Since getting back to Fambridge from Ipswich the other week, "Pagan" has been lurking on the river pontoon. Loitering with intent, though, the intent being to get her onto our mud berth on the next high water springs.
(For those who don't know, spring tides are the highest tides and neap tides are the lowest. To simplify things somewhat, these occur on a roughly four weekly cycle of springs - neaps - springs - neaps with the second spring tide of the cycle generally being a little lower than the first)
I'd done some soundings and some measuring and reckoned I needed at least 5.0m and preferably 5.1m of tide for comfort. Getting stuck half on and half off the berth, or worse without even getting close, would be a bit of a bind to put it mildly.
That meant the best day for trying to get on would be yesterday which would give me a 5.2m tide with the same again today if we needed to get off again. That was a possibility that had to be allowed for in case she didn't sit down safely and comfortably in the berth.
However, before we could attempt to put "Pagan" in the berth, the remains of the old hard under the mud had to come out. It's barely a year since I removed two lots of the slabs and crushed stone from under the keels of "Erbas", now with a bigger, deeper fin keeler I'd have to get back in there and do a lot more of the same.
The mucky job was tackled over several days of two to four hour stints, partly due to the tide times and partly due to my tolerance for the cold and physical effort involved!
I had gone out and bought a submersible trench pump for about £70 and once I worked out how to get the thing to prime and pump it saved a massive amount of effort baling out the hole each time.
What it turned out to be unable to cope with, which I'd hoped it might, was to pump out liquid mud (in theory it was claimed to be good for the job but the hose would just choke up - remove the hose and the pump would shift the stuff no problem. I found this out when it came off and pumped liquid mud straight up in the air which the wind kindly blew right into my face!)
Two stints during the week had shifted most of the mud and slabs that needed shifting, a final big push on Saturday morning broke out the compacted stone from the area required. Time didn't permit digging out further out where the aft part of the keel would land so I decided she'd just have to dig her on hole from here on
I'd have liked to put her in the berth stern to but this would have meant doubling the size of the hole and I just don't have the time, or to be honest the energy, right now. So bows in it was to be.
The time came around yesterday afternoon to go for it. With the wind blowing us hard onto the pontoon, it made sense to use the last of the flood to help get the bows off against the breeze although this meant a little bit of flood was still running as we made the approach to the berth. We could have done with being 15 minutes later really but no matter. After a bit of pushing and pulling and use of the motor we made it on OK.
Some head scratching ensued working out how best to secure her but that was soon sorted.
As the tide ebbed, I was delighted that she sat upright and fairly level. My big worry was that if I hadn't dug enough of the old hard out and the front of the keel sat on it she'd sit backwards alarmingly
Once she settled, as the afternoon wore on, she settled further into the mud and developed a somewhat bows down attitude.
This came as no surprise as the widest part of the hull is well aft and the aft end of the keel is in the mud I hadn't dug away to get to the hard. So she's having to settle down into fairly firm muddy clay which will take a while.
At its worst, she was down on an angle of about 5.4 degrees but by the morning she'd settled a little flatter. She's still, as I write, bows down by about 2.5 degrees but hopefully over the next few tides she'll level off.
If not, I'll have to get in with the pressure washer and clear some mud away from under the aft end to help her settle down. I'm in no rush to do that though!
I'd had the welcome company of my brother Glen and mate Tony over the weekend which apart from being sociable had been of considerable help in having extra hands to sort out lines and to make coffees, lunch and so on when I was in a hole!
They'd been conspiring, along with Shelagh, to find a new bear for Pagan as Erbas Bear is now the temporary skipper of "Erbas". I'd had an inkling something was afoot but I was still delighted and surprised to meet Pagan Bear when I got out of the hole yesterday and took a break to wait for the tide to come in
Tony recruited the bear, Glen sorted out his crew T-shirt and Shelagh made him a bearancy aid!
Thanks folks, he's great and I'm sure he'll be posting to the blog himself when he's settled in on board
(For those who don't know, spring tides are the highest tides and neap tides are the lowest. To simplify things somewhat, these occur on a roughly four weekly cycle of springs - neaps - springs - neaps with the second spring tide of the cycle generally being a little lower than the first)
I'd done some soundings and some measuring and reckoned I needed at least 5.0m and preferably 5.1m of tide for comfort. Getting stuck half on and half off the berth, or worse without even getting close, would be a bit of a bind to put it mildly.
That meant the best day for trying to get on would be yesterday which would give me a 5.2m tide with the same again today if we needed to get off again. That was a possibility that had to be allowed for in case she didn't sit down safely and comfortably in the berth.
However, before we could attempt to put "Pagan" in the berth, the remains of the old hard under the mud had to come out. It's barely a year since I removed two lots of the slabs and crushed stone from under the keels of "Erbas", now with a bigger, deeper fin keeler I'd have to get back in there and do a lot more of the same.
I had gone out and bought a submersible trench pump for about £70 and once I worked out how to get the thing to prime and pump it saved a massive amount of effort baling out the hole each time.
What it turned out to be unable to cope with, which I'd hoped it might, was to pump out liquid mud (in theory it was claimed to be good for the job but the hose would just choke up - remove the hose and the pump would shift the stuff no problem. I found this out when it came off and pumped liquid mud straight up in the air which the wind kindly blew right into my face!)
Two stints during the week had shifted most of the mud and slabs that needed shifting, a final big push on Saturday morning broke out the compacted stone from the area required. Time didn't permit digging out further out where the aft part of the keel would land so I decided she'd just have to dig her on hole from here on
I'd have liked to put her in the berth stern to but this would have meant doubling the size of the hole and I just don't have the time, or to be honest the energy, right now. So bows in it was to be.
The time came around yesterday afternoon to go for it. With the wind blowing us hard onto the pontoon, it made sense to use the last of the flood to help get the bows off against the breeze although this meant a little bit of flood was still running as we made the approach to the berth. We could have done with being 15 minutes later really but no matter. After a bit of pushing and pulling and use of the motor we made it on OK.
Some head scratching ensued working out how best to secure her but that was soon sorted.
As the tide ebbed, I was delighted that she sat upright and fairly level. My big worry was that if I hadn't dug enough of the old hard out and the front of the keel sat on it she'd sit backwards alarminglyOnce she settled, as the afternoon wore on, she settled further into the mud and developed a somewhat bows down attitude.
This came as no surprise as the widest part of the hull is well aft and the aft end of the keel is in the mud I hadn't dug away to get to the hard. So she's having to settle down into fairly firm muddy clay which will take a while.
At its worst, she was down on an angle of about 5.4 degrees but by the morning she'd settled a little flatter. She's still, as I write, bows down by about 2.5 degrees but hopefully over the next few tides she'll level off.
If not, I'll have to get in with the pressure washer and clear some mud away from under the aft end to help her settle down. I'm in no rush to do that though!
I'd had the welcome company of my brother Glen and mate Tony over the weekend which apart from being sociable had been of considerable help in having extra hands to sort out lines and to make coffees, lunch and so on when I was in a hole!
They'd been conspiring, along with Shelagh, to find a new bear for Pagan as Erbas Bear is now the temporary skipper of "Erbas". I'd had an inkling something was afoot but I was still delighted and surprised to meet Pagan Bear when I got out of the hole yesterday and took a break to wait for the tide to come in
Tony recruited the bear, Glen sorted out his crew T-shirt and Shelagh made him a bearancy aid!
Thanks folks, he's great and I'm sure he'll be posting to the blog himself when he's settled in on board
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