Mid Summer Madness

Sancerre was lifted out on the 25th July for anti-fouling and some rectification work on the transom paintwork that had been damaged by a mooring line and which had never quite matched the colour of the sides due to issues painting at the height of the 2022 heatwave.

The lift at Deacon's yard, Bursledon

With rain forecast for much of the second week she was due out I put in 3 and a half long days cleaning down and getting the hull antifoul done; 3+ coats of Seajet "Emperor", their top of the range (of 8) product that I hope will be worth the 30% premium over their PBO "Best in Test" #2 product I had been using.

The Seajet "Pellerclean" propeller anti-foul system had worked perfectly for over a year but had then suffered from encounters with rope and twice being power washed (despite me asking them not to!), after a few more years there were a few barnacles and a lot of bare spots after being power washed again, this time on my instructions, it was time to remove everything and start again.

The propeller came off to be stripped back to bare metal at home,
the abraded finish is to provide a key for the epoxy primer.

Ready to launch after being coated with SeaJet Pellerclean. The shaft
was also taken back to bare metal, epoxy primed, then anti-fouled with
Seajet 34 "Emperor". One of the shaft anodes was replaced although
 only moderately eroded - better safe than sorry.

At the time of writing (Sunday 30th) after four and a half days work since the lift she is OK to go back in the water, fully anti-fouled and with the Blakes Seacocks refitted after cleaning and greasing. Rain has intervened so the gloss paintwork repair to the transom is not finished, hopefully there will be one dry day in the next few but if there isn't I will be sailing with a very odd looking transom.

I did get a sunny day and now have a good colour match
between the transom and the sides. Pictured in St Mary's Pool
Isles of Scilly in August 2023.

Engine work

I was having starting problems during the last few weeks of my last cruise that got noticeably worse in the last couple of days, investigation showed one injector was not sounding right so I replaced both (NOT CHEAP!) I also checked out the electrical system as the engine was not turning over as fast as expected but found nothing [update: later I doubled up the cables and speed improved, it would appear that the Bosch type starter is more sensitive to voltage drop than the OEM Toshiba] and I reset the tappets which had closed up some. The engine was running really well once started but on the last couple of starts I wasn't sure it would start at all.

There was only one relatively simple thing left to check, the exhaust elbow although from the outside it looked perfect. I had trouble replacing the original 5 years ago so did not want to touch it until the boat was at the yard where professional help would be available without paying for them to come out to a boat at anchor a mile or three down river. 

This one however came off easily from the engine and from the exhaust pipe once I had applied some "Liquid Wrench" penetrating oil and there was the culprit:

The exhaust elbow looking near perfect from the outside but
the inner part almost destroyed.

For those not familiar, the piece at the top should be inside the other and welded to it at the engine end (right in the pic). Water is injected between the two through a pipe on the far side to cool the exhaust and to help silence the engine. 

When I took it off the two piece were tenuously attached but there was plenty of room for water to get through and there were also multiple pin hole blow through the inner piece allowing water to get into the engine before the engine got going [one reason] why the starter motor could not turn it over quicker. 

I already had a stainless steel replacement and it was quickly fitted and hopefully it will be all systems go when I launch on the 7th of August

My review of anchorages and marinas visited has been updated.

My directory of anchorages and marinas around UK has been updated with those visited through September 2023. The pages were getting over long so there are now eight pages:

Be sure to check out Reeds  and / or the appropriate pilots for more detailed information and alternates, this is just an overview of likely candidates, but I have been to all of them. 

Updated 2023 to include Harbours and Marinas also some info on fuel & gas availability, I would not have checked at many locations.

• Anchorages, marinas and harbours:
  • The Solent to Plymouth.
  • Fowey to Lands End.
  • Lands End north to Anglesey
  • The Isles of Scilly and Ireland from Baltimore to Red Bay
  • Mull of Galloway to Ardnamurchan Point.
  • Ardnamurchan Point to Loch Ewe.
  • The Western Isles.
  • Loch Ewe to Orkney and on to The Solent.

2023 What next?

Sancerre will be lifted out on July 25th for me to redo the anti-fouling, hopefully this time with enough of a good enough quality one to work for rather longer than last years 4 coats. 

She will be relaunched on or about August 7th and as soon as the weather permits, hopefully on the day, I will be heading west, probably to the Scillies after that I am planning to head for SW Ireland and cruise the west coast, returning via The Channel Isles if there is time, as there may well be if the weather is not looking good in Ireland during mid September, I don't want strong winds to strand me there for weeks which they could well do with a 3 day window of fair wind and sea required to get to Newlyn.

Update 4th August:

The boat is ready and will be lifted in on Monday as planned, the weather however is not fully cooperating the current forecast shows 25 - 30 knots gusts from the southwest on Monday and Tuesday so it is likely that I'll take the boat down to the mooring on Monday then head directly to Portland on Wednesday to use the inshore route around the Bill on Thursday with a near ideal tide, the gate opens at 05:34 but I'll plan to go through at 06:00 an hour after the start of civilian twilight so that I should be able to see the lobster pot floats down the side and around the Bill. The weather models differ as to the wind direction on Wednesday and Thursday but all predictions should be OK with regards to strength.

Click here for days 1 & 2.