer water. I continued on and reached Stokes bay 2 hours later where I anchored and sorted out the ropes and fenders before proceeding to Haslar Marina in Gosport. It was still very windy so I preferred the idea of being prepared and looking a bit amateur than rushing at the last minute. Once tied up I look the ferry to Portsmouth and had a pasty and some ale at Gunwharf then on to Spice Island for another pint. Three people asked what kind of boat Live Magic was at Haslar, I am becoming rather proud of her!
Sunday 5th June: Poor forecasts again made me hesitate somewhat. I didn't need to return until Tuesday but Haslar visitors pontoon is not a comfy place at the best of times so eventually I decided to go for it. Once again I got the main up in the marina and once again I was rewarded with excelent progress with the wind and tide. I was effectively on a beam reach from Portsmouth all the way to West Pole at Chichester Harbour and the GPS recorded 6-7 knots most of the way with the log showing 5.3 through the water several times. I actually think the log is under reading as it showed significantly less distance for the trips than I travelled even if the tide is taken into account. I will, therefore, be proclaiming this as 6 knots through the water since nobody can prove me wrong :)
I saw a yacht of over 40 feet with a shiny blue ensign stop in the main channel into Portsmouth to put up his main only to take it down again 10 minutes later. When heading through the sub barrier a yacht of just over 30 feet came though just behind me, presumably having sailed from the island. Somehow I managed to keep up with him all the way to Chichester. He was reefed but had both headsails out on the cutter. I'm not sure why he was so slow or me so fast but my journey was safe and comfortable and I only rolled some of the genoa away a couple of miles from West Pole when the wind built a little.
The whole weekend was thoroughly enjoyable and I plan to do a simlar trip as soon as possible. As always if you see a little Vivacity with a Cornish (St Piran) flag on the port spreader then come and say hello.
In all we covered 63nm over 4 days. By "we" of course I mean myself and the boat since nobody seems to like sailing quite as much as me.
Friday 3rd June: Left Cowes despite a poor forecast. I decided to leave the main down until I could see what the sea state was like outside. This was a mistake since it was a little lumpy and I therefore opted to leave the main down rather than risk going into the sea myself. With the wind behind me all the way and the sea also coming from behind I could really have done with the extra sail up to gain speed and also steady the boat. The sun was beaming down all day despite the wind and waves and I could feel myself burning despite the sun cream I'd applied. By the time I got to Lymington I felt like I'd done a full day so decided not to carry on to Poole as planned. I called in to Berthon marina who were fully booked for the night. I then called Lymington Yacht Haven who also said they were fully booked. I knew that Yarmouth was fully booked already so was a little worried at this point where I would end up for the night. After 5 minutes, I got a call from LYH to say they'd found me somewhere as a berth holder was away for a few days. I gratefully accepted and tied up shortly after. After tidying the decks I went and paid my dues and stopped in The Haven for a cold cider sitting in the darkness out of the sun. It was at this point I noticed it was only 12:30 and that I would have had (and still had) plenty of time to make Poole. I spent the rest of the day below out of the sunshine before going out to a local pub for a gammon steak. While on the pontoon I was asked what kind of yacht Live Magic was. I guess she looks as good as I'd hoped.
Saturday 4th June: I left Lymington early in the morning to catch the tides back to the east. Again there was a terrible forecast but I thought I should start heading back just in case. Having learned my lesson, I raised the main as I exited the marina. Although I left the motor running until I was on the straight leading out to the Solent, it was in Neutral almost immediately. The wind was in a good position and gave me 4 knots once the genoa was unfurled. Once the ferry passed I turned for Cowes and made my best speed yet reaching Cowes in just 2 hours despite having a slow patch at Thorness Bay where I sailed into the lee of the island to have some food and drink in the calmer water. I continued on and reached Stokes bay 2 hours later where I anchored and sorted out the ropes and fenders before proceeding to Haslar Marina in Gosport. It was still very windy so I preferred the idea of being prepared and looking a bit amateur than rushing at the last minute. Once tied up I look the ferry to Portsmouth and had a pasty and some ale at Gunwharf then on to Spice Island for another pint. Three people asked what kind of boat Live Magic was at Haslar, I am becoming rather proud of her!
Sunday 5th June: Poor forecasts again made me hesitate somewhat. I didn't need to return until Tuesday but Haslar visitors pontoon is not a comfy place at the best of times so eventually I decided to go for it. Once again I got the main up in the marina and once again I was rewarded with excelent progress with the wind and tide. I was effectively on a beam reach from Portsmouth all the way to West Pole at Chichester Harbour and the GPS recorded 6-7 knots most of the way with the log showing 5.3 through the water several times. I actually think the log is under reading as it showed significantly less distance for the trips than I travelled even if the tide is taken into account. I will, therefore, be proclaiming this as 6 knots through the water since nobody can prove me wrong :)
I saw a yacht of over 40 feet with a shiny blue ensign stop in the main channel into Portsmouth to put up his main only to take it down again 10 minutes later. When heading through the sub barrier a yacht of just over 30 feet came though just behind me, presumably having sailed from the island. Somehow I managed to keep up with him all the way to Chichester. He was reefed but had both headsails out on the cutter. I'm not sure why he was so slow or me so fast but my journey was safe and comfortable and I only rolled some of the genoa away a couple of miles from West Pole when the wind built a little.
The whole weekend was thoroughly enjoyable and I plan to do a simlar trip as soon as possible. As always if you see a little Vivacity with a Cornish (St Piran) flag on the port spreader then come and say hello.
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