Suffolk Yacht Harbour and a 150nm test sail

We met up with Stephen and had a great time finding out about Marelle's history, including that she used to be kept at Suffolk Yacht Harbour when Stephen's family owned her.  Jonathan Dyke also said he remembered when Marelle was moored here before.

We stocked up on food, beer and diesel at the supermarket in Ipswich, and then prepared for the next leg of the trip - Den Helder, 140 nm away.  As it would take around 30 hours and we wanted to arrive in the daylight, we left SYH at 10:15 on Thursday 19th May.  The first part of the trip was lovely sailing - Force 3-4 and sunny.

All went really well for the first part of the trip - we finally got the sails up and switched off the engine.  Marelle was sailing really well, even with two reefs in, but after a while the wind dropped a few knots and Martin took out the reefs.  As the wind strengthened towards the evening, Martin put the reefs back in the main and we put on oilies ready for the night.  The autopilot started struggling, making a loud clonking noise and having difficulty holding the course, so Martin took the main down and we carried on under just the jib, with a Force 5 SW wind.  

At about 2 a.m. we crossed the first part of the Deep Water Route, used by big ships, although we didn't see any traffic nearby, and were nearly at the halfway point when the autopilot reported "Compass deviation too massive" and the boat started wandering around all over the place.  Martin put the autopilot into standby, and we switched on the engine in case it was down to some electrical issue, tried restarting the autopilot, and checked for anything magnetic near the EV1 sensor, but nothing helped.  Martin decided it would be better to head back to SYH rather than continue on to a strange port, so we headed back across the shipping lane, which had now filled up with ships going both north and south.  

One ship was gigantic and had an unusual light spacing.  We tacked back out of her path and then started across the shipping channel for the third time, this time fortunately made it across.  It does seem rather like crossing a motorway very slowly, a scary experience especially once we had already had an unexplained equipment failure.  

Martin thought he would have to hand steer all the way back, and it was now quite choppy and we were heading into a Force 6 wind, but after a couple of hours the autopilot compass decided to start working again spontaneously.  It was a long slog to get back to SYH, and as we approached Ipswich and I got phone signal I started getting lots of texts from people who had seen we were heading back, and asking if we were ok - this was so nice to know people care enough to keep an eye on us!

Stephen was one of the people who had texted me, and luckily for us he was in SYH harbour office when we called to ask for our berth, so came and helped us moor up - much appreciated especially as we were both very tired.

We called Greenham Regis and Foxs Marina (local Raymarine agents) to report the autopilot problem, but there was nothing they could do until Monday so we had a restful weekend getting jobs done on the boat.  I made another foredeck hatch cover as I had left the previous one at home, and Martin made some mounts for the TackTick instruments.

On Monday, Foxs called and said they had a replacement EV1 they could fit, and their engineer James came over to install it.  He did a superb job, upgrading the software for the ACU200 also, and made sure the data sources on the chartplotter were set right, as well as tightening up the nut for the autopilot drive unit for us.  Hopefully that should resolve the clonking noise, as it seems to have removed a lot of play from the system.  We went out for a brief sea trial this time, and the compass deviation is now reading 3% instead of the 15% it had before, so is much better.

Cowes, castles and calm

We finally left Shamrock Quay almost a week 'late' after lots of driving backwards and forwards between the house and the boat.  We were supposed to be transferring boat stuff onboard from the house but at times it felt like we were managing to fill up the boat and the house with things we decided we didn't need after all and brought back.

Our neighbour, who regularly sails a few months each year, suggested the best way to start is to just go somewhere local even if it is only a few miles away to begin with, so we took his advice and chose Cowes as we know it really well and there are lots of chandlers.  It also feels like being on holiday,  as we go to the regatta there each year.

We sailed part of the way to Cowes, down the Itchen river, but the new jib was really stiff on the furler and got stuck part way out, so it was quite a gentle sail with that halfway out and two reefs in the main.  We were still going nicely though.  Martin took a good look at the roller reefing gear and realised the problem was that we had used the wrong halyard for the sail, so that is straightforward to sort out at least.

Arriving in Cowes would have been uneventful, except that I was quite worn out from quickly getting all the lines and fenders done, and instead of letting me have a five minute rest, Martin decided to turn the boat round using ropes straight away.  Then one of the ropes he was using came off, leaving me on the boat, and Martin shouting at me from the pontoon.  

We got lots of stuff done in Cowes, mostly because we were stuck there waiting for easterly winds and fog to clear.  We now have working interior lights!  (It's only been 3 years since I originally bought them!!). We also had a visitor who had sailed a lot with Ben Pester on Marelle - he mentioned how well she sails even with reefs in.

After almost a week, we left Cowes on Thursday 12/5 for Dover.  There was still a lot of mist, and calm seas with no wind on Thursday, so we motored all the way, only putting the jib up once for a couple of hours.  Martin had to go forward on deck to tighten up the aft lower rigging, so I was pleased we had finished off the jack stays in Cowes.

Friday morning (13th - appropriate) we were off Dungeness and Martin saw some really bright lights flashing blue white red, they turned out to be fishing buoys we think but it was quite terrifying trying to figure out what was going on in the middle of the night and quite choppy seas.  The wind carried on strengthening all through Friday morning, and by the time we were approaching Dover it was a force 7 - on the nose of course - with really choppy waves coming over the foredeck and spray flying off the tops of waves.  The autopilot couldn't really cope with it, and when I went below to use the toilet I saw there was a big leak in the foredeck hatch as well.  The glue around the edges of the Perspex and wood had stopped sealing the water out, and every wave was causing seawater to rain down on the duvet and cushions in the cabin.  We were also not sure how much diesel we would have used, and were both quite worried about the engine failing.

Martin took over the steering, and headed for shallower water to try to get out of the bigger waves.  This meant heading in towards the huge cliffs around Dover, which felt very unnatural.  It seemed to take forever to get anywhere closer to Dover, but was probably only a few hours.  The entrance to Dover harbour looked tiny and there was a huge cross tide (at least 2 knots anyway), and then even inside the harbour it was rough water.  Somehow I managed to rig a few fenders and some lines, and we moored up at the second attempt, having bumped the side of the bow on the pontoon but only very gently and not even enough to leave a mark.  We arrived at 6 a.m. after 22 hours at sea.

We stayed in Dover for a few days to rest, and to see the castle.  Dover marina is quite basic but has good toilets and showers and laundry, and lovely marina staff.  The whole marina is planned to be redeveloped with a European grant in the next 5 years, it will be interesting to see if that still happens if we leave the EU.  We went round the castle on Sunday, lots of walking and steps but fabulous views and interesting history of course.

Monday at 4 a.m. we got up to leave Dover at 5 to catch a good tide up to Suffolk Yacht Harbour on the river Orwell, north of the Thames.  At 6 we actually left(!) - having underestimated how much we had to do to get ready, including putting duct tape on the leaky fore hatch.  Fortunately for this trip it was much calmer seas, and although there again wasn't enough wind to sail, the trip was uneventful despite all the dire warnings from the pilot books and almanacs of the traffic in the Thames estuary.  When we were a few miles out from Dover, the coastguard radioed us to ask us to check out a report of pollution in the water, which we did but found nothing.

Arriving at Suffolk Yacht Harbour around 6pm was fine thanks to a helpful chap catching the second mooring line I threw at him (I threw the first one in the water, not his fault!).  We had a lovely meal and beer at the Haven Yacht club and an early night.  We are staying in SYH for a few days to rest and plan the next leg.  Maybe we will also be able to catch up with Stephen Weldon and Jonathan Dyke while we are here.

Ballast, bilges and bugs

So the original plan was to set sail on Saturday (two days ago) at 10 a.m.  This would have been quite a challenge as we had people working on Marelle up to Friday afternoon, and no time to put any food or clothes on board, let alone finish any of the wiring jobs left to do, or try out the new jib etc.

Last week our crew unfortunately fell ill, so as it is now just our own schedule to worry about we decided to stay a few days and get some jobs done.

I cleaned the bilges of lots of smelly stuff and old paint, bits of wood, screws, bolts, sawdust, and pencils.  With some persuasion from hand pumping to prime it, the automatic bilge pump is now working again.

We connected up the new windlass on Saturday and tested it, and finally moved all the anchor chain into the new chain locker next to the mast step.  This is where Marelle was designed to have her anchor chain originally, but what with this and converting the bow from a sail and rope store into a lovely bow cabin, we have taken so much weight out of the bow that she was not floating right, on her waterline.  Martin decided we should use the bottles of Bollinger I stocked up with as ballast, so we now have 15 bottles stowed in the fore peak locker.  Sorted!

Yesterday Martin drew off some fuel from the diesel tank, and it came out with a lot of sludgy muck. We decided this was probably diesel bug, which is worrying as it can block fuel filters and stop the engine.  We haven't had any symptoms from the engine, but as we are about to go on a long trip (if we ever finish all these jobs!) all the diesel would get stirred up in the tank and it could dislodge the slime from the bug and block up the filter.  Today Martin drained the diesel tank, and I spent a few hours cleaning the tank out of black gloopy slime.  We have now refilled the tank with new diesel and treated it with Marine 16, a biocide that should kill off any remaining bug.

Tomorrow we are going to get a few spare fuel filters and then hopefully start on some of the wiring jobs - cabin lights and the new galley sink pump.

Exciting times

Life is short, and the past couple of years have really brought that home to us.  We have decided to take a sabbatical from work, and plan to sail around the western end of the Baltic for a couple of months from the end of April, then come back to the Solent for the BCYC regatta in July.

It's also a great excuse to finish off lots of jobs and fit some cool new gear - including a Digital Yachts AIT3000 AIS transponder, fitted by Greenham Regis.  See where we are in the map below!