tome
New member
Cracking sailing in the Solent this weekend, if a little chilly. Ended up at W Cowes for Saturday night and, wandering round the marina, wasn't surprised to hear the tell-tale sound of heating exhaust on every occupied boat.
Arrived back on board and noticed it was colder than normal. Our unit was chucking out air but precious little heat so we had a nip of malt before turning in. I woke up freezing about an hour later, and set about investigating the heating by torchlight. Being a considerate sort, I didn't want to disturb the crew.
A few minutes into my investigation I knocked the tin can the malt came in and it went flying across the saloon towards the galley, behind the cooker, emerged from underneath and hit the bulkhead opposite. It should have woken the dead, but the snoring continued without punctuation.
I traced the fault as being low voltage to the control unit so rigged a temporary wire from the switch panel bus-bar to the control, across the cabin. This did the trick and within a short time it was warm as toast. Made me realise just how essential heating is this time of year. Another little job to add to the list.
Mooring fees for W Cowes (boat up to 15m) was £6.40 overnight which isn't too bad.
On the return trip we had a beat back against a NEly wind towards Chichester and a forecast of wintry snow showers. We avoided these mostly, but there was a wicked looking cloud formation over towards the Nab which reached down to sea level and I guess that there was plenty of wind and snow beneath it. There were a few other boats about, and it was quite pleasant when the sun came out.
We were a little late returning and SWMBO had a dance troupe performing at Bedales School. I would have been seriously overdrawn in my Brownies account if I missed it so we managed to get the boat squared away on the way in and left with a laden trolley just 8 minutes after touching the dock. I made it with 5 minutes to spare and then had to sit sweltering in my thermals throughout the performance.
I don't think people realise the sacrifices we make to go sailing...
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Arrived back on board and noticed it was colder than normal. Our unit was chucking out air but precious little heat so we had a nip of malt before turning in. I woke up freezing about an hour later, and set about investigating the heating by torchlight. Being a considerate sort, I didn't want to disturb the crew.
A few minutes into my investigation I knocked the tin can the malt came in and it went flying across the saloon towards the galley, behind the cooker, emerged from underneath and hit the bulkhead opposite. It should have woken the dead, but the snoring continued without punctuation.
I traced the fault as being low voltage to the control unit so rigged a temporary wire from the switch panel bus-bar to the control, across the cabin. This did the trick and within a short time it was warm as toast. Made me realise just how essential heating is this time of year. Another little job to add to the list.
Mooring fees for W Cowes (boat up to 15m) was £6.40 overnight which isn't too bad.
On the return trip we had a beat back against a NEly wind towards Chichester and a forecast of wintry snow showers. We avoided these mostly, but there was a wicked looking cloud formation over towards the Nab which reached down to sea level and I guess that there was plenty of wind and snow beneath it. There were a few other boats about, and it was quite pleasant when the sun came out.
We were a little late returning and SWMBO had a dance troupe performing at Bedales School. I would have been seriously overdrawn in my Brownies account if I missed it so we managed to get the boat squared away on the way in and left with a laden trolley just 8 minutes after touching the dock. I made it with 5 minutes to spare and then had to sit sweltering in my thermals throughout the performance.
I don't think people realise the sacrifices we make to go sailing...
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