Is that spring coming ? Its time to check the lifejackets

Is that spring in the air ?

Well, the days are getting longer even if the weather isn't any warmer.

This time of year - every year - we do an inflation test on the lifejackets to make sure they're in good order.

A pile of four inflated life jackets 

So every year - about this time - we inflate the bladders, and leave them overnight, just to check no holes or weakness or leaks, and the good news is - they're all still at full pressure after 48 hours.

Wait till you see what surprise we had though ! See the next post!

What to do on long winter evenings #7

Well, the workshop could be tidied up abit!

Well, I've been quite busy.

What to do on long winter evenings #5

Part of my recent peregrinations have involved an extended walk around central London on a particularly cold and un-pleasant Sunday afternoon. So I was pleased to discover Arthur Beale's chandlery were still open.

For those who don't know, Arthur Beales operate a rather traditional chandlery from rather restricted premises on Shaftesbury Avenue. If not actually able to go sailing, a visit will lighten the soul and warm the heart.

Choose your bottle screws from this magngificent display 

It is my contention that they always have something for me, and this time it turned out to be a pair of small stand up blocks for the main sheet traveller. I do also have my eye on their lovely spirit lanterns though. Long may they continue to thrive. Just to note also, they didn't ask me to do this, but the link to their web site is https://www.arthurbeale.co.uk/ .  

What to do on long winter evenings #3

Well I'm stuck well inland and the weather is miserable.

I've been walking about town for the last few days, which is cold and hard under foot, but my mood has been lifted by listening to Carolyn Sherlock's super pod cast from her blog at https://theboatgalley.com/ .

You may remember that she had previously helped (via the medium of her blog) sort out linking the AIS output from our Standard Horizon Gx2200e to our Garmin chart plotter at the binnacle, for which I hold her in high regard, so I highly recommend it. If nothing else, a catchy theme tune and the reminder of summer days with warm zephyrs wafting us along...

What to do on long winter evenings #2.

Well you could add a new dish to your boat cook book, such as this lovely Tart Tatin.

Best done in temperate latitudes though, too far south and the butter will melt...

Out of the oven, and then















...turned out, ready to eat. Yum!

.That's what I call a Christmas stocking

Look what Santa brought!

Some books here to get into

Slipways of the world

No 3 - Porthmadog Snowden wharf

C for Charlie...

Unfortunately the bad weather had prevented us from visiting Annabella for a few weeks, but it had given us chance to get hold of code flag Charlie. The first workable weekend of the year has give us chance to fly it from the messenger pennant, in solidarity with the action of members of the French sailing community - see the previous post below.
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Unfortunately it became sadly appropriate as events unfolded and the lunacy continued...

First the sad post Signal pennant C

Following the recent sad events in France, Herve Hillard  suggests sailors everywhere hoist signal pennant C

for Charlie, in solidarity. Link to his facebook post.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153493891143912&set=a.170375603911.120677.533238911&type=1&theater

Sadly I am rather far away from Annabella at the moment to accomplish this, so this is the first substitute.

Sea Survival - A Manual

The first mate also read 'Adrift' (see previous post) with an interest which I find slightly uncomfortable, as there is an unhealthy interest in disaster and deprivation at sea. Steve Callahan refers a number of times to Dougal Robertson's
book 'Sea Survival'. This was unavailable for many years, and certainly out of print, but was a welcome Christmas present from the first mate.
Robertson - now dead - had been the skipper of the sailing boat 'Lucette' with whcih he was attempting a circumnavigation with his familly, when it was lost in the western part of the pacific in 1972. They spent 38 days in primative survival craft and much of the manual is informed by this gri first hand experience. 
Although some (much) of the content has now been superseded by more modern information, taken overall it's themes are still very valid  and would be valuable addition to the grab bag.
Regrettably the two 'survival charts' have become disconnected, but the hunt goes on!

Adrift !

About a year ago, when I was planning a longer trip which we have not yet made, I started to research parachute sea-anchors, as the route I had in mind would take us quite far off shore into some potentially stormy waters. Having established a preference I asked the manufacturer for a reference, which I thought was quite reasonable as I could be staking my life - and those of the crew - on the damn thing. They sent me a short paragraph about the device written Steve Callahan.  For those of you who don't know, Steve Callahan has a distinguished sailing CV which encompassed sailing a boat he designed and built himself across the Atlantic, and then making an epic 76 day trip back in the life raft following the loss of the yacht. I am by nature a bit sceptical, and was eager to make sure that the review wasn't just the edited highlights.  So I emailed him on the basis of cat look at king. He sent a very gracious and a very helpful reply, which gave me confidence to go ahead an buy the sea anchor - which is a whole other forth coming attraction.... 

So when I came across his book 'Adrift' I snapped it up.

As far as I  know this is no longer in print, but is to my mind one of the keystones of the modern sailing canon; it combines a gripping tale with a wealth of detail which long distance sailors would be wise to commit to memory. Refreshingly for a sailing book, the style it both literate and flowing, and it is clear that his most important asset was fortitude. 

Talking about squalking !

The publisher of the web site Sailingonline, Dawn Smith, is both an accomplished sailor and raconteur, with whom it's always a pleasure to spend time, especially at sea.
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Over the last few months she has been building content for the website and kindly asked me if there was anything I would like to contribute. It so happened I had recently upgraded my VHF radio installation, so the outcome was my article on modern VHF radio.
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Go on, follow the link !
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Dawn has now schooled me more fully on the meaning of 'max 1500 words', so future contributions will come in a single installment. I hope it's of use ot you, or a least food for thought.

Comments please !

Wow we're getting more and more hits and their coming from all around the world. 
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 We'd love to hear from you - so from today any one with a Google account can post a comment - and we promise to moderate it within the day (unless we're at sea...)

Drying out against a wall:

There's an art to drying out a fin keel yacht against a wall.
The wall just by the old harbour masters office is quite a popular location, and you often see it used for this purpose. 
This chap was trying his hand at it over the weekend.

Although the ground is quite solid, it is more level a bit further along...
However a timely reminder before we get too full of ourselves: check out the ground before trying drying!

Lunar Perigee

This was low water springs on Sunday 13 July in the outer harbour:

I think that this was just about as low as I can remember it being. High pressure coinciding with the lunar perigee - or so called 'super moon' - when the moon is closest to the earth.

How to run a chandlery #101

Isn't it interesting how different people take to working in a chandlery ? Even when I'm not sailing, given the opportunity I'll have a good nose around whenever I see a chandlery that's new to me. Mostly people are friendly and helfpul. It woudl be nice to think that this is because they're just super cool, but I expect that they have already worked out that anybody who owns a boat will need to buy expensive boat stuff at fairly regular intervals.

Not so everywhere though. Yesterday, I was passing through one of those small towns on the south coast which likes to think of itself as the 'home of sailing', and called in to one of those chandleries that makes a big thing of advertising on the internet. After a while, no-one helped me.

Some time passed, and then they didn't help me again

At last I was appraached by a chinless wonder who I can only assume was head of public relations:

CW  "Can I help you ?"
Me "Yes, I need three things"
CW "Okay"
Me - working from the cheapest up - "Firstly, I need a pair of stainless hasp and staples"
CW - pulls a face and makes a sort of grunt, so I expect that means they don't have any.
Me "Okay 2nd, I need a rigging gauge"
CW "Do you know what kind of rigging gauge you need - they're all different ..."
This is partially true - 2 different size upto 4mm or 5mm and up 
CW "What kind of boat is it?"
Not - what type of lovely craft are you accustomed to waft around on, Sir ?
Me " a Renown"  
CW "Never heard of it"
Maybe because they stopped making them literally before you were born, sonny.
Me -  now feeling picked upon - "Okay, maybe I won't  bother then"

Pity - item 3 would have been five hundred quid's worth of refrigeration kit, but I guess he'll never know that now...

Windlass on the bench

Getting the windlass (a Simpson Lawrence Hyspeed) off looked like being the easy part. My problem was that the gypsy wheel had become ceased against the clutch cone and wouldn't slack off - hence not possible to surge chain through the windlass, only hand over hand which looked dodgy to say the least. (Those of you with electric windlass stop reading now - you will need all your resources to save up for an extra battery...) 
On the bench, the big problem was how to brake the shaft in order to get enought purchase on the clutch nut to unscrew. Fortunately my new best friend at SLSpares (http://www.slspares.co.uk/)  was not phased by this. On his suggestion I led a short length of chain over the gypsy wheel and secured between / under the platforms of a workmate style bench to which I had clamped the body of the windlass. Using my improvised handle and a bit of BFandI, a few moments later the gypsy was free and I had a fully functioning windlass again !
It seemed a shame to stop there, so a bit more maintenace will be undertaken, but it does seem that one of the big culprits was the lack of an O ring seal on the shaft under the gyspsy wheel. It was also quite gratifying to find that the grease nipple, although quite badly corroded, was quite easy to remove - up for replacement though in any case.

Heavy weight maintenance..

There are two items of heavy weight maintenance which I needed to do before the end of October.
The first was to remove the opening portlights, which were starting to corode, and to carry out some preventative maintenance to stop that. I had expected that getting them out would be quite difficult - but was pleasantly suprised So far the score's one - nil then.
This weekend's task - part two - was to lift the windlass for some on bench style in depth maintenance.

Success ! the windlass came free suprisingly easily

I'm not saying that this was an easy thing to do - but was just a bit awkward and required a bit of heave ho to lift it clear. Most importantly - no damage to boat or boater - other than a grazed knuckle.
Still, that's a Westerly for you, you know!

Grizzly day in Pw

By contrast north of caernarfon it's a lovely sunny day, but here...

...which reminds me of a scoobydoo seaside episode! No sailing due to restricted visibility, but some useful work carried out on the boat.

Low water springs in Porthmadog harbour

The view from the trots moorings at low water springs.