Novice21
Well-Known Member
Hello all,
I thought I'd post a round-up of our season's activities, as you have all been so helpful!
We've had an amazing summer! It's almost 2 years since we bought Maestro, with the intention of sailing her, but I'd started to believe we had just bought an endless project on a trolley. Finally though, at the end of May this year, we decided that we'd done enough to make her float, and arranged to have her put onto her mooring.
Once she was floating, we spent a day doing a few essential jobs, then attempted to do some practice steering and picking up the mooring - only to find that we'd flattened the battery by forgetting to turn off the switch after the initial engine test! Having charged the battery, we went to try again the next weekend; this time with more success. We negotiated our way throught the moorings under power and then put up the mainsail. After 3 very short tacks down the river, the main sheet traveller broke and flew away... a rather disappointing first go!
So far, all this had been achieved with the help of my Dad (who sails Wakatere and lurks here somewhere). The first time we took Maestro out on our own, I think we were both terrified. We were also useless! We 'tacked' accross the river for an hour or so, without making so much as an inch of progress, which was very dis-heartening. I canvassed for opinion (you may remember) and we employed lots of good advice for a much more successful sail the next weekend.
We had a few more weekends of pottering on our own then went out with Moondancer who gave us lots of good tips, and took us to Burnham and back, and solved the problem of how to make hot drinks (fitting a camping cooker) which made the idea of overnight trips much more appealing!
The next trip was a bit embarrassing: overcome with confidence after our trip with Moondancer, we decided to go to Burnhm on our own, and tied up on the town pontoon. We had lunch and wandered around the town for a while, then decided it was time to head for home. This was the point at which we discovered that it matters where on the pontoon you are - the tide was going out fast, and we were on the up-river side of the pontoon: pinned very efficiently by the flow of water, we couldn't move at all! We waited a couple of hours for the tide to slow, but I was starting to panic as i watched the depth dropping below us, and we still couldn't move. We were just discussing going into a club to beg for help, when the ferry arrived, so we tried asking them. The passengers were feeling generous and pulled us off with no trouble, to my great relief. On the way home, the headsail halyard broke, prompting yet another trip to the chandlery to replace all the halyards. I later discovered that on the ferry were most of the members of the harbour authority... still, at least they now know that we don't know what we're doing...
Next was a trip to Fambridge with the RSA, which was a great sucess, and we spent a few nights aboard with the children, pottering up and down the two rivers and sleeping on our own mooring and also at Burnham. During this trip we discovered phospherence in the water, which was magical!
The August bank holiday was our last trip out (seems a long time ago already). We set out on the Saturday night with the intention of anchoring in Yolkesfleet Creek, but then discovered we don't have a working anchor light, so spent another night on our mooring. Sunday was a lovely sail (with a large slice of motoring) back to Fambridge, to prove we could do it on our own. I was terrified when it came to tying up on the pontoon and I think it must have shown, as several people came to offer help, which was gratefully accepted. Setting off for home the next day, we looked rather like we knew what we were doing (an illusion!) and headed off. It was pretty blowy, so we put in a couple of reefs (another first) and used the storm jib. Having decided we were low on fuel, the more timid members of the party had to give way to the more gung-ho, and we sailed right from the start. It was a lovely day and we had a lovely sail all the way home. There seemed to be hundreds of dinghys as we entered the Roach, which we avoided without panic - a sign of how far we've come. It was a shame that when we got back on the mooring and headed for land, I mis-judged the amount of water on the end of the pontoon and broke the outboard for the tender, but I'm not bad at rowing and it only took three trips to get all the people and stuff that we needed off!
In October I went down to Gosport and did my first bit of night sailing on Wakatere, which was fantastic, and I only ran her aground a little bit...
Now the season is over. We've had a wonderful summer. We've fixed things we didn't know were broken, and broken things which were fine before we started. We've gone from scared to come off the mooring, to sailing for days with a full crew of kids on board. We've converted both the children to sailing on a big way (phew!). It's been expensive and exhausting, and the best summer I can remember. Next year we might even get out of the Crouch!
Enormous thanks to all here who have encouraged and advised. We couldn't have done it without you!
I thought I'd post a round-up of our season's activities, as you have all been so helpful!
We've had an amazing summer! It's almost 2 years since we bought Maestro, with the intention of sailing her, but I'd started to believe we had just bought an endless project on a trolley. Finally though, at the end of May this year, we decided that we'd done enough to make her float, and arranged to have her put onto her mooring.
Once she was floating, we spent a day doing a few essential jobs, then attempted to do some practice steering and picking up the mooring - only to find that we'd flattened the battery by forgetting to turn off the switch after the initial engine test! Having charged the battery, we went to try again the next weekend; this time with more success. We negotiated our way throught the moorings under power and then put up the mainsail. After 3 very short tacks down the river, the main sheet traveller broke and flew away... a rather disappointing first go!
So far, all this had been achieved with the help of my Dad (who sails Wakatere and lurks here somewhere). The first time we took Maestro out on our own, I think we were both terrified. We were also useless! We 'tacked' accross the river for an hour or so, without making so much as an inch of progress, which was very dis-heartening. I canvassed for opinion (you may remember) and we employed lots of good advice for a much more successful sail the next weekend.
We had a few more weekends of pottering on our own then went out with Moondancer who gave us lots of good tips, and took us to Burnham and back, and solved the problem of how to make hot drinks (fitting a camping cooker) which made the idea of overnight trips much more appealing!
The next trip was a bit embarrassing: overcome with confidence after our trip with Moondancer, we decided to go to Burnhm on our own, and tied up on the town pontoon. We had lunch and wandered around the town for a while, then decided it was time to head for home. This was the point at which we discovered that it matters where on the pontoon you are - the tide was going out fast, and we were on the up-river side of the pontoon: pinned very efficiently by the flow of water, we couldn't move at all! We waited a couple of hours for the tide to slow, but I was starting to panic as i watched the depth dropping below us, and we still couldn't move. We were just discussing going into a club to beg for help, when the ferry arrived, so we tried asking them. The passengers were feeling generous and pulled us off with no trouble, to my great relief. On the way home, the headsail halyard broke, prompting yet another trip to the chandlery to replace all the halyards. I later discovered that on the ferry were most of the members of the harbour authority... still, at least they now know that we don't know what we're doing...
Next was a trip to Fambridge with the RSA, which was a great sucess, and we spent a few nights aboard with the children, pottering up and down the two rivers and sleeping on our own mooring and also at Burnham. During this trip we discovered phospherence in the water, which was magical!
The August bank holiday was our last trip out (seems a long time ago already). We set out on the Saturday night with the intention of anchoring in Yolkesfleet Creek, but then discovered we don't have a working anchor light, so spent another night on our mooring. Sunday was a lovely sail (with a large slice of motoring) back to Fambridge, to prove we could do it on our own. I was terrified when it came to tying up on the pontoon and I think it must have shown, as several people came to offer help, which was gratefully accepted. Setting off for home the next day, we looked rather like we knew what we were doing (an illusion!) and headed off. It was pretty blowy, so we put in a couple of reefs (another first) and used the storm jib. Having decided we were low on fuel, the more timid members of the party had to give way to the more gung-ho, and we sailed right from the start. It was a lovely day and we had a lovely sail all the way home. There seemed to be hundreds of dinghys as we entered the Roach, which we avoided without panic - a sign of how far we've come. It was a shame that when we got back on the mooring and headed for land, I mis-judged the amount of water on the end of the pontoon and broke the outboard for the tender, but I'm not bad at rowing and it only took three trips to get all the people and stuff that we needed off!
In October I went down to Gosport and did my first bit of night sailing on Wakatere, which was fantastic, and I only ran her aground a little bit...
Now the season is over. We've had a wonderful summer. We've fixed things we didn't know were broken, and broken things which were fine before we started. We've gone from scared to come off the mooring, to sailing for days with a full crew of kids on board. We've converted both the children to sailing on a big way (phew!). It's been expensive and exhausting, and the best summer I can remember. Next year we might even get out of the Crouch!
Enormous thanks to all here who have encouraged and advised. We couldn't have done it without you!
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