Review of 2009

Work Done
At the start of last season I had a list if things that I thought needed doing:

• new mainsail
• headlining in forward birth area
• anti-fouling
• engine service, especially the carb.
• leaking windows need attention
• cockpit locker covers

of these I have done them all except the headlining and the cockpit covers, so pretty successful.

Sailing Done
I would never have believed at the start of the year all the things in Kamala that I have enjoyed in our first proper season together. Highlights are of course sailing to Les Minquiers (saw them on a Bergerac last night, but that's another story), and the trip to Sark, Herm and Guernsey. I have also enjoyed taking many friends out on her throughout the year. My favourite however was taking my two middle children round to Portlet for lunch after they had stayed the night on the boat. It was the first time my daughter had shown any interest in the boat and the trip to Portlet was an unplanned grasp at the outstretched hand of opportunity.

The catalyst for these adventures was the confidence instilled by a week with Phil at Jersey Sailing completing part of my Day Skipper practical. Hats off to the team at JS.

Other
I have read some great sailing related books this year. My complete reading list for 2009 has been:

Captain Bligh's Portable Nightmare - John Toohey
The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow - AJ Mackinnon***
The Long Way - Bernard Moitessier
Sailing Just for Fun - AC Stock***
There be no Dragons - Reese Palley
Race Against Time - Ellen McArthur
Treasure Island - RL Stevenson
The Heavenly Man - Brother Yun
Gipsy Moth Circles the World - Sir Francis Chichester
Endeavor - Peter Aughton
Land on My Right - Ron Pattenden
Cruise of the Conrad - Alan Villiers

OF these the "***" indicates my two favourites. Both recommended to anyone with a small boat and big dreams. Which leads nicely on to...

Dreams of Sailing (and nightmares of work) for 2010
Sailing:
Round the Island - slowly! Taking a few days (a week?), possible overnights at Gorey, (Ecrehous?) Rozel, Bouley, Bonne Nuit, Greve de Lecq, St Brelades. Sign up here if interested. May or Summer.
Minquiers again.
St Malo and the Rance (summer holiday!)
Racing/Sailing on other on other peoples boats.
Go sailing with 'OG' and Nicky & Helier Heath.

Work:
Finish Building Dinghy / Tender
Antifoul (again)
Fix Broken Window
New Cabin Vent
Replace single Washboard with split ones.
Fit Cockpit Locker Covers
Drop Mast
New Main Halyard
Check Rigging
New Mainsheet
New Genoa
Sort out awful paint finish (maybe over next winter when Kamala comes home)
Buy a Seagul Engine for tender.

Overall its been a fantastic year sailing with no regrets. Oh, and the dinghy is progressing well.

On and Off the Blocks

Last spring, when I had my boat on the blocks, I realised how close I'd come to disaster when Kamala's keel only just managed to squeeze between two drying blocks and therefore remain level.

It was only after she'd dried out I realised the possible alternative. (see below)

This is Pitch and Putt II, under new ownership now, not fitting quite so well on the blocks.

PBO July 2009

I never got round to posting this at the time it came out, but July's Practical Boat Owner Magazine featured my very own Kamala in the mystery port competition. The port was St Aubin, obviously.

 

Kamala is the little red one in the foreground, on her old mooring near the entrance. Don't know when the pic was taken.

Dinghy Project Goes On

The dinghy outside is now done ready for the keel and then paint. Inside is next.

All the pics are online here

Dinghy Build Photo Album

If you click the link below you can see the photo's from the build of the Rye Bay 8' dinghy, 'Pickled Tink'. It's probably 1/3 finished at the time of writing.

Building a Rye Bay 8'

New Dinghy Part 2

This is what I've spent half-term doing.

 It deserves its own blog page, and I'll sort that out when I'm not up to my elbows in epoxy.

It looks like a boat now any way. Compare with the cardboard model of the same boat below. Still a long, long way to go. About 15 of the supposed 40 hours done so far.

FInal Sail of 2009

This afternoon, HT was at 16:42, 9.8m; plenty enough to get in and out, only hampered by the early onset of darkness. There was more water than I expected so I rowed out and soon had the motor on and sails up ready to go.

As I was leaving home Windy Wendy had 9-11 knots at St Helier Pierheads but there was much less than this once I got out. Still had a good time and got Ollie the Autopilot earning his keep too.

As I was coming in due to the lateness of the our, Nicki and Helier were just taking 'Og' out for a short run. The advantage of having lights nav lights, I guess.

In rapidly increasing darkness I managed to partly 'winterise' Kamala, ready for the gales to come next week. I took off the sails and removed any rope that could be brought in. Next season will need a new mainsheet and a new main halyard at the very least.

By the time I left it was 5:30 and totally dark, but St Aubins is a beautifully lit area so finding my way to a slipway was easy.

Virtual Skipper 5.0 online

If you value your time and hope to acheive anything in life, you'll avoid this game. It's too amazing.

I mean it, don't go here:

http://www.virtualskipper-game.com/en/

because you'll download it for free, spend all your time on it till the wee small hours and then feel crap at work the next day.

Or maybe that's just me.

New Dinghy (Work in Progress)

Having dumped my old GRP dinghy, I need a replacement.

I got the plans from Stanley Small Craft for a Rye Bay 8 for £15 (sailing version). Can't remember where I found the website from now but its at

http://www.stanleysmallcraft.co.uk

I was looking at either a Catspaw 8 from B&B Yacht Designs or something from Glen-L, both of which were over £50 just for the plans, when I came across this one.

Paul at SSC is super helpful and the plans arrive by email.

I made a model from the plans out of cardboard, and I like the way it looks.

 Will be ordering the ply and epoxy soon. Hopefully locally sourced if the price is right. I'll do a new blog of the build.

Meanwhile, thanks to Nicky and the Crew of 'Og' who have given me access rights to their piece of tupperware while I make my tender over the winter.

Dinghy Dumping

Being short of cash, I had a hunt around for things to sell on the local trading/classified site. The GRP dinghy I bought over the winter was on the hit list of things to go. It had taken on water through a damaged keel since day one, but had recently got a lot worse, it was also really heavy and one of the gunwhales was coming adrift.

I went down to the harbour today to show it to someone that was interested. Didn't want it, but did help me get it out of the mud, up the stairs and onto my car roof rack. Thanks Doug. However, on reflection, I decided that it wasn't worth bringing it home to repair, so I pitched it straight off the roof rack and into the dumpster.

It did tow nicely and was good to row single handed, and it was handy to have a crappy dinghy I could leave at the harbour and not worry too much about. No regrets about dumping it though.

In for the Winter

Tonight I cycled down after work and brought Kamala in to her Winter berth in the inner harbour. It was a balmy evening and I fancied swimming out to get her, given the waterlogged state of the dinghy.

I had earlier picked up the new genoa from the post office so was pretty laden, with changes of clothes, swimming gear, sailing shoes etc.

Friends who have a rather fancy cruising RIB were walking down to the harbour and offered me the use of their dinghy. I readily accepted when I saw the chop from the easterly kicking up around the outer moorings. The bluff front of their dinghy and the wheels built into the hull made rowing seem like hard work.


The new genoa needs a thicker luff rope and so couldn't be fitted straightaway.

On this same evening, there was an unveiling of a new memorial stone to mark the sailors from St Aubin who went to the Gaspe peninsular.

Herm to Guernsey

Sunday 30^th Aug 2009 Herm to Guernsey 4.5NM

 

Wind S F4, light rain at first and then fair.

 

The overall purpose of the trip was to make the Vale Earth Fair at Vale Castle in Guernsey, a music festival taking place Midday to Midnight on the Sunday.

 

I managed to sail this passage most of the way, setting off south and then through the Percee and Corbette Passages between Herm and Jetou. I made a mess of the Little Russel, but luckily it didn't make a mess of me; The wind was against an unforeseen current and I wasn't properly prepared for the pilotage. I wouldn't like to be in the same position at springs. Another lesson learned. The motor stepped in again to save the day.

I had planned to use Bordeaux Harbour, just north of Vale castle, but with no depth marked on the chart, it turned out to be dry on my arrival and with quite a rocky bottom in many parts. Just to the north of this I noticed a sheltered bay of moorings. I snuck in here and initially anchored, until a friendly local fisherman offered me his spare mooring. I tried it, but it was exposed to the southerly chop from the Russel so I moved back inshore on the hook. This was the best anchorage of the trip, very snug, and a perfect fit for a Seawych. I walked a couple of miles to a petrol station to fill up the fuel tank in case of having to motor back the whole way to Jersey the next day. A sensible precaution as it turned out, and fortunate too, because until recently petrol wasn't available on a Sunday in Guernsey.

The festival was great, with many Jersey friends there too. I believe the Vale Earth Fair holds the record for having a higher number of piercings per square mile than anywhere else on the planet. OK, I made that bit up, but it's that kind of festival. After so much solitude, being around thousands of people at once was unnerving and I had to take a break back on the boat for an hour at dinner time.

Sark to Herm

Saturday 29^th August 2009 Sark to Herm, 5.5NM

 

Wind SW 3-4 Fair and Sunny

 

The wind finally dropped overnight, so I left for Herm around 7am, hoping to have a bit of a sail on the way. After heading North for an hour or so against the tide and not getting far fast, I turned east and motored for Belvoir Bay. When I arrived the beach and anchorage were deserted so, not being too sure on how far in to go I anchored a way off shore. In the end the privacy further out was quite welcome as many boats and ferry-born day trippers soon swarmed into the bay. There was at least one fouled anchor among the yachts. I rowed ashore and walked around Herm, having a first class Greek salad at the pub next to the harbour, and writing postcards.

 

Does everyone find there's something special about swimming off your own boat, or will the novelty wear off? Anyway, I returned to Kamala, and swam a few circuits around her. It was the first day hot enough to try out my solar shower. What a fantastic device! Every boat should have one. After the swim, I hung the shower on the boom and washed in the bottom of the cockpit.

 

I cooked myself dinner and then phoned Herm harbour office to request permission to stay the night and moved along to shell beach, swinging the lead line to anchor in as close as possible without grounding in the morning. After being crowded with so many boats and people during the day it was a treat to share the whole of Shell Beach (it felt like the whole of Herm) with just one other vessel that night.

A Day in Sark

Friday 28th Aug 2009, Sark

Wind Westerly F7. Stayed put!

I really enjoyed my stay in Sark. By chance I met some friends from Jersey who were camping and spent happy times in their company, enjoying the sunshine, drinking, eating, cycling, exploring, drinking, etc. If only the nights were as good; despite its location on the east of the island, theoretically sheltered, some chop from the westerley gale found its way around the top of the Sark and, bouncing off the rocks, made Kamala roll and pitch all over the place. I felt pretty rotten the next morning, the lowest point of the trip. The second night I moored further out, away from the rock face, and rigged up an anchor on a bridle off the stern to hold us into the waves, and things were much better. The Point Robert light is pretty spectacular from the moorings in Greve de La Ville, its beam rushing along the cliffs and then overhead and out to sea.

The Lumpy Mooring in Sark

Jersey to Sark

Thu 27^th August 2009 Jersey to Sark, 22.5NM

 

HW 10:28(UT) 8.9m   LW 17:07(UT) 3.6m

 

Wind W4, cloudy. Swell – pretty big.

(Yesterday's weather: Force 6+; Tomorrow's forecast: Force 6+)

 

 

At 9am, I left my home mooring in St Aubin's Outer Harbour, Jersey, planning to get to Sark around tea time. I'd done the same passage on an RYA course some  months earlier so had some idea of what lay in store, although on that occasion there hadn't been quite so much swell, as I recall. An hour or so into the trip, still on Jersey's south coast, there was a coastguard warning on the VHF of F6-7 winds in the area 'soon'. I was already a little unnerved by the size of the waves and so turned round and abandoned the trip there and then. It was only another boat querying the forecast a few minutes later that made me realise that 'soon' doesn't mean the same as on land, e.g.”I'll be home soon”, so on we went.

 

There were a few dolphins playing in St Brelade's bay, but they did little to ease my apprehension about the conditions. Little Kamala took it all a lot better than I.

 

Rounding Corbiere Lighthouse bought the wind and waves onto the beam, and the stream behind us. Up sail and north! The swell was still pretty impressive from the cockpit of a little boat, but rolling, not breaking. Not that is, until we got dangerously close to Rigdon Bank. Suddenly, half a mile ahead I saw very large, steep waves with white crests covering a large part of the sea, exactly across our course. Even from that distance it was pretty clear that there was no way through. What would have happened had we carried on I still get shivers thinking about. The pilot book showed a narrow safe passage inshore of the bank, so we headed for this. Even here it was quite unpleasant so I started the motor to get through as quickly as possible.

The passing of Gronez on the North West corner of Jersey saw the sea transformed into a very pleasant place to be and I finally started to enjoy the trip. The weather improved too. All too quickly we reached the approaches to Sark. I gingerly crept through the Goulet passage, past La Maseline harbour and under the Point Robert lighthouse to Greve de la Ville, as it seemed the best place to ride out the impending gale for the next two nights.

From Seawych Newsletter Pics

 

Autopilot #3

Bought a battery, a solar charger and a connector and mounts*, and now have a fully functioning autopilot. Was so easy to fit to this boat. Now for somewhere to go. How about the Vale Earth Fair in Guernsey? Sounds like a plan...

(*"Thought twice, bought local" for most of these items except the solar panel.
Trinity tyres is the best place for a leisure battery, and Marine Electronics' Steve Bottomley supplied the Raymarine/Autohelm fittings)

Sailing with the Fosters

Another trip out with friends. This time Martin and Kathryn from Leeds (now residing in Silsden), our oldest friends.

Incident-free as I recall. A very neat pick up from the South pier of St Aubin harbour at high water followed by a pleasant sail around the bay.

Managed to catch a few mackerel on the way. Arrived back with just 10 minutes of water to spare, so had a very short row back to the shore.


Had the mackerel for dinner...yum.

Motor log: 15 mins
Miles: 2
Wind: Light F2/3
Weather: Fair

Autopilot #2

I took the Autohelm down to Kamala to day. The fittings I thought were for an autopilot clearly aren't. On the plus side, the design of the cockpit means that the seat-backs and the tiller are at the same height, and the distance between the seat backs and the tiller is within 10mm of being perfect. I see an easy installation ahead.

The other problem is electricty, as I have none on board at present. Will get it sorted in time for .... well, watch this space.

Autopilot #1

The autopilot I got for free from the stripping of the other Seawych seems to work perfectly. I bought a socket to plug it into and connected it to a battery in my garage, and it goes in and out just like it should. Its an Autohelm 800, and all the manuals are online. I love the internet.

Need to work out if the fittings that look like they are for an AP on Kamala really are. If not there's some work to be done.

Excited at the prospect of another crew member on board, even if its electronic.

Splicing Fender Lines

I haven't got any photos of this work but suffice to say I am really pleased with the way they look, with eyesplices and backsplices.

I got the hang of it from

www.animatedknots.com

It actually pretty easy and having done 4 I can do it without looking at the instructions now.

Sleepover

Wind:1-2 NW
Weather: Fair
LW:0400??
Miles: <1
motor: 20 mins

Last night my two boys and I went down to Kamala at about 8pm with the intention of sleeping over and fishing. I had loads of stuff to carry out and because we were staying out I needed the little inflatable tender. It's only 1.8m so doesn't hold much so it was a bit like the Fox, Chicken and Corn conundrum deciding whether to leave the kids on the shore alone while I ferried the gear out or take them first and leave them on the boat. Decided they were safer on the shore and I could see them from the boat.

We sailed very slowly in the light wind towards Belcroute. A few people were fishing in the channel between the rocks and the fort and having great success, but by the time we had got our lines out we had drifted past the hot spot and the current and wind were carrying us out too quickly to turn round.

We had several goes at picking up moorings in Belcroute. It took us so long that it was virtually dark by the time we found one we could grab. I had to put the motor on as the wind had died to nothing.

The boys were eager to sleep for once and went off before the hot chocolate was ready. Just before they turned in they notice lights moving in the sky and thought they were satellites. The number of them soon made it clear they were Chinese lanterns. Coincidentally we had seen them last time Toby slept on the boat with me a few months ago.

Around this time I got a phone call from teh owners of 'OG', the other St Aubin's Seawych. They'd been trying to call me on teh VHF, but uncharacteristically, mine was off. They were also having a sleepover, but on their normal St Aubin outer mooring. As an aside, The Chinese lanterns prompted OG to contact the coastguard, thinking them to possibly be flares. This later prompted an news item a few days later on BBC Radio Jersey about the lantern/flare issue.

I tried to rig up a paraffin lamp as an anchor light on the new flag halyard. Too swingy. Eventually hooked it onto the clew of the furled genoa. Perfect. Burned all night but not very brightly.

I have not been sleeping well on my boat. Apart from the very first night on it months ago, I always am very restless. I think its combined anxiety for the safety of the children and of the boat with them on board, and lack of comfort. I drifted off at about 12, but woke around 4am when the boat started bumping on the bottom;I was surprised being on a mooring such a long way out at Belcroute. Its a very flat bottom out there, because the water's edge was still some distance away. After that I didn't sleep again, so read (Island Race by Sandy Toksvig and John McCarthy) until it was light enough to go on deck . My children on the other hand sleep better on the boat than at home. The sounds of me fishing above didn't stir them at all and they eventually roused around 7:30.

We headed in and had a rendezvous with OG. I really enjoyed seeing the two 'wyches rafted up alongside each other. A race must be imminent! We compared notes and boats then went home our separate ways.

Shopping

Been an expensive few days.

In the last few days I have bought:

A danbuoy
A lifeline
A radar reflector (was actually cheaper in Jersey than online)
A water carrier
A solar shower (these are so cool every garden should have one)
A beach towel
Guardwires
Fishing bits and bobs
Rope for fenders.

I'm now going to learn how to eye- and back-splice the fender ropes.

A good jobs day

Kamala in St Helier


Wind: F3/4 NW
Weather: Fair and Sunny
Miles: 4
Motor: 1hr

I set the alarm for 5am and managed not to wake the wife or any of the children. The boat is well stocked with supplied and toothpaste so I only had to get dressed and collect a few things before heading of to the boat.

5:30 was a bit early for the tide. Kamala was just about to float so I couldn't walk the bits out to her, but the dinghy was still aground. Aground and awash. The leak is so bad now that even leaving it on the mooring for an hour or so while I go of sailing sees it with a good few inches of water. I bailed it out into the mud then went for a run while I waited for the tide.

I got back to the dinghy in the harbour about a minute before it floated. Never ceases to amaze me how fast the water rises on springs. On board Kamala around 6:30am.

The jobs on the list were to fit the new guardwires (finshed in two days by Jackson's and at a very reasonable price) and rig a flag halyard up to the spreader. And to have breakfast.

I decided to see if the little harbour at Elizabeth Castle had any suitable berths for reaching across to the spreader, but even from a distance it was clear that this was not the case. Shame, as it would have been a great place for breakfast! I was going to go into the marina but then noticed the berths around the yacht club. There was one little, Kamala-sized space right in front of the Yacht club in St Helier and so that is where all the jobs were done. Including breakfast.

My sturdy new guardwires:


My new flag halyard:




Worth getting up for. A view of Kamala's home port as rosy-fingered dawn turned the streets and houses to gold:

Auction Bargains?

I went up to the auction at glencoe today to see how my car might fair next week. I promised that I wouldn't spend any money, but....

There was a pallet with a few fenders and some stainless ladders, and the clincher was a hinged outboard bracket which I know will get a good price elsewhere.

Anyway, I got the lot for £33 and sold the stainless ladders to my rival bidder for £5. Turned out to be three serviceable buoyancy aids, one of which is much better than mine so I'll keep it and give th e others away. The real reason for buying was the fenders and I ended up with about a dozen, some of which are brand new. Also a 4kg grapnel anchor with chain and miles of polyprop rope.

Anybody want to buy an outboard bracket?

Sailing with Claire

We had a good friend from Leeds staying in Jersey with her two children, so it was decided that they should come for a short trip out on the boat.

They had fun and all had a go steering.

It was a significant trip in that I had to pick them up from the end of the North pier in St Aubin. I had not come alongside before and duly fendered up ready. My first attempt was dreadful and I had to go out and try again. There were a couple of fishermen on the pier who helped take lines, but I still managed to bump and scrape a bit on the way out.

Dropping them off was slightly smoother and went to plan.

Safety Kit

Yesterday I bought a danbouy and Lifeline from Jimmy Green Marine (.com). Looks like they take off the VAT and shipping is the same as for the UK.

There's a campaign on in Jersey, "Think Twice, Buy Local". I try whereever possible to recycle my Jersey pound, but I'm boating on a very tight budget.

I still need to buy a radar reflector as the last piece in my SOLAS V jigsaw but hopefully they are the same price over here as in the UK.

New Guardwires #1 - taking off the old

I popped down tonight as the tide was going out to remove the rusted, saggy old guardwires currently maintaining safety aboard Kamala.

She was still floating when I got down but she only draws 0.7m. As soon as she was touching bottom I knew I could wade out there without getting too wet. Had a nice hot chocolate.

I have about 14m of 6mm stainless rigging wire that I picked up at the auctions for a few quid years ago. Been looking for a use for it all this time. Turn out it is actually worth something after all.

Jackson's are going to cut it and add eyes for me to use as guard wire.

I picked up a laser sail at the same auction for £5 and sold it on ebay for £12o. It paid for everything else I bought that day and then some!

Sailing to the Reefs

Yesterday Kamala sailed to Les Minquiers, a reef 11 miles south of Jersey. Perfect day, perfect weather, perfect company.

Wind F2-3, SE, sea slight, weather fair and sunny.
HT 1429 BST, 7.9m
Miles: 32
Motor runtime: 6 hrs, 4-5 litres fuel.

My friend Pete and his future brother-in-law Simon came along as crew.

The video on youtube tells most of the story

Sailing to the Les Minquiers - a youtube link.

To summarise, we left La colletewe motored out for an hour, then put the sails up, heading south. We fished and caught five mackerel, while Pete went below for a lie down with the mal de mer.

Pete recovered in time to spot the dolphins that swam around the boat for a few minutes. A first for Kamala and myself.



We motored through the passage in and then just short of mooring area at Maîtresse Île the engine broke; still running but the propeller wasn't turning. Luckily, Kamala is only 19ft and can easily be paddled so, using the dinghy oars, we glided up to the one vacant states mooring bouy to take stock of the situation.

A few minutes of pondering revealed the shear pin had gone on the outboard for no apparent reason. It was quickly fixed and then we ate lunch and swam and rowed the dinghy accross to the island. We had a little time to explore before the tide called, and visited the famous toilet.



The return journey was straight forward, but with little wind we motored all the way. Plenty of ferry traffic to avoid and lobster pots. We caught just one more mackerel. Approaching St. Helier we noticed what looked to all of us like the pall of smoke from an orange distress flare, over the horizon to the south. We called the coastguard to have it checked out but they drew a blank.

We arrived back at La Collette as expected around 1800BST

Below is a pic of Kamala at the 'Minkies'. She's the little boat on the right.

.

A Lovely Sail in Poor Weather

Tonight lots of things came together and it was good.

I took my new oars (and lock!) down to the dinghy at 6:45pm to row out to Kamala. Wind was a F4 easterly and the tide was gushing strongly into the harbour. Nearly gave up when I couldn't stem the tide to get out of the harbour. However nipping along the edge of the harbour wall I just made it out. Was quite choppy with the wind, as the fetch across the bay was pretty significant.

Made it to Kamala and tide the dinghy to the mooring and jumped aboard. Was aprehensive with the wind but the pierhead auto wind on CH18 said it was only gusting to 15kts. I'm sure it under-reads in anything except a southerly.

Because of the number of other boats nearby I set sail under second reef with the motor running in neutral, and had to use it to get going, but quickly turned it off. The tide was so strong there was no way I could head east to Elizabeth castle into the wind so I went out towards Belcroute with the tide and on a close reach. Felt very comfortable. Hardly heeling at all and making and acceptable speed through the water.

The wind died off fairly quickly and after 10 mins I decided to shake out all the reefs in the main and the jib. Despite the massively increased sail area, all we seemed to do was heel a bit more and not go much faster (this was still to windward).

The light was clearly diminishing by now (8pm overcast and drizzly) so I headed home. Sailed a bit faster slighly off the wind. Approached mooring on a run under main only, then close reached up to it. Just about managed to miss the dinghy and catch the mooring.

Was enough light to finish drilling the boom for the 1st reef fittings, so now all reef fittings are completed. I figure I won't make a permanent 3rd reefing system on the boom. I can either lash the 3rd eye to the second reef line or just strap it down.

I rowed back in the twighlight at 9:10pm.

Miles sailed: probably about 1.5
Hours Sailed: about 1

New Home #1

Last night I moved Kamala from her illegal parking space to what I think is her outer mooring. It was blowing up to F5 after work (the pics are from a different day later on) but it was the only time I had.

Disappointingly, the oar I'd left in my dinghy had been stolen, so I had to 'borrow' one from another, which I did return after use.


A good chance to try out the new second reef system and the overhauled engine. Both worked perfectly. The latter was burbling away at low revs in neutral as we sailed out of the harbour. A few gust caught us by surprise but the boat was more than up to it. Despite towing the dinghy we were sailing along merrily.

Wasn't confident enough to try sailing onto the mooring in the gusty westerly, and even under motor it would have been nice to have crew.

So now Kamala is on mooring L4 in St Aubins outer harbour. She seemed to be swinging around a lot more than the other boats around there, perhaps due to wind eddies, being so close to the harbour walls. Sadly, the lovely new white mooring buoy I'd decorated with Kamala's name and my phone number had disappeared from the mooring. Either worked loose, stolen, or moved by someone who thinks mooring L4 is theirs.

I reckon she floats at about 6m of tide. HT was 4:49pm BST last night and at 7:40 she was just aground. I'll do the calcs later.


On returning to dry land the first thing I did was to buy new oars. Not sure the decrepit dinghy is up to it though. Gunwales are almost off.

Mooring Joys and Woes

I finally got 'legal' with my Seawych and registered her with Jersey Harbours. I pleaded to be allowed to keep my mooring, and was told that I was 38th on the waiting list or around 3 years, so there was no way. So I booked a swinging mooring outside the harbour, of which there are several spare.

So far, I've been down to have a look for the ground works of this mooring but there's nothing there above the sand. Next time I'll have to go down with a spade.

I was concerned about what to do in the winter, as the mooring outside the harbour can only be used between 1st May and the end of Sept.

Then, the weekend just gone, I joined with other SOBOA (St Aubins Boat Owners Assoc.) members to clean up the harbour:

http://saboa.webs.com/index.htm

I was there on the Saturday morning and helped move surprising quantities of old chain, rope, matting, wood etc.

Then, out of the blue on the Sunday, I got a call from Harbours saying I was 1st on the waiting list, would I like a mooring?

Possible reasons:

1) The harbour clear-up team checked the harbour for vacant/unused moorings. So many became available that there was enough even for no. 38 on the list.
2) The some angel, human or otherwise, looked favourably on my hard work on Saturday morning and granted my wishes by way of reward.
3) It's a total coincidence, unrelated to the harbour clear-up, and in keeping with the seemingly random nature of allocation of mooring berths. (A friend of mine was told she was first on the waiting list. When she rang a week later, she was 7th)

I'll leave you to ponder that one. I haven't moved my boat to its new berth yet, as there is less water under it and I was told I could keep it where it is until the end of April. All the lines are there ready though. Once the harbour has been dredged later this year there should be less difference between mooring depths.

Recycling a Seawych

In the course of the last few weeks I have got to know a local family, through teaching guitar to the eldest son. By chance this family also sail, and by even more freakish chance, they too have bought a seawych. ('OG' - see pic from an earlier post). So there has been a lot of seawych chat in between guitar sessions. A friend of theirs also owns a 'wych, which had been rolled on its mooring on the east of the island. Having been moved to the car park near by, it was to be scrapped.

Not ones to miss such an opportunity, the owners of OG and myself spent a happy few hours stripping anything that wasn't bolted down, and many things that were. The haul includes:

Kettle, crockery, boom, anchor and chain, mooring rope, winches, main mooring cleat, wooden locker covers, rudder, autohelm, megaphone, compass, and plenty more.

No doubt there are 'wych owners who read this who wish we'd taken off the metal pupit and the stern rails,and probably lots more besides but time was limited and it was raining and getting dark.

I've been trying to get down to the boat for an hour or so after work on a Friday. Most of the time has been spent cleaning up the topsides. I used cif and a green pan scrubber for the worst bits. The wooden grab rails were covered in lichen, which scrubbed off easily with the pan scrubber. The whole lot looks a bit more loved now, with a shiny white top and a clean blue bottom. The red hull paint is really poor quality though. Suspect it is a one coat and the preparation was poor.


I managed to get out for a very short sail this weekend with my two boys. We didn't have long as there wasn't much water under the keels and we were more or less at HW. As we set off we ran aground on the sand bard at the harbour mouth. (This has since been dredged). The motor pulled it off without problem.

After about a minute the motor cut and stuck in gear so wouldn't restart. We resorted to the genoa and sailed pretty well, even slightly to windward under genoa alone. I lifted the motor and it decided to go into neutral so we were safe to get back.

Turning back, the sailing was still good. An attempt to sail onto the mooring narrowly failed but the motor was in the water ready.



Since last writing I have purchased a hard dinghy to leave at the harbour pontoon. You can just see it in the pic. Now I don't have to take my inflatable each time I go down to the boat. Only cost £100 but does have a small leak in the bow. I will add a pic.

Finsihed the Antifoul

Yesterday I finished the antifouling, and today was the first day that the tide was high enough to lift her off.



I took my son, aged 7, with me today. We managed to get her off the blocks just 20 minutes before high tide, so it was a close thing, and we bumped sideways along the blocks to get free. Good job I had the ship's boy as we could balance up the boat to keep it flat as it came off. It was a fantastic feeling as it floated free and smoothly motored out of the harbour for a brief run out into the bay. Sailing rig not ready yet so it was just motor, but my son enjoyed steering.

Mooring up back in the harbour went more smoothly than ever before, as without several pounds of barnacles underneath, the boat drifts forwards quite a long way once the engine is off. (I did manage to drop the boat hook in the water, but only after catching the pickup bouy).

Cant wait to go sailing, but there is a lot still to do on the inside of the cabin. Yesterday I had a major clearout from inside the boat, and threw out a lot of junk. Found the missing keel shoe, and some spray dodgers with the name 'Bewyched' on them. The boats previous ID I presume. Also found a vast array of cleaning products. Should be able to get the topsides looking nice again quite soon. Still covered in harbour mud at the moment from the painting project.

Painting the Bottom - Part I

As you can see from the photo opposite, there is quite an accumulation on the bottom of my boat. Not surprising as the boat hasn't been treated for at least 3 years. I'd scraped the many barnacles off the bits I could reach a few months ago, but the weed had returned. There were still plenty of barnacles between the keels I just couldn't get to.

So, half-term seemed the ideal time to start on Project Anti-foul. Tides were good, HT mid morning, and the weather was looking great.

Saturday and Sunday low tide afternoons were spent scrubbing, sanding and scraping, with my small band of 'helpers' in the form of my three eldest children, aged 4-7, who actually spent much more time flinging black harbour mud at each other.

On Sunday I decided to have a go between the keels, so attached a rope to the mast halyard and pulled hard from behind canting the boat back on it heels, while my children slid a plank under the keels. Worked quite well but still couldn't get to all the barnacles and the boat was sitting in its own little puddle so lying down under it wasn't an option.

I was trying to avoid using the drying pad that I'd book for the day on Monday, as a) I didn't think there would be enough water on it at HT and b) because I was really anxious about moving the boat around in a crowded harbour with an engine that doesn't want to run at slow speeds and a boat I'm not used to handling.

Monday was a great day! I rowed over the drying pad at 10:15am with the dinghy and 'sounded'. Didn't look that deep and HT was only 20 mins away. Also tried the same at the blocks further round where there appeared to be a bit more. (Showing 0.8m on the scale next to the blocks).

If anybody ever wonders whether you can tow a Seawych with a dinghy and oars, I can say 'yes' but I wouldn't recommend it! I'd rigged up the rudder and tried the engine just in case I got into trouble (how much trouble can you get into going THAT slow!). The Seawych slewed all over the place behind the dinghy but I eventually gained control.


I floated her over the blocks and appeared to have about 1ocm clearance on a falling tide. I quickly jumped up the ladder, tied the boat up, every movement on the boat gently bumping the blocks. Tying a rope to either end I pulled it into position. Sadly the blocks are too far apart and the keels don't sit quite right, but what I saw when the water had gone was better than I imagined.

I spent the next couple of hours tending to those regions that never otherwise get accessed. Finally removed all the barnacles, sanded and scrubbed between the keels and the inside surfaces. The freshwater was provided by a stream running down through the harbour at low tide, which needed a tramp through deep harbour-bottom mud for each and every bucketfull.



A pleasant break in the almost-warm sunshine while it dried, and then the painting began. I have to confess at this point that the overriding philosophy this year is to get the boat operational as quickly as possible with as little effort and cost as possible. So, the 'prepared' finish was still pretty rough, but sound. Even so the painted surfaces look pretty good from a distance of about 10 yards.

I still have the bow and stern sections to do. Watch this space. I'm now stuck on the blocks until Sunday at 5pm, due to tides.

Second Window Fitted - Oops!

You can see the full story about the windows at the old blog site:

http://kamala.blog.com/

The second window (port front) was fitted in conditions similar to the first, i.e. freezing cold, easterly wind howling through the harbour entrance straight onto the nose of Kamala.

Everything went really smoothly and seemed to go a lot quicker second time around...a little too quickly. The first time I must have held the window curved to the shape of the boat as I fitted the screws. This time I left it to the screws a little too much as I added them and a tiny crack appeared in the window, which quickly grew. When I left the boat it was about 10cm. Next time I went to the boat it was right the way across the window.

Kamala's Blog Moved to Blogger

Kamala is a Seawych 19 sailboat.

I have moved the kamala blog to blogger.

You can see the first posts here:

http://kamala.blog.com/

but was a bit clunky to work on. I may move the old posts over here. One Day.

Jason
SW614
Kamala