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?
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
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!
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.
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.
.
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.
.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
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
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
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
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.
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