Holyhead Marina, and all the boats in it, are lost !

For the last week or so it's been unseasonably cold in the UK, as a large and slow moving area high pressure  has lingered over Europe, combining very cold arctic air in north easterly winds with clear - and freezing - nights. For that reason I have been locked east of Pennines and not able to get to North Wales or Anglesey.

May be a good thing. During Thursday, named storm "Emma" rolled up the western half of the UK with exceptionally low pressure. All the meteorology came together at Holyhead, where the circulation of the two weather systems joined, augmenting the wind speed and blowing directly down the harbour in to the marina. Very low pressure combined with spring tides added to a tumultuous sea state.

Exactly what happened next isn't clear from this distance. The lifeboat crew very wisely moved their boat in to the safety of the inner harbour. A number of boats on swinging mooring broke free as the waves height and steepness increased. Many of the marina pontoons appear to have broken loose and most of them, together with all the boats, are now either well up the lee shore or on the bottom.

The aftermath of Storm Emma in Holyhead Harbour
(Pictures from the North Wales Chronicle)

Mercifully there no injuries or loss of life, but it  is a heartbreaking loss for the marina operators and for those on liveaboards.

The marina advised that boats in the yard - such as Annabella - were undamaged, but with winds which were literally hurricane force, this remains to be seen.

There a lot of clearing up to do, and our good wishes to everyone effected, who has lost a boat or indeed a business. We will be doing anything we can  to assist.

Help - someone has sabotaged a lifejacket !

If you were paying attention to our last post you may have noticed an interesting stylistic device when it repeated that every year  we tested the life jackets by inflating them and leaving at least overnight before re-checking.

Hence we  can say with certainty that all the lifejackets were fit for use and in good order at the start of last season.

Well imagine the astonishment when we found that number 3 jacket was like this:

The arming head had been fired and, as you can see, the cylinder had been un-screwed and removed, making it useless. But the jacket has been perfectly re-packed and there was no sign that it would have been useless in the water.

So we don't know exactly what happened, but we do know it was during last season, as they all checked out okay at the start of 2017. My guess is that it accidently fired overnight, when the toggle snagged on something  or water dripped on to the firing head. Maybe whoever was responsible was too embarrassed to own up, so carefully re-packed it, leaving a nasty little trap for someone else to fall into.

I'm fairly clear about this - they've abused our hospitality and broken the most basic and obvious rule of seamanship - they're so banned from the boat full time.

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 evening #6

Well, whilst the snow came down outdoors, snug in the workshop, you could polish your dividers.
 (not a metaphor, by the way)

This pair have come up lovely!
And for fans of Derek and Clive, I got Brasso all over my hands.

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!

De-gloving Incident !

I heard alarming news when I ran into one of my sailing buddies the other day!

Their partner had had a nasty de-gloving accident on their boat at the end of last season, when load suddenly came onto a rope wound around their hand. A painful accident that resulted in a lot of subsequent medical treatment, not a small amount of which was surgical.

Unfortunate and distressing - I don't know the details, but in any case would be hard to be judgemental, but two things jump out :

Firstly - wear gloves at any opportunity, but absolutely always when dealing with mooring or anchoring. We try to do this on Annabella, but  it's always when the action starts to hot up that one is tempted to take short cut and give the gloves a miss. We have tried to overcome this by having a lot of rigger style work gloves in the cockpit pockets and lockers. At less than £2 each its not expensive. So far so good.

What if we had that accident at sea ? If there was any luck in the original incident it was that it happened on the pontoon, so medical attention was very prompt.However, you wouldn't have to be very far out to sea for attention to be two, three or four hours away. And off shore !

We will find out what the first aid would be + update the post as soon as we can !

What to do on those long winter evenings...

Can't seem to stop doing boat stuff...

New canvas cover for the wheel

...that should keep the birds off !