The importance of engine checks...
I confess, I've been less than religious about doing daily engine checks for a while. I decided at the start of this cruise to rectify that and it's a good job I did
The water was fine, the oil was OK and everything looked good until I checked the belts. And as you can see, the water pump drive belt was hanging on by the skin of its teeth
It might have lasted the day, it might not but I wasn't risking it so it was out with the spanners to replace it with the spare (good job we had a spare!)
With that sorted, we got ready and waited for enough tide to get over the cill out of the marina
There's not much to say about the run down to Harwich. It was, unavoidably, a foul tide all the way and, as forecast, F5 gusting 6 at times, bang on the nose
We cracked on under motor giving it some welly to keep the speed over the ground respectable. The Deben Bar wasn't as rough as I thought it might be and nor were the conditions particularly troublesome
We were, never the less, happy to get alongside in Suffolk Yacht Harbour.
With the conditions forecast for overnight and into yesterday, we decided to stay put for two nights and yesterday we had a lazy day on board. The decision to hole up was a good one as it rained virtually all day
The glass is falling and there's a gale forecast to arrive by tomorrow afternoon with strong winds continuing through Monday so we're heading back to the Crouch today
We're going to go hide in Burnham Yacht Harbour until Tuesday as it's unlikely we'd get on the inside of the pontoon back at Fambridge today and in any case we haven't had a night out as such this cruise so we've booked a table at our favourite eating establishment for Sunday evening
I confess, I've been less than religious about doing daily engine checks for a while. I decided at the start of this cruise to rectify that and it's a good job I did
The water was fine, the oil was OK and everything looked good until I checked the belts. And as you can see, the water pump drive belt was hanging on by the skin of its teeth
It might have lasted the day, it might not but I wasn't risking it so it was out with the spanners to replace it with the spare (good job we had a spare!)
With that sorted, we got ready and waited for enough tide to get over the cill out of the marina
There's not much to say about the run down to Harwich. It was, unavoidably, a foul tide all the way and, as forecast, F5 gusting 6 at times, bang on the nose
We cracked on under motor giving it some welly to keep the speed over the ground respectable. The Deben Bar wasn't as rough as I thought it might be and nor were the conditions particularly troublesome
We were, never the less, happy to get alongside in Suffolk Yacht Harbour.
With the conditions forecast for overnight and into yesterday, we decided to stay put for two nights and yesterday we had a lazy day on board. The decision to hole up was a good one as it rained virtually all day
The glass is falling and there's a gale forecast to arrive by tomorrow afternoon with strong winds continuing through Monday so we're heading back to the Crouch today
We're going to go hide in Burnham Yacht Harbour until Tuesday as it's unlikely we'd get on the inside of the pontoon back at Fambridge today and in any case we haven't had a night out as such this cruise so we've booked a table at our favourite eating establishment for Sunday evening
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