In, out, shake it all about!

 You will recall, dear reader, that when I last posted we were due to lift out the next day

Pagan waits patiently for her lift out ...

And lift out we duly did.

The couple of days on board swinging about mid-river had their moments. That's where the shake it all about comes in as it got a bit bouncy for a few hours! 

Battery capacity was heading towards being an issue by the morning of our lift out and had we not lifted I would have had to either move onto the river pontoon to plug in or run the engine for a couple of hours before the end of the day but other than that everything was satisfactory.

So now we're back in our accustomed spot in the boatyard with a winter of jobs planned.

Top of the list is further investigation into the faulty depth sounder. It remains to be seen whether it's an easy fix or whether we're going to have to throw money at it.

Then there's a whole raft of stuff to do ...

All of the deck wiring needs remaking (radar, VHF antennas, masthead lighting feeds etc).

We're also going to have to knuckle down and remove and re-bed every single deck fitting (stanchion bases, rail fittings, deck eyes etc.) that hasn't already been done as we've got two that have now developed leaks and the rest are sure to follow

On a similar vein, I'm going to have to clean out and reseal the keel to keel foot joint (which I last did seven years ago) as four years ashore has caused the sealant to dry out and likely as not some movement of the keel with carrying the weight of the boat for so long.

And then there's the question of running rigging, sails, solar panels, batteries etc. as already discussed.

I'm leaning towards making the rigging and sails the next priority as we currently have a motor boat and not a sailing yacht. That might be slightly contentious though as replacing the anchoring gear had been considered a higher priority. I'm also considering getting quotes from local sailmakers for the new suite of sails althogh they'll have to be competitive with Crusader (on the South coast) who we've previously bought sails from and been very happy with the quality and the price. Either way, if we're going to have new sails for next season, we're going to have to get moving on ordering them soon and that means having the rig set back up in order to measure up for the new sails.

Anyway, I've got two one week working trips coming up this autumn before we put the boat to bed for the winter. And then come the spring I've got another two one week or so trips so in total I've got about four weeks to get everything done before we, hopefully, get to go sailing again properly!

Oh and I realise I forgot to mention that we were able to sort out the insurance, once the standing rigging was replaced, with our former insurer GJW on the basis of the pre-purchase survey we had done in 2016. We will need a full survey by 2026 but that shouldn't be a problem. And the insurance came in substantially cheaper than before too! (Albeit we have cut back our cruising grounds to UK and Ireland Coastal dropping the Northern Europe Coastal and Inland waters cover as we have no need of it for the next year or two at least).

And finally, I am going to make a real effort to keep the blog up to date on a more regular basis! 

That's all for now ...

We went, we saw, we came back again!

 So the day finally arrvied after so long and Pagan went back in the water after four long years ashore on the 12th of this month.

Relaunching is always a bit nerve wracking and after so long ashore it was doubly so.

The biggest worry, of course, is that something will leak and as is the usual practice as soon as she was in the water, whilst still in the slings, I went through the boat from stem to stern checking everywhere a leak could occur. Happily, she was watertight so we were towed round to the river pontoon to crack on with recommissioning all the systems etc.

My biggest worry was that we'd have a serious engine problem. To my delight, the engine started quite happily albeit after a lengthy pre-heat (not particularly unusual with Mercedes OM636 engines with the original series glowplugs) and ran very happily

For all of about fifteen minutes then it died ...

There followed a very frustrating couple of days trying to find the problem. It was immediately obvious that we had a fuel starvation problem and it didn't take long to ascertain that we weren't pumping fuel from the tank to the engine via the fuel filters. But the why was a mystery.

Being an old but for it's day quite sophisticated design of engine, the OM636 has quite a powerful engine driven fuel lift pump which not only pumps fuel from the fuel tank to the engine fuel filter (via, in our case, an additional CAV filter and water trap) but also pre-pressurises the fuel feed into the injector manifold. It's not a complex design of pump and it uses plungers rather than a diaphragm so for it to completely fail to pump fuel at all is unusual to say the least.

Furthermore, mounted on top of the fuel pump body is an additional manual priming pump which has a completely independent action. It too is remarkably effective at pumping fuel and for both pumps to completely fail would be exceptionally unlikely. So from pretty much the start I was looking for another possible common cause of the problem.

And I was pretty sure the problem was likely to be an air leak rather than a blockage as a blockage would have led to a vacuum between it and the manual priming pump and that I wasn't getting.

The problem was I couldn't for the life of me find an air leak anywhere! Getting desperate, I decided to rig up the hand pump we use for syphoning fuel from cans to the fuel tanks with a temporary pickup fron a 10l jerry can and attach it to the fuel line at the tank outlet.

That enabled me to pump fuel through the entire system, or not as the case may be. And pump fuel it happily did most efficiently and as the glass on the CAV filter bowl filled up the source of our woes became patently obvious as diesel squirted merrily out past the O seal between the bowl and the filter body around the back of the filter up against the bulkhead it's mounted on.

Totally hidden by the filter body, the O seal had not quite been in its groove when I refitted the bowl after changing the filter element. It did the same thing on two further attempts until at last I persuaded the bloody thing to stay where it was put and got a seal.

That solved the problem entirely. Now the engine ran happily and fuel was being pumped as it should be. 

We grabbed the chance to attach ourselves to an ad-hoc club outing to Burnham Yacht Harbour so there ensued a frantic rush to get everything else ready to go. And almost everything worked as it should with one vital exception ... the depth sounder hull unit isn't sending any data to the instruments. 

Around the shifting shallow waters of the Thames Esturary, that's usually a bit of a show stopper but I know the river well and as long as we didn't do anything daft we could safely potter down to Burnham and back without the depth sounder.

So down to Burham we duly pottered without incident. It was great to be out and about again, however briefly, even if it was under motor (we're nowhere near ready to set sail again!).

Unfortunately, just as the party was about to get started we received word of a family crisis and we had to promptly head back upriver, abandon the boat on the river pontoon and dash home which cut our "holiday" short by several days.

In our mad dash to get away several things either had to be left as they were or were forgotten about. One that had me worried before we were half way home was that I realised we'd left our recently rejuventated outboard unsecured on the back of the boat. My old mate Tony sorted that for us, retrieving it and putting it under lock and key in the container.

The yard very kindly moved Pagan onto her swinging mooring a couple of days later and with the crisis dealt with (it turned out to be nothing serious, happily) I returned on board yesterday pending a lift out today or tomorrow (it's going to be tomorrow now as timings didn't work out today). I had to be down early enough to hitch a lift out to the boat on the trot boat because the dinghy was quickly rolled up and stuffed in one of the cockpit lockers! And I forgot to retrieve a lifejacket too!!

Oh well, never mind. 

I was now faced with a crucial decision.

Since we bought the first yacht and moved her to Fambridge in 2011, the first thing we've done when arriving on board (except during the time we were in a mud berth) has been to move the boat over onto the river pontoon (top middle in the above pic). However, we do have to pay to spend the night on there (albeit at a discounted rate as moorers). And a key discussion we've been having is the growing need to reduce the time we spend alongside in marinas and harbours as berthing fees just keep going up and up.

So I thought ... I've got water, I've got reasonably well charged batteries, I've got gas and diesel ... I actually don't need to go alongside at all. So I haven't! As I haven't any pressing need to go ashore either, the dinghy is still in the locker too.

We're expecting to lift out tomorrow afternoon around two-ish and then we'll be back in our yard cradle for the winter. There's much still to do!

The v-berth refit is still some way from being finished. I need to deal with the leak that has developed around one of the stanchion bases before I can continue with that job (sigh) and then I've got all the trim to make and fit, the new lockers and shelves to construct and finally the deadlights (covers that hinge over the portholes to block the light and improve the insulation) and deck hatch insert (which will do the same thing) to make. And there's a fair bit of finishing, painting and varnishing to do.

Then I've got to get to the bottom of that dead depth sounder. Not sure what the answer to that is going to be yet.

And we need to sort through the running rigging and decide what can still be used and what needs replacing before the spring. I suspect the bulk of it is past it's useful life. Hopefully too we'll be in a position to order new sails in time for next season as the current set are now pretty much done for.

There's a whole long list of things I could bore you with but apart from the above they won't stop us getting out and about on the water next year so how far down that list we get this winter matters little.

Once Pagan is ashore and sorted ready for the winter I'll be away home again pronto but we've got two week-ish long maintenance trips before the winter really sets in planned and the same again in March / April so as long as the piggy bank recovers from being hammered recently we'll hopefully be a lot further down the to-do list when we go back in next year

(I'll post soon-ish about forthcoming plans when we've made some!)

More boat bashing ...

They say that the liveaboard cruising life, to which we aspire, is in reality fixing yachts in exotic places. Well at the moment we're doing an awful lot of yacht fixing in rather less than exotic Essex!

The big job during this trip has been to get everything ready for the masts to be refitted. A key part of that job was to make up new backing plates for the mizzen mast forward shroud chain plates. To that end, I'd ordered up some A4 (marine grade) stainless steel plate of the right width and thickness and twice as long as each plate needed to be and cut it in half at home.

To my utter annoyance, I forgot to put the chain plate I'd taken home back in the van but that's not the disaster I thought it might be for reasons I'll come to below.

Usefully, I have a small pillar drill (thanks Laurins!) on the workbench in my container which, with suitable (and suitably expensive) drill bits made light work of drilling the holes in the plate.

You can see the difference in size between the new plates and the original! This should be more than sufficient to stiffen up the area of deck that is causing concern.

The starboard side plate I waa able to refit as can be seen.

I'm not showing you my efforts at glassing it in though! That was a bit of a disaster which I'll need to do some tidying up on.

On the port side, I've done all the preparation ready to fit the plate which I'll do next week.

With the masts down, it would have been crazy not to sort out the rest of the through deck fittings associated with the rig. So I'd already re-bedded the starboard side main mast chain plates, now it was the turn of those on the port side.

That meant dismantling the locker above the port saloon berth and taking the front of the cupbooard in the heads. 

Fortunately, on this side of the boat there was no need to remove the below deck element of the chain plates as we haven't had the same water ingress as you'll recal was evident on the starboard side.

So I didn't have to resort to wood butchery of the locker structure again, just get the nuts off and remove the deck fittings.

Once they were off, the wisdom of doing the job was very evident. What sealant had orginally been used 44 years ago (not a lot by the look of it!) was dried out and perished. You really don't want water getting into the deck around these fittings as the deck in this area is two layers of GRP with a balsa wood core. If water gets into that core, it rots out and you get spongey decks and a big repair problem. We haven't got that far yet and now we won't!

The sander came out for a play to sand down the deck paint and old sealant to give a clean flat surface. Then a good dollop of marine grade sealant (but not Sikaflex for those in the know, Sika 295 is actually an adhesive and not what you want to use here 'cos you might need to remove the fittings again some time) and everything could be reinstalled and bolted up good and tight. 

With that done, bar the one chain plate to be fitted next week, we were ready to have the masts refitted and it just so happend that I got a message from Dave the Rigger to say he could install the new rigging on Monday and be around if I could get the crane booked next week. The crane was duly booked for Wednesday so that's hopefully all happening next week (the one wrinkle is that as of today there is a thunderstorm alert for Wednesday so we'll see what happens)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, there was a whole lot of other jobs to be tackled. 

With help from my mate Tony, we'd run a new cable the length of the main mast for the VHF antenna.

 I'd installed the Rolls Royce of marine VHF antennas, the superb Metz Manta, but the VSWR (the main measure of the effectiveness of an antenna installation, I won't bore you with the technicalities) was rather poor.

The standard cable universally used for the job is called RG58 and it's rather thin stuff and really not suitable for cable runs over 10m at the most. As our mast is over 11m high and then there's the cable from the mast foot to the navigation table where the radio is installed, that's getting on for 15m!

The ideal cable to use would be stuff called RG213 which is very low loss but it's pretty thick and inflexible stuff. Given that the cable needs to exit the mast through the side, trying to get RG213 around that bend would be a right faff and potentially even impossible. The next best choice would be RG8 but that's nearly as thick and only slightly more flexible. Salvation is at hand though in the form of RG8X cable which is only a little thicker than RG58, nearly as flexible but has about half the loss per metre.

So that's what we've used! And boy did it need doing! The existing cable was badly corroded internally and the outer sheath was falling apart. With a new cable run below decks (when I get a round tuit) we should have significantly better transmission and reception on the VHF set which is, of course, a vital safety item.

With all the things that HAD to be done, done, I've been pottering around, when the heat permitted, on whatever job from the lengthy to do list took my fancy. I shan't bore you with all the details, it's all been odd jobs that could be done in an hour or two rather than anything epic.

So tomorrow I shall be running Jane home as she has to be back at work on Monday and then I'll be back down for a few more days by the end of which we'll hopefully have a fully rigged sailing yacht again. We should now be able to sort out insurance and in the hope and expectation that this will be the case, we've booked for Pagan to be launched on the 9th of September when we're back down for our final fortnight of the "season".

She'll only be in the water for a few weeks which may seem a bit pointless but there's method in our madness. Apart from the contractual issues (we've been ashore for nigh on four years on a berthing contract that only permits six months ashore per annum!) which to be absolutely fair and clear the marina have been very good about, the last thing we want to do is launch next spring and find we've got a show stopping problem that means we've got to immediately haul back out again.

With Pagan having now sat ashore for so long, we simply don't know whether the engine will even start and if it does start will it run OK? Are all the systems working? Is everything water tight? And so on.

Splashing her for a couple or three weeks gives us the opportunity to test everything and find out what still works and what doesn't. Hopefully then come the spring we'll actually be able to get some sailing in!

Keep bashing ...

 So following on from the first post about our fortnight of unplanned boat refitting ...

The starboard chain plates cleaned up nicely with no signs of any worrying corrosion etc. So they were refitted with nice new sealant to keep the water on the outside where it belongs ...

We're one lock nut short as I rejected one of the existing nuts as it had a crack in it. So as the chain plate pictured is the easy one to get at, if you look closely you'll see there's only one nut. An A4 stainless 10mm nut (they don't come cheap!) has been added to the shopping list.

We then ran into a fairly major problem around the mast step which took several days to engineer our way out of.

Let's just say that when the boat was built, they didn't take into account a need, forty odd years later, to access the nuts on the back of the bolts that secure the mast foot to the deck! We were able, with care, to cut access holes sufficient to get at the nuts from below although now that has to be made good again before the rig goes back on

The hot weather was really not helping progress by this stage. I'm not by nature or inclination a morning person but by lunchtime the temperature was reaching levels I find difficult to tolerate. So we'd get two or three hours work in before it got too hot to carry on and then hopefully another hour or two when it cooled down later.

One job that definitely needed doing before we abandoned ship ahead of the predicted really hot weather today and tomorrow (and we had to be home by tomorrow lunchtime anyway) was to remove one or both of the mizzen mast forward lower chainplates.

These chainplates are mounted half way along the extensive winch shelf either side of the cockpit and they have a small stainless steel backing plate to spread the load. That plate is obviously nowhere near big enough as the winch shelves are getting distorted upwards causing cracking in the gelcoat.

And as can be seen from the photo of the underside, in the cockpit locker, there's obviously been some water getting through as there's signs of rust around one of the nuts.

Grinding off the resin that had been slapped over the nuts and backing plate in hot weather was a lovely job but it had to be done so that we could decide what needs to be bought to sort this problem out.

With the fitting and plate removed, the holes in the deck were temporarily taped over to keep any rain out and we set about packing up and heading for home.

I've located a source of suitable A4 stainless plates of the right size and thickness at a reasonable price so they need to be ordered ahead of the next trip down in a couple of weeks or so. We also need to remove and re-bed the port side main chain plates - it's very obvious that the sealant under all the deck fittings has long since past it's use by date and everything needs re-bedding. We'll do what must be done now, now e.g. anything to do with the rig, everything else will have to wait a while but not too long!

We also need to sort out the mast electrics whilst the rig is down. I've ordered new low loss RG8X coaxial cable to replace the old thing RG58 that's currently on the main VHF antenna. On a run of 15m plus, RG58 just isn't good enough. There's also the dodgy steaming and deck light to sort out, it works when it feels like it and usually doesn't work when you need it! I think we'll just replace the damn thing and have done with it.

There's a realistic prospect, weather permitting, of being ready to have the rig put back on the boat by mid-August and that will beg the question of whether or not to launch for a few weeks.

We have a fortnight on board in September and I would rather like to spend it on the water rather than working on the boat. Apart from anything else, after four years ashore I would like to find out what works and what doesn't any more sooner rather than later. It would be a real PITA to launch next spring and then have to be hauled out again because of some unforseen problem.

Container Bashing and other things ...

 So here we are back on board for a solid fortnight with a lot to do ... and it has to be admitted that progress has been slow so far.

The priority is to tackle all the jobs that need or ought to be done whilst the rig is off the boat 'cos we really don't want to have to remove the masts again for many a long year.

And at the very top of that list is a job we've known was going to need doing for some time - removing the starboard cap shroud chain plates, cleaning them up (and hoping like hell they're good to be refitted!) and then refitting them with fresh sealant. It needs doing because there's clear signs of water weeping through from on deck and running down the plates either side of the main bulkhead ...

You can clearly see brown streaks, which aren't rust 'cos they're on top of the paint, on the plate inside the wardrobe on the forward face of the bulkhead and the matching plate on the much harder to get at aft face of the bulkhead isn't much better.

The first task was to remove the deck fitting ...

...  and that didn't prove too easy at all! But it came out in the end and then the chain plates themselves had to be removed. Getting at the nuts was easy but to get at the bolt heads and drive the bolts out meant removing the starboard saloon locker front and some butchery of the end structure of the locker itself with the reciprocating saw to cut holes for the bolts to pass through (photos to follow).

So far so good but by this stage I was getting absolutely fed up with not being able to find tools and material in our container next to where Pagan is ashore.

The container was in a reight mess with the work bench covered in "stuff" and access to our storage shelves and cupboard blocked by ladders, timber, two dinghies and all sorts of other "stuff."

So we broke off from working on the boat to have have container bashing session. First up, everything (near enough) out. Then everything back ... tidy!

Well, alright, tidy-ish! By the time I remembered to take a piccy, I was actually using the workbench, something we haven't been able to do for a while, and if you look closely you'll see the parts of the aforementioned chain plate on the bench about to be cleaned up.

In fact, as I write they're cleaned up and ready to go back on the boat but I'll post pics of that later.

The next job is cleaning up inside and out where the plates fit and then they can be reinstalled and we'll move on to the next job. Whatever that is. I'm just taking one job at a time!

P.S. I can hear some folks ask ... what is a "chain plate"? There's probably a few wondering what the hell "standing rigging" is too. So a quick and dirty glossary ...

The Rig: On a sailing vessel, "the rig" is everything associated with the bits you hang the sails on.

So that's the masts, obviously, but also the wires (or on traditional vessels the ropes) that hold the masts up (actually that isn't what they really do but it suffices for simplicity) and the fittings those wires attach to.

Shrouds: The shrouds are the wires (or ropes, see above) that go from the mast or masts to the sides of the boat. There's usually a shroud either side from the very top of the mast called the Port or Starboard "Cap Shroud" and shrouds from about two thirds of the way up the mast leading forward and aft called the Port or Starboard "Forward Lower Shroud" and "Aft Lower Shroud"

Just to complicate matters, Pagan. like most Westerlys, doesn't have forward lower shrouds either side, she has a single "Baby Stay" which serves the same purpose.

Stays: These are the wires that lead fowards and aft from the mast. The forestay goes from the top of the amst (or near enough) to the bow, the Backstay goes from the top of the mast to , you guessed it, the stern. 

Once again, we complicate matters 'cos we're a ketch so our backstay is actually split into two part way down and lands either side of the aft end of the cockpit overlapping the shrouds for the mizzen mast.

And finally, the generic term for the fittings that the shrouds and stays attach to is "Chain Plate". On sailing ships of old, the last few feet of each shroud or stay was actually made of chain and the whroud chains were shackled to a plate or plates securely bolted to the hull sides. Hence "chain plate"

And if you want to know more ... buy a book!

Dismasted!

 Yup, that's right, The masts are down on the ground, not up in the air ...

And that's because it has become all too clear that we're not going to get adequate insurance without a survey which includes a full rigging inspection. Since th e existing standing rigging is now fifteen years old, whilst we might get it signed off as OK for another year or two, it's going to be a constant thorn in our side so it's time to have the whole lot replaced.

That's going to be expensive of course. Several thousand pounds we could have done with spending elsewhere. And whilst the masts are down, there's a list of jobs that need doing or ought to be done before the rig goes back up.

So any prospect of going back in the water in the next month is pretty much done for. Maybe July / August. maybe not, we'll see.

Back to the future ... a rambling contemplative load of waffle!

 Now that we have a future, and at times in the recent past it did seem that there was nothing much to look forward to, I'm left pondering on where we stand and where we go from here

And my crystal ball looks more than a little opaque!

Clearly, all our best laid plans and schemes have been torpedoed by circumstances beyond our control. We're lucky compared to many people. Jane has a fairly well paid job with about as much job security as it's possible to get in this day and age and we live fairly cheaply as our contribution to home life with Dad is mostly non-financial.

My prospects of finding work are virtually nil. The combination of my physical limitations (( cannot cope with heavy lifting or standing for long periods) and having to be available to take Jane to and from work (there's no public transport and her hours are the very definition of anti-social) has so far ruled out every possibility I stood a chance of getting and those jobs I've found that I could do I haven't even had the courtesty of a reply to my application. To be honest, I pretty much gave up even looking a couple of months ago.

Happily we're able to trundle on with one income and we can still afford the boat. We can even afford to continue upgrading and improving the boat, albeit perhaps not as quickly as we'd like to (but in truth the money is likely to be there to do the jobs in the timescale we'll actually achieve)

So the plus side is that we have a boat we can afford to keep and we have the means to continue holiday sailing indefinitely ...

However ...

All is not entirely well in our particular rose garden. 

I seriously dislike the idea of Jane working the hours she works for another six years. The hours are a killer and the shift rotation pattern is bloody awful. And yet I see no other option unless we win the lottery. 

And assuming we don't win the lottery, we'll be confined to a few weeks holiday aboard for those six years assuming health etc. doesn't intervene in the meantime

And then I think about whether we are going to be fit enough and enthusiastic enough, or even alive (!), to set off on our three to five year Round Britain adventure, that adventure which we sold the house and bought this boat to do (because to be honest, for what we are now doing, Erbas would have been ideal and a lot cheaper to run!), at the age of 66.

It's been preying on my mind a lot lately, that conundrum.

I've seriously considered whether the most sensible option would be to bale out. Sell Pagan and buy, or rent, a caravan or motorhome or something to go off on touring holidays by road.

I've seriously considered whether there's any realistic way that I can generate an income. And I'm still considering that. A monetised VLog (video blogging) has been suggested and I guess it's a possibility but I'm far from convinced that it's something I really want to do nor am I convinced that we could generate the content that people would want to watch, and more importantly pay to watch. It is not an easy option, it takes a lot of work. 

I've been trying for some considerable time to write a book. I have the idea, clear as a bell, and I think it's got potential (it's a historical tragic romance story in the vein of Catherine Cookson and it's based on a real life story) but I just can't seem to get the words down on "paper" the way the story runs in my head. I haven't entirely given up on that idea yet either! And like Vlogging, the chances of it acutally making any money are pretty slim anyway!!!

So what to do, what to do?????

Well, for starters, we're a long way from being ready or willing to give up. So for now we're going to press on with doing what we want to do, and can physically and fiancially manage, with Pagan and let the future look after itself for a while.

As followers on Facebook will already know, we're due to go back into the water for the first time since 2018 next week and I've very nearly completed all the "must do" jobs to get ready for launching (I'll do a proper blog post about that next week)

Then it's a case of sorting the boat out back into decent order. She's been ashore for nigh on four years, she's been used as an on/off liveaboard for a good deal of that time and there's "stuff" everywhere! We seriously need to declutter!!!

And then we need to declutter some more because I've decided that our 20 foot container (which we rent and then share with a couple of friends) is going to have to go. Our share of it, getting on for half the space, is just rammed full of boat "stuff". That's way to much stuff!

It's got to go because it's costing us money we need elsewhere. The elsewhere we need it is on berthing fees. Which brings me nearly to the next bit of pondering we've been doing

Still with me so far? You're a determined reader, reader!!!

When we launch, we'll be going back onto a swinging mooring for the first time since 2015. 

We liked our mud berth at Fambridge Yacht Station. We liked it a lot! The huge downside however was that getting Pagan on and off it required a decent spring tide and those only come along, at best, every fortnight. And this year they hardly come along at all all summer long (we're in a long term tidal cycle of lower than average spring tides at the moment). Put simply, the mud berth simply wasn't an option any more. 

Whilst getting on and off the boat is obviously less convenient on a swinging mooring, it means we can use the boat any time we like rather than be stuck in the mud all the time. And it has the added bonus of being somewhat cheaper ... but that might be short term!

Short term because we're seriously considering making a move to a marina berth somewhere. On the down side, obviously that will cost significantly more than our swinging mooring (something like double, if not more). On the upside, it will make life a lot easier as arriving after a two and a half hour drive and then having to sort out a dinghy and outboard to get aboard is a pain in the bottom.

Furthermore, we have a fancy for a change of scenery. We've been moored here at Fambridge for 11 years now and we like it. However, nothing stays the same and whilst it's not a done deal by any means, we're going to start looking at alternatives elsewhere. I've contemplated the South Coast but it's out of our reach financially. I've seriously considered moving Pagan "oop North" somewhere which has the upside of being affordable but the twin downsides of being a long way from home and not having many options to go out for a short cruise or tuck up somewhere sheltered when the weather isn't great

So we're almost certainly staying in the Thames Estuary but the mystery is where that will be. I do hope, dear reader, you can contain the excitement and anticipation 'cos I haven't a clue at the moment! Doubtless we'll be coming back to this topic ...

There's other things excercising our thoughts too ...

Covid has wrought many changes, not many of them, if any, beneficial.

Two changes of critical import to us, both in the short and in the long term, are the rapidly rising costs of everything and the impact of Covid on marina attitudes towards people living on their boats.

The first item takes little explaining. Life is getting more and more expensive and our income is not rising to anything like the same extent. Worse, if and when we get to the point where Jane can retire and we can bugger off on the boat, the budget we'll have to live on will be little if any better than we anticipated but our costs will potentially be significantly more.

The second concern is a little more complex. Pre-Covid, whilst most marinas had clauses in theit terms and conditions precluding living on board your boat full time, provided you stayed "under the radar" these were largely ignored. Covid lockdowns brought to the attention of the authorities just how many people were living "under the radar" on boats in breach of planning laws etc. As a result, there's been a serious crack down on the practice.

For us, that has a potentially show stopping long term consequence in that our plan, once we escaped the rat race, had been to take up a winter berth somewhere each winter where we could quietly lurk on board. Pre-Covid, that would not have been a problem at all. Post-Covid, it may simply not be an option. A further issue is the rising cost of diesel and heating oils. Living on board the boat through the winter means, as I well know, running the heating for long periods, at times 24/7. And whilst it doesn't burn through fuel like it's going out of fashion, it does add up to a fair amount of money. Money we may not be able to afford.

So where the hell am I going with this particular bit of waffle?

Actually, to be totally honest, I don't really know! We're back to where I was several paragraphs above - we just don't know whether our long term plans to sail off into the wild blue yonder (as long as it's within sight of Blighty!) are actually going to come to pass.

What we have concluded is that if they are to come to fruition, we're going to have to be a lot more independent than we anticipated. Specifically, we're going to have to go into marinas even less often than planned (I'd worked on the basis of spending half our time at anchor and half in marinas) and we're going to have to sail as much as possible and only motor when it's absolutely unavoidable (again, I;d budgeted,based on experience, on a 50/50 split between sailing and motoring)

We're going to have to get used to anchoring off even when conditions are not, perhaps, ideal. It is going to have to be a case of only going into marinas if there's a pressing reason to do so, not simply for convenience and comfort.

And we're going to have to get right out of the habit of reaching for the engine start key whenever the conditions aren't 100% in our favour for sailing.

We're also going to have to look at retaining a base ashore for the winter. Beyone the fact that this has potentially signficant financial implications all I can say is that there are options there but they are definitely beyond the scope of this blog

We've said these things before but now we've got to really mean it!

And that is informing our choices and decisions right now. 

We've concluded that we need to change things up in various ways on Pagan and as far as our skills etc. are concerned.

We're already planning on new anchoring gear with an electric windlass, new chain, new main anchor and that remains a high priority item. The money is in the bank, time has not been available to do it for this season but it's the first big job when she comes out for the winter

We know we desperately need new sails. The current rags have had it. And I do mean had it. They were OK when we bought Pagan but getting a bit long in the tooth (that was fine, we knew that). Now they've reached the stage where they're blown out (they've lost their shape) and they're falling apart. The money should, all things being equal, be available for new sails for next year.

What then? We need to go as much "off grid" as possible ...

A critical item is battery capacity and charging. Staying out of marinas and using the engine as little as possible means we definitely need as much solar power as we can contrive the means to install. That's going to be a challenge on Pagan. There really isn't a vast amount of deck space where solar panels could be permanently fitted and the mizzen boom precludes the usual solar arch arrangement (of which I'm not a great fan anyway). I haven't firmed up any designs as yet but I think it's going to be a case of one or perhaps two permanent panels on deck, which will be relatively small, with a third semi-permanent panel on the spray hood (which we very rarely drop). Then we'll have a couple of roll up or fold out panels which can be deployed when we're at anchor

If, and it is a very BIG if indeed, we are going to be spending any signficant amount of time on board off grid during the winter months, we're going to have to consider adding wind power too. I am not a fan of wind generators. They're noisy nuisances and in terms of bang for buck nowhere near as effective as solar panels but they do generate power when the solar panels don't i.e.; at night and in the depths of a cold, dark winter.

Coupled with all that, we need to significantly up our battery capacity. We currently have 240a/h of gel batteries on the leisure side which, from experience, will last us about 3 days at a pinch. We need to double that, at least, and I'd like to go LIon because of the weight saving if nothing else. At present though the cost is way too high so I plan to add a couple of el-cheapo sealed lead acid leisure batteries under the port settee with a view to upgrading to LIon in a few years time when the cost has, hopefully, dropped.

And one of the key reasons for bumping up the power capacity of the boat is changing the way we cook. Yet again, the cost and availability of bottled gas is becoming a serious issue and whilst we don't go through vast quanties of the stuff, anything that reduces our consumption is not to be dismissed out of hand. 

I haven't totally done the maths yet but I am wondering about the viability of ditching the gas cooker c/w oven and grill and replacing it with a two burner gas hob. That would give us basic cooking facilities on gas because I don't think going all electric is viable or feasible.

To that, I would add something like a Ninja Foodi which whilst drawing well over 100 amps via an inverter will only do so for half an hour to an hour and can do vitrually anything (Pressure Cook, Air Fry, Slow Cook, Steam, Bake/Roast, Sauté and Grill!) and a single electric hot plate

(An all electric cooker simply isn't an option. There's no practical way we can generate and deliver that much power on board. Others have tried it, on bigger boats with bigger budgets, and run into all sorts of difficulties. Retaining a basic ability to cook on gas whilst using electric when the power is available seems to be the way to go to me)

We wouldn't be able to use the Ninja and the hot plate, or an electric kettle either for that matter, at the same time but that's why I plan to keep the gas hob. We can certainly contrive a system that will aloow the use of a single appliance at a time running off a 2kw inverter and probably generate sufficient power to do that most days. With a bit of management and planning, and that's what boating is all about, planning and management, when you get right down to it, we can make that work and be nicely green (as well as cheap!) too!!

There are also a lot of general maintenance jobs and repairs needed which will have to be tackled over time. 

The v-berth refit is getting there slowly, it's held up for the time being by the need to run the power cables for the electric anchor windlass behind where the last lining panel is to be fitted and then there's a lot of detail finishing work to be tackled but I'm happy to take that forward as and when.

The saloon upholstery desperately needs replacing. That's likely to be the third big expense after the anchoring gear and new sails. 

After that, we're getting to the stage where we ought to consider replacing all the standing and running rigging. It certainly needs doing before Jane retires as it would be an expense we could well do without once we're on a severely restricted income

There's lots of other jobs that need doing but none of them are mission critical so they will get done as and when if at all!

And I mentioned that we need to upskill (to use the modern buzz word). We'll come back to that another day but suffice it to say for now that we've often talked about improving our sailing and boat handling skills but we've never really done anything about it. We're pretty good at making like we know what we're doing but half the time, to be honest, we haven't really got a clue!

And that brings me to a final bit of waffle which links back to the beginning of this epic, and probably epically boring, tome.

I have trouble deciding whether to keep going with this blog or not. It rather fell by the wayside towards the end of 2018, I just didn't keep it up to date. To be honest, it had become something of a chore that I increasingly couldn't be bothered with. To be equally honest, I now regret that because it defeated the original purpose of the blog from the very start way back in 2011 which was, and ought to remain, primarily to keep a record of what we've done. where we've been, and what the hell we were thinking (because that's often a mystery even to me further down the road!) for ourselves

So I guess I've already answered the question I haven't even asked yet ... whether to keep the blog up or not. I should, shouldn't I? I'll try, dear reader (are you still here????), I'll try.

That begs the question of whether to go further and try Vlogging or not? And I just don't have an answer to that question yet. I don't think as things stand we can generate the regular quality content. Certainly not of us sailing as we're only going to be able to get aboard for maybe six to eight weeks a year for the forseeable future. And Vlogging boat maintenance and repair tasks is frankly more effort than, at this stage at any rate, I'm prepared to contemplate. I have enough trouble getting the actual job  done without faffinf about with cameras and then editing videos.

But maybe, if and when we are ready to GO, just maybe people might be interested then? A geninely impecunious couple in their sixties bimbling their way around the UK on an elderly yacht would have the merit, I guess, of being something different and what's more we're a long way from being the typical Vlogging couple. Would people actually watch it? I have no doubt that if I put the effort in I could produce reasonable content (I am, after all, a creative person) but it's not far short of a full time job and inevitably it impacts on your experience of the, er, experience! And more than whether people would watch it, would people pay to watch it? At least pay enough to make a material difference to our financial ability to GO?

Because there's the rub. When I think about it, I do actually quite fancy Vlogging, if I have the content vehicle to do a half decent job of it, andif it was even moderately sucessful it could potentially be the difference between GO and NO GO. Hmm, this train of thought is a very long way from the terminal station yet!

I guess I ought to stop now. There's jobs to do on Pagan to get ready for launching next week and if I waffle any longer this will turn into a not very interesting novel instead of a not very interesting essay!!!

I would genuinely welcome any comments on the thoughts above (and before you say it, I know this post is too long and boring! But other than that, comment away!)