Out to sea, kinda

Yes, still here.


About a month ago I made my first visit to the boat for 2013, apart from a short check-up visit in February. Back in Feb there was a lot of rain water in the boat and stuff was floating in the water inside the boat. Pretty dire situation. The house battery was dead so the bilge pump/float switch combo was obviously non-operational. On the positive side, the engine battery was fine and the engine started first time. This time I did not expect anything different. The boatyard told me that they had to break into the boat to pump out the water as the boat was sitting a bit low on the water.

Perfect weather

Following the unusually harsh British winter the weather was great on that day and there was a bit of wind, about force 3 I reckon. I was determined to head a bit further this time and taking advantage of the favourable tide, I slowly ventured east, to the mouth of River Crouch and beyond. The wind was easterly so we were motoring. When we went past the Crouch buoy, marking the entrance of the river, we opened sail and motorsailed. As we approached Ray Sand and then Buxey sand we were surprised to spot tens of seals lounging on the sand and enjoying the beautiful sunshine. I'd read about seals being found around there but did not expect to see so many of them.

My depth sounder was giving spurious readings so I had no idea that we were approaching shallow waters since my Navionics chart was indicating at least 2m of water below us. And so we were grounded somewhere round the Raysand buoy - unfortunately I was too busy trying to set the boat free to make a mark on the chart so that I know next time. But, fortunately, it was on a rising tide and with the help of the engine we managed to free ourselves in less than 10 minutes. I really need to look into my sounder issues; I believe it was some kind of interference as the engine was running at the time.

Seals lounging on Buxey Sand

We ventured a bit further to the Sunken Buxey but with the tide having turned, the wind picking up, the sun setting and the depth sounder lying we decided that it was prudent to sail west and into the mouth of the Crouch and our mooring at Burnham. On the way back we spotted what looked like a spaceship at a distance, to the SE and kept wondering what it was. To this day, I have yet to find out so I'll just call it an Unidentified Sailing Object - Strange stuff.

Unidentified sailing object

It was a pleasant and uneventful sail despite the soft grounding but next time I'd rather a bit more wind. When we got to the mooring I had a look at the float switch of the bilge pump and found that it was not switching off when it should and was draining the battery. Need to get a new one or find an alternative solution. 

First sail out of the Crouch (just)

About one month ago, I managed to repair the engine temperature issue without spending a penny! Instead it required a dear amount of elbow grease removing and de-scaling all the cooling water pipes. Works like a charm now. On that day, I sailed to the east just past the River Roach entrance and then back west, past Essex Marina. I only used the genoa as I was single-handed and it was quite windy so I wanted easy sail control. I still haven't tested the furling mechanism on the mainsail.

The past weekend we took advantage of the fine British weather (sunny, freezing & no wind) and motor-sailed from my mooring at Burnham-on-Crouch to the Crouch buoy, marking the entrance to River Crouch. A mere 5nm distance that took about 2 and half hours going against the tide. Of course, it was much faster on the way back taking about an hour or even less. The really annoying bit was having to motor all the way there and back, so still no proper sailing since I launched the boat.

Approaching Crouch North Cardinal Mark from the west

Nevertheless, going all the way to the Crouch buoy was a big step for me. It was the first time that Ting-a-Ling and I got a glimpse of the open sea, beyond the river. Straight ahead, in the distance we could see the wind-turbines of, what I believe to be the Gunfleet Sands offshore wind-farm. Visibility was very good on the day and I believe I could also see the London Array offshore wind-farm through my scope, to the south-east.

Next on the agenda is to sail out of the Crouch, perhaps to the Whitaker Channel. To manage this in the few hours of daylight I'll have to start early, catch an ebb tide out and the flood back in. Problem is all those shallows just outside the Crouch.

It will require some preparation and a good look-out. Tidal streams around the area seem to flow in the North-South direction rather than East-West which is the direction I'll be heading. In any case, I'll have to revise my day-skipper notes and think about planning. Just bought the Eastern Reeds Almanac which could help.

Floating nicely

So yes, boat on the water once again. I think it's been 27 months now. Such a long time. And looking at the boat I tend to think that I could've done o lot more in that amount of time. If only I lived closer or visited more often. In any case, this should be a moment of happiness. And it is to some extent although I haven't sailed her yet. I just went on a short motor-sailing up the river. And on the way back it was up-tide and it took me hours to cover a distance of less than 2NM. And the water temp alarm kept on buzzing which had me de-throttling the engine and putting on neutral. Until I realised we were not going anywhere and I just ignored the alarm and revved up. And we made good progress. But I heard a popping sound coming from the engine, which makes me think: head gasket blown? I have no idea what that is like, I was expecting the engine to seize under extreme heat and poor water circulation. But enough with the random ramblings.

It was nice to be back on the water. I slept on the boat overnight. Luckily my sleeping bag was up to the job at 6 deg. Celsius inside temperature. My greatest joy came when I was putting up my mainsail. It was always a concern that my mainsail had no reefing points and I could face some trouble in strong winds. But then I noticed a little hole on the boom that said oil. And I thought "what for"; and a smile was drawn on my face! I had a furling mainsail! At this point you're probably thinking "Jesus, what an amateur this guy must be not having noticed that in 3 years of owning the boat!". And to some extent you would be right, but I assure you this looks like a pretty standard boom and the furling mechanism is a really basic one: the mainsail rolls around the boom, not inside as most modern mainsail furling systems. So not apparent at all (although, an amateur, I will not deny that I am). And the next question was: "what happens with the kicking strap (boom vang)" if the main rolls around the boom? To this I have not yet found an answer and I do invite your views. My hunch is that there's no kicking strap when the main is reefed (i.e. rolled round the boom). A contraption to this end could possibly be devised - for now I am thinking of attaching the kicker to the boom end (aft) but that doesn't sound too safe. I guess I could manage without a kicker however if need be.

And that concludes my first post back at sea (well, a river in fact but a tidal one so full of seawater). 

Back on the water?

The moment has arrived. I decided that I've had enough of "just work, no play" and I'm putting Ting-a-Ling back on the water.

Last weekend was my last chance to take care of any last minute tasks before launching. By the way, this does not mean that work on the boat has finished - far from it. I just need to get back on the water otherwise I might do something stupid like ..buy another boat! For the past few weeks I've been frantically looking at boats on the internet, just as I was doing before buying Ting-a-Ling. In order to avoid any rash decisions I made the rash decision to launch just when everyone else is lifting their boat out, at the end of September. But the thought of some fine autumn and winter sailing on the river and maybe beyond, is just too good to resist.

So I hopped on my bike and rode the 50 long miles to the boatyard on the weekend to seal some deck leaks (round the samson post and baby-stay chainplate), charge the batteries, shut the sea-cocks, install a wind-vane and antenna on the mast-head and do some surgery on the toe-rail and the deck where a wiggly stanchion post sits. Not major jobs you would think but having the mast sitting horizontally on the deck, a few metres above the ground doesn't really help. In any case I managed to do everything I had planned for so the boat could finally return to the its element after two years on the hard.

At the time I'm writing this, Ting-a-Ling must be floating (hopefully) on the river Crouch in Essex but unfortunately I couldn't be there for the launch and haven't called the boatyard to check but I hope everything went smoothly. I can't wait to get there but some prior arrangements for this weekend means that I'll have to wait for another week before I get to see her.

I still have to fit all the running rigging and god knows if I remember how to do that but that's hardly a problem - I'm sure some of the good fellas around - if anyone is still out there by early October - will show me the ropes if need be.

Of course, the work will continue but perhaps on a more leisurely pace.

A very nice boat

Langskip

Long overdue update

I spent two weekends on the boat doing work in the past month. My new strategy revolves around this objective right now: "Get the boat on the bloody water and do some sailing". So no more attention to detail here - I realised that at the pace I'm working on the boat it will take me ages (years literally) to get it into the shape I would like it to be. It's just not gonna happen and I should just settle for less, i.e. a boat that doesn't look great but is seaworthy enough for light sailing.

The only thing missing right now is an echo sounder. There are two on the boat but none seems to be working. Once that is doen, the boat is good to go. Of course, it is almost September now and I've missed one more sailing season. But I intend to sail well into the winter to catch up.

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Long time-no work

It's been about 8 months since I last did any work on the boat. I don't even know what to expect when I visit next time. Meanwhile I've been paying my monthly storage fees which seems like a waste of money if I'm not working on the boat or using it. My lame excuse is that I went away for a couple of months, to a place where it's warm and sunny and it doesn't rain - and when I came back I just couldn't amass the willpower to drive 70 miles on my motorbike in the cold and wet weather conditions. But today its sunny and warm (well warmer than usual) in London and I'm inspired - so I thought I'd better write something about the boat and that might spark my motivation. so there you go. I'll be back soon.

Oh, dear

Right now, this project seems like one of those ambitious things that one starts but never completes. I've had the boat for about two years now. I've sailed it 6 or 7 times on the River Crouch for 20-30 hours in total, worked a few hundred hours on it, spent a few thousand pounds on it. And it has now been sitting on the hard, since July 2010.

The plan that went wrong assumed that I would be working on the boat in July/August 2011 so it would be ready sometime in August. Instead, I decided to spend those two months on a Greek island in the Cyclades. It was pretty nice, and that is an understatement. The only thing I really missed was Ting-a-Ling.

get feed

Installing a thru-hull (skin-fitting)

Since I'm just idling at home, I thought it would be a good idea to provide some DIY advise. There are much better places to find out how to install a thru-hull (skin fitting) but I'll just go through the way I did it.

I didn't really need to replace the thru-hull but just the gate valve which looked a bit dodgy. A ball valve is much better, particularly for engine cooling water intake as it is very easy to see if it's open or closed. However, the gate valve was stuck on the thru-hull. Because of my poor tool-set and a mediocre skill-set and imagination I could not figure out some way to separate the two. So I decided to replace the whole thing. That way, I would also make sure that the new thru-hull would be up for the job (hopefully). 

Initially, I chipped away at the backing block of the thru-hull. That way I would be able to pull it a bit further out under the hull, enough to cut it with an angle grinder. Unfortunately I have no angle-grinder ( I know...what's a man without an angle grinder?) so I had to borrow one from the boatyard. It was then a piece of cake to cut it off. (I won't mention my desperate attempt to cut it with my bosch multitool).

Once that was done I started working on a new backing block for the new thru-hull. Some people recommend a  GRP backing block but I wasn't prepared to go into so much hassle just to save my life (OK, joking, I just don't think it's necessary if you do a good installation). So I cut a square piece of some leftover 12mm marine ply (I'm running out of that but hopefully will not need any more of it soon). I then cut a hole (about 19mm) in the centre of the block (well, to be honest it wasn't exactly in the centre but nevermind that) and then covered the whole thing with 3 or 4 layers of epoxy (letting each layer cure for about 1 hour before applying the next one). The hole should be a little bit wider than the threads of the skin fitting otherwise the epoxy layer may be compromised if the threads of the fitting dig in the block. It took a bit of trial and error before I got this right, but in the end the thru-hull could pass through the block with little contact.

After that I covered the hull side of the thru-hull with a thick layer of Sikaflex 291 and shoved it through the hull (the hole in the hull was already there remember, but if you open a new hole then it's another story).. I was alone so I had nobody to push it from the outside while I went inside to install the backing block but no harm done as the Sika kept it in place. I considered epoxy gluing the block to the hull but thought I better not in case I need to replace again in the future. So I just put another layer of Sika291 on the hull side of the backing block and pushed it over the threads of the thru-hull which now protruded through the hull. I pushed it down as hard as I could so that it made a good contact with the hull and the excess Sika was squeezed out. I then repeated the same with the flange (Sika291 on the hull side) and screwed it on the thru-hull initially by hand and then, when it was quite tight using a wrench, until I heard the block suffering under the pressure :) I took off the excess Sika around all fittings and distributed well around the block-hull surface and flange-block surface. And that was it. Now you can tell me I messed it up and I'll live in fear of drowning every time I sail.. I will post some pictures soon so that you can admire the craftsmanship!

The weather..

..is crap! Gloomy and overcast and with a threat of an imminent thunderstorm over your head. Not a good time to go to the boat, particularly when you have to ride 50 miles on a motorbike to get there and all you want to do is sheathing and painting the decks. So frustrating! But there's the champion's league final tonight to compensate for that.