Bru
Well-Known Member
Last week, Jane and I spent our first full week aboard Brigantia and it was fantastic!
Arriving late Sunday, we caught the last ferry ride down to our mooring and motored up to the pontoon for the night (the pontoon at Fambridge is a major advantage to having a swinging mooring there, makes a world of difference).
Mondy we spent sorting out various outstanding maintenance and fitting out jobs before departing downriver in a flat calm early Tuesday morning under motor. The idea was to just stick our noses out into the Whitaker Channel for an hour or two and we finally got some wind and made sail in the vicinity of the Crouch buoy. It was such a lovely day we just kept right on going out by the Ron Pipe, over the Spitway and eventually fetched up in Brightlingsea!
The outboard did the dirty on us as we approached the pontoons and cut out leaving us drifting across the channel towards the mud with me cursing and heaving on the starter cord to no avail - it had been surging and hunting a bit as we came up the creek so I'd been concerned about what was going on already. I was just about to dash forward to go for the chuck the anchor overboard option when two very nice chaps in the BSC safety rib came to our aid and dragged us over to the town pier.
After a quick supplies run ashore, the ultra-helpful harbourmaster chaps moved us over the a visitors berth from where we had a fine view of the bright lights of Brightlingsea - lacking a dinghy a view was all we'd get of course but we were happy to spend the night aboard anyway. Some furtling around under the engine cover brought to light the rather disconnected state of the top cylinder spark plug lead which was merely resting on the plug rather than actually being properly plugged on. Odd that 'cos I know I checked they were properly attached when I de-winterised the motor.
At some point in the day, the topping lift shackle decided to part company with the boat leaving us with no topping lift, the eye splice of which had inevitable found its way to the top of the mast. I jury rigged a workable topping lift with the spare halyard on the forward side of the mast led back around the outside of the cap shroud which sorted the problem for the time being - it's either a trip up the mast or a mast down and up excercise to sort it properly. Haven't decided which yet.
Wednesday, we motored out of Brightlingsea before setting sail for a slow beat up the Blackwater to Bradwell. A meal and a drink in the Green Man was followed by a nightcap in the marina bar which turned into a pleasant session with some folks from the Stafford Cruising Club one of whom was a damn good singer/guitarist. Inevitable I ended up joining in and made a fool of myself because I had total memory failure and couldn't remember the lyrics to anything properly - even stuff I wrote myself!
The forecast for Thursday suggested a bit more wind than we really wanted at this stage in our fledgling sailing career - 4 or 5
- and Friday was predicted to be a bit windier still so I tackled the as yet untried reefing whilst on the pontoon and put a reef in the main before setting out. I was glad of this later I can tell you! After making a right pigs ear of getting off the pontoon in the wind (which was deeply embarrassing but no harm done in the end) we set out at about half tide on the ebb to hightail it back into our home river.
The downwind sail with the tide back out to the Spitway was fine but when we crossed the sands just after low water and came onto the wind to catch the tide back up into the Crouch things got a bit bouncy. The wind had definitely got up, which we hadn't noticed running before it, and with wind over tide it was decidely choppy!
We made good progress at first almost fetching the Ron Pipe but a navigational cock-up on my part put us over the shallows of the Swallowtail with a good deal less water under the keels than I was happy about. When I say a good deal less, I really mean hardly any. We must have been pretty close to touching bottom in the troughs. No hesitation, once I'd realised my mistake, the safe option was to reverse course and run back down our track into deeper water. We lost a lot of the ground gained doing so and we could probably have tacked North and escaped the clutches of the sands safely but I wasn't inclinded to take any risks.
The sea state was now a short lumpy steep sided chop which really did not suit little old Brigantia at all. We were just getting bashed which robbed us of most of our speed over the ground and despite my best efforts to judge the moment on several occasions we missed stays when a wave smashed the bow on the wrong side. After two hours of struggling, although we were making progress it was painfully slow and time was marching on. Accepting the inevitable and muttering the incantation "Gentlemen don't sail to windward" I furled the genoa, centred the main and fired up the outboard.
At around 80% throttle we blatted back in through the increasingly lumpy seas, passing an even smaller boat than us abeam the Buxey, making in excess of 6kts over the ground. I received quite a few refreshing lumps of North Sea in my face which was, well, refreshing and the cabin carpet developed a damp patch which, when it later dried out, turned into a stain. We think there is some mucky water in an as yet unaccessed part of the bilges which got sloshed around in all the pitching.
Hanging a hard left, we made for the River Roach to, we hoped, get out of the rising wind and increasingly nasty chop which had become worse as we entered the river proper. We anchored in the Brankfleet, after a brief tussle with the recalcitrant outboard, in near perfect conditions. It wasn't quite a millpond but near enough! Our fellow intrepid small boat sailor followed us in and anchored ahead of us. I imagine the conversation aboard her was much the same as aboard Brigantia i.e. "phew, thank God for that!"
Here we spent our first ever night at anchor. Very peaceful it was too, especially at 3:00am when I arose for a while to check the anchor as the tide turned. This was so little trouble that it was some time before I even realised that the tide HAD turned!
Friday morning, bright and early, we caught the last of the flood back up to Fambridge motoring through Burnham before tacking against a light Sou'Westerly back to base. Back onto that oh so useful pontoon we went for a gentle afternoon of doing very little in the pleasant sunshine.
Tempting though it was to go sailing again on Saturday there were a number of jobs that needed attending too and rather too much wind for our liking anyway. Jane and I set to and spent most of the day having a really good sort out below decks by the end of which we not only had a tidy boat but also a place for (nearly) everything and everything in its place. I swear Brigantia is related to the Tardis - she just keeps on swallowing kit! There's an astonishing amount of storage for a 23 footer.
Sunday was going home day
We removed the genoa as it needs a repair to the UV strip which has frayed and pulled out some stiching where it has been rubbing on the spreaders. I've restitched the relevant bits myself this week and now I need to put a temporary patch over the frayed bit - the sail will get a new UV strip this coming winter anyway), fueled her up at the local Asda, put her back on her mooring and it was back to normal life for us until next time.
A good week and a good start - we had some problems sure but we got around them and we tested ourselves and the boat to a greater extent than I expected or planned and we didn't come to grief. Can't wait for next time!
A handful of pics of the week ... https://picasaweb.google.com/114454771010068046353/May2011#
Arriving late Sunday, we caught the last ferry ride down to our mooring and motored up to the pontoon for the night (the pontoon at Fambridge is a major advantage to having a swinging mooring there, makes a world of difference).
Mondy we spent sorting out various outstanding maintenance and fitting out jobs before departing downriver in a flat calm early Tuesday morning under motor. The idea was to just stick our noses out into the Whitaker Channel for an hour or two and we finally got some wind and made sail in the vicinity of the Crouch buoy. It was such a lovely day we just kept right on going out by the Ron Pipe, over the Spitway and eventually fetched up in Brightlingsea!
The outboard did the dirty on us as we approached the pontoons and cut out leaving us drifting across the channel towards the mud with me cursing and heaving on the starter cord to no avail - it had been surging and hunting a bit as we came up the creek so I'd been concerned about what was going on already. I was just about to dash forward to go for the chuck the anchor overboard option when two very nice chaps in the BSC safety rib came to our aid and dragged us over to the town pier.
After a quick supplies run ashore, the ultra-helpful harbourmaster chaps moved us over the a visitors berth from where we had a fine view of the bright lights of Brightlingsea - lacking a dinghy a view was all we'd get of course but we were happy to spend the night aboard anyway. Some furtling around under the engine cover brought to light the rather disconnected state of the top cylinder spark plug lead which was merely resting on the plug rather than actually being properly plugged on. Odd that 'cos I know I checked they were properly attached when I de-winterised the motor.
At some point in the day, the topping lift shackle decided to part company with the boat leaving us with no topping lift, the eye splice of which had inevitable found its way to the top of the mast. I jury rigged a workable topping lift with the spare halyard on the forward side of the mast led back around the outside of the cap shroud which sorted the problem for the time being - it's either a trip up the mast or a mast down and up excercise to sort it properly. Haven't decided which yet.
Wednesday, we motored out of Brightlingsea before setting sail for a slow beat up the Blackwater to Bradwell. A meal and a drink in the Green Man was followed by a nightcap in the marina bar which turned into a pleasant session with some folks from the Stafford Cruising Club one of whom was a damn good singer/guitarist. Inevitable I ended up joining in and made a fool of myself because I had total memory failure and couldn't remember the lyrics to anything properly - even stuff I wrote myself!
The forecast for Thursday suggested a bit more wind than we really wanted at this stage in our fledgling sailing career - 4 or 5
- and Friday was predicted to be a bit windier still so I tackled the as yet untried reefing whilst on the pontoon and put a reef in the main before setting out. I was glad of this later I can tell you! After making a right pigs ear of getting off the pontoon in the wind (which was deeply embarrassing but no harm done in the end) we set out at about half tide on the ebb to hightail it back into our home river.The downwind sail with the tide back out to the Spitway was fine but when we crossed the sands just after low water and came onto the wind to catch the tide back up into the Crouch things got a bit bouncy. The wind had definitely got up, which we hadn't noticed running before it, and with wind over tide it was decidely choppy!
We made good progress at first almost fetching the Ron Pipe but a navigational cock-up on my part put us over the shallows of the Swallowtail with a good deal less water under the keels than I was happy about. When I say a good deal less, I really mean hardly any. We must have been pretty close to touching bottom in the troughs. No hesitation, once I'd realised my mistake, the safe option was to reverse course and run back down our track into deeper water. We lost a lot of the ground gained doing so and we could probably have tacked North and escaped the clutches of the sands safely but I wasn't inclinded to take any risks.
The sea state was now a short lumpy steep sided chop which really did not suit little old Brigantia at all. We were just getting bashed which robbed us of most of our speed over the ground and despite my best efforts to judge the moment on several occasions we missed stays when a wave smashed the bow on the wrong side. After two hours of struggling, although we were making progress it was painfully slow and time was marching on. Accepting the inevitable and muttering the incantation "Gentlemen don't sail to windward" I furled the genoa, centred the main and fired up the outboard.
At around 80% throttle we blatted back in through the increasingly lumpy seas, passing an even smaller boat than us abeam the Buxey, making in excess of 6kts over the ground. I received quite a few refreshing lumps of North Sea in my face which was, well, refreshing and the cabin carpet developed a damp patch which, when it later dried out, turned into a stain. We think there is some mucky water in an as yet unaccessed part of the bilges which got sloshed around in all the pitching.
Hanging a hard left, we made for the River Roach to, we hoped, get out of the rising wind and increasingly nasty chop which had become worse as we entered the river proper. We anchored in the Brankfleet, after a brief tussle with the recalcitrant outboard, in near perfect conditions. It wasn't quite a millpond but near enough! Our fellow intrepid small boat sailor followed us in and anchored ahead of us. I imagine the conversation aboard her was much the same as aboard Brigantia i.e. "phew, thank God for that!"
Here we spent our first ever night at anchor. Very peaceful it was too, especially at 3:00am when I arose for a while to check the anchor as the tide turned. This was so little trouble that it was some time before I even realised that the tide HAD turned!
Friday morning, bright and early, we caught the last of the flood back up to Fambridge motoring through Burnham before tacking against a light Sou'Westerly back to base. Back onto that oh so useful pontoon we went for a gentle afternoon of doing very little in the pleasant sunshine.
Tempting though it was to go sailing again on Saturday there were a number of jobs that needed attending too and rather too much wind for our liking anyway. Jane and I set to and spent most of the day having a really good sort out below decks by the end of which we not only had a tidy boat but also a place for (nearly) everything and everything in its place. I swear Brigantia is related to the Tardis - she just keeps on swallowing kit! There's an astonishing amount of storage for a 23 footer.
Sunday was going home day
We removed the genoa as it needs a repair to the UV strip which has frayed and pulled out some stiching where it has been rubbing on the spreaders. I've restitched the relevant bits myself this week and now I need to put a temporary patch over the frayed bit - the sail will get a new UV strip this coming winter anyway), fueled her up at the local Asda, put her back on her mooring and it was back to normal life for us until next time.
A good week and a good start - we had some problems sure but we got around them and we tested ourselves and the boat to a greater extent than I expected or planned and we didn't come to grief. Can't wait for next time!
A handful of pics of the week ... https://picasaweb.google.com/114454771010068046353/May2011#
