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| View from Saturday's restaurant table :) |
I notice that other boating bloggers are starting to post updates and it seems a bit sad to leave our Christmas update in place when we are already more than halfway through the year!
Kalessin was finally launched in the first week of June at a time when we could visit her for day trips but not stay overnight. However SeaPower marine, having promised to de-winterise the engine, were then a bit relaxed in actually getting the work done.... while I was very unrelaxed about running the engine when I didn't know what needed doing. They finally completed the service on June 25.
Meanwhile Matt Riches had been ploughing through a list of electrical updates. The troublesome depth gauge has been replaced by a very expensive dual depth/log from Raymarine. It's nothing like as clear as the old Navman instrument but hopefully will last longer. We installed the Navman instruments in 2005/6 but the header units for both log and depth were each replaced at least once because of problems with the display. Sadly they are no longer made. Raymarine means SeaTalk for communications between devices instead of NMEA. Currently the log is not talking to the old Navman wind instrument so we still can't see true wind. The best option is to install another expensive Raymarine instrument to replace the wind unit, with a new masthead anemometer of course. That will have to wait until next winter.
The AIS receiver has been replaced by a new transceiver from Digital Yacht which means that friends and family should be able to track us online... if we ever go anywhere. It also means we can go through some Dutch windfarms.
And the new tillerpilot fitted last year now has a remote control. Last season it had to be controlled by the header unit, which is next to all the other instruments above the companionway. Now, in theory, and in fairly open water, I can steer the boat from anywhere on board while helping Sam, if required, at the same time. It should be like having an extra pair of hands. We'll see.
We went out briefly into the river on Friday June 26. It was a completely exhausting experience for me as we couldn't stay on board overnight. I had to organise everything we needed (food etc), and plan the timings so we could get Sam ashore at high water. On arrival I got Sam on board, got the tent down, got the boat ready to go out, started the engine - fortunately run only the day before during the service - chucked off the lines and headed away from the berth, all single handed. Out in the river we pulled the fenders on board (Sam's insistence, I'd have left them dangling), headed upriver with the wind aft, tried the foresail which was fine, and set up the tiller pilot (and discovered the remote control hadn't been enabled at that point). Then we turned into the wind and hoisted the brand new main which got stuck halfway. Everything down, tiller pilot off, Sam holds the tiller approximately straight for a minute or two, reefing lines all released, try again with the tiller between my legs. This time the main went up fine and pulls well - we were definitely pointing better into the wind than last season. Tiller pilot on again, main down (more or less) into the new stack pack, fenders over the side, trickle into SYH where the wind has got up a bit, turn into our berth with me thinking "What's the worst that can happen?" and discover the worst is that I left the engine in tickover astern instead of neutral and we scraped the side of Ian Benson's beautiful, immaculate Obsession which i have been scrupulously avoiding for three seasons. Bugger bugger.
The incident was reported to the harbour office so i couldn't have got away with it even if I had wanted to. (Ian wasn't on board at the time). I couldn't see the damage but there is a bit of crazing on the gelcoat which will cost me £200 or so. After the initial shock Ian was very nice about it, but I was in bits.
Anyway. Tied up, tidied up, bowsed down, cockpit tent up, Sam off the boat and into the car. Home the back way, and I narrowly missed a car on the A14.
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| Cleaner decks! |
Finally we are allowed to sleep on board from July 4 onwards, and we have just spent from Friday to Monday on the boat. The forecast was for very little wind but in fact it was fickle and gusty, and bearing in mind recent experience we were happy just to stay on board and spend time scrubbing the decks and fixing things (Camilla) or snoozing and relaxing and occasionally complaining (Sam). After seven seasons Sam has finally found that if he sits on the starboard side of the cockpit he can put his feet up and snooze comfortably, whereas on the port side it's easier for him to get up and sit down, but if he puts his feet up he's in danger of rolling on to the floor.
On the Saturday night we enjoyed a socially-distanced takeaway from the (relatively new) catering team in the lightship. It was excellent and probably a better option than any of the takeaways we have tried before - there's absolutely nothing convenient to the boat so you have to drive into either Ipswich or Felixstowe. With only 32 seats available on the lightship, mostly in places that Sam probably couldn't get to, takeaway is a great option for us and hopefully it will continue to be possible even after this pandemic ends, if it ever does.
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| View from my Sunday morning run |
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| How do I separate these two and replace the thimble? |
