2018 Summer Cruise days 4 & 5

Tony and I awoke to our alarms first thing Tuesday morning and promptly decided we had not had enough sleep and recovery time to get underway. We knew that it was going to be a tough day bashing straight into the wind and sea and we were not in a fit state to tackle it.

(We didn't prepare ourselves very well the day before, too much time waffling about, too long in the bar - albeit we didn't over-do the beer, and too late to bed)

So we decided to get a few more hours rest and look at departing when the tidal gate opened around 1:00pm that afternoon.

We felt much brighter when we awoke for the second time and the forecast offered the prospect of a possible improvement in conditions. So we decided to depart Dover and aim to go straight through if possible but divert into Eastbourne or Cherbourg if it wasn't on.

We were underway at 12:42UT (1:42pm local time) and at 23:51UT (ten to one the following morning) we were alongside in Sovereign Harbour, Eastbourne.

The conditions did not improve at all. If anything, they got worse. The problem wasn't the wind, which never rose above a stiff breeze, it was the sea conditions. Pagan made better progress this year than she did in precisely the same circumstances last year but it was really hard work on the crew. Even sitting still was physically demanding as the boat was being thrown around in a random fashion with no pattern to it.

By the time we reached Dungeness, in the fog, we had had enough and we laid the course for Sovereign Harbour with the plan to have at least a 6 or 8 hour layover before moving on.

The late evening weather forecast suggested conditions would be no better today (Wednesday) and once we were alongside and I fired up the laptop to look at the various weather sources I like to compare, it was clear that there would be no improvement until tomorrow (Thursday).

So the decision was promptly made to have (another!) rest day in port and make plans for Thursday onwards. The wind goes Northerly in the morning but kicks up for a spell before conditions are forecast to improve. So provisionally we're looking at a mid-afternoon exit from Sovereign Harbour and aim to go through the night arriving in St. Peter Port sometime between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, we had a problem last night with the built in rechargable batteries on the solar powered Tacktick instrument heads going flat in a matter of hours. I can live without the wind but if the master head powered down we lose the depth sounder (crap design but there you go). So today we've rigged up a means of recharging, and if necessary powering, one of the heads off the boat 12v supply.

And we've tidied the boat, sorted out our gear and made things all shipshape again!

Here's our track, 100% motoring at (mostly) 2,400rpm ...

We covered 47.2 miles in 11 hours 53 minutes at an average speed of just under 4 knots which indicates how crap the conditions were since at those revs in flat water Pagan would be doing close to 7 knots. On the up side, we used about 30 litres of diesel (about 2.5l an hour) which is a significant improvement over the amount we burnt last year on the same leg. I'm getting an understanding of the most efficient revs on the engine in Pagan and there seems to be (unsurprisingly) a drastic increase in fuel consumption for relatively little benefit in speed over the ground once you push the revs much above 2,500 (from memory, I think we were running at about 2,700 to 2,900 last year)

Now the debate appears to be where to eat and drink tonight!

Tuesday 19 June 2018 - Passage Plan

Departing Dover imminently towards St. Peter Port, Guernsey eta 10:00UT Thursday approx

Alternates :- Sovereign Harbour (Eastbourne), Cherbourg

Weather: WSW F4 gusting 5 occ., sea state slight. Vis reasonable but risk of fog patches (we have radar and AIS). Anticipate weather improving and wind shift to our advantage later in passage

2018 Summer Cruise days 1, 2 & 3

Rik and Tony having arrived quite late on Friday evening, Saturday was spent, as planned, getting ready to go.

Kit was sorted out, a final shopping run made and all was ready by late afternoon.

I had planned for the possibility of the weather being too brisk to make anchoring downriver an attractive proposition and that was indeed the case. So we ate and had a few beers on board before retiring for an all too brief sleep.

We needed to make an early start to make the best of the tides so it was up, up and away at the ungodly hour of 4.00am. There was astonishing little wind given the forecast so we motored downriver, putting the sails up on the way. As we approached the entrance to the River Roach, the breeze finaly picked up enough to stop the noise machine.

With the tide helping us along, we wetre making a good 5 knots over the ground and as we cleared the land and got out into the Whitaker Channel the wind picked up and so did our speed.

We covered the 25 miles to the South West Sunk crossing in just over 4 hours. With the engine idling in neutral as a precsaution, we felt our way through the as yet unnamed gat through the sands and, if anything, I'd say it's deeper than it was last year.

We kept the engine idling as we crossed the Black Deep as there was a small feeder container ship coming up the channel on a collision course. As a sailing vessel (with caveats that didn't apply in this case) we were the stand on vessel but he showed no signs of altering course. If anything he was edging further to starboard and reducing our predicted CPA (closest point of approach).

I had a sneaky feeling he was shaping up to pass down Fisherman's Gat to I tried to call him on the VHF with no response. I executed a DSC call which, after a delay, was acknowledged but still no communication. As I'd guessed, he did indeed turn into the gat and we breathed again and stopped the engine, which had never been in gear.

By now, it was getting a bit too exciting for full sail although we were hitting over 7.5 knots at times.

I'd decided based on experience gained that the next time I needed to reef Pagan down, I'd drop the mizzen to see if that improved the balance of the reefed sail plain. With the first reef in the main, a moderate amount of genoa rolled away and the mizzen stowed she was much better behaved.

We had an excellent sail down to the North Foreland and on past Ramsgate. We put in a tack into the outer reached of Pegwell Bay to avoid an oncoming fishing boat and on the next "good" tack the wind started to head us and our speed began to drop off.

With only 10 miles to go to Dover and the conditions becoming tiring on top of a short night's sleep, I made the pragmatic decision to get the engine on and burn a bit of diesel to get into Dover sooner rather than later. It turned out to be a very fortunate decision.

Within an hour of making that call, the wind got up and, significantly, so did the sea state. Our speed over the ground bombed from around 5 knots to, at times, less than a knot and even with the revs piled on we were struggling to maintain 2 knots over the ground and that was with a supposedly fair tide. We had two hours before the tide would turn foul and I began to worry about not making it in time and even possibly being forced to turn tail and run back to Ramsgate.

Our cause was not helped by a yacht apparently tacking towards Dover in front of us. We eased off to let him pass ahead of us and then he prompty "tacked" and came back out again. We had to drop the engine speed to idle which, when the track data is examined, at least explains our lack of progress. With the engine idling we were going backwards at over 3 knots!

I was harbouring suspicions about the yacht in question and sure enough I spotted the give away evidence that he was actually motor sailing - there was copious quantites of water being ejected from his wet exhaust!

Blow me though if he didn't then "tack" back and aim back across our bows on a collision course so precise it could have been calculated. By now, he had barely a handkerchief of genoa showing and a scrap of mainsail. There was absolutely no way that he was making the speed he was making under sail and having been fooled once I was having none of it and stood on (as required by ColRegs for two vessels under motor in that circumstance) forcing him to duck our stern.

At that point he gave up and put his sails away!

There was a third yacht astern of both of us who had been, I guess, trying to find the best strategy for making progress under sail or motor and sail. After several zig zags, they too gave it up as a bad job. They were bigger than us and the other guy and were able to make a bit better speed so they got ahead but not by a lot.

By now, we were all struggling badly to make any progress at all. We all had the same thought - forget what the tide should be doing and get as close inshore as we dared. That made all the difference and made it to the entrance into Dover in, by now, very challenging sea conditions.

It can often be a roller coaster ride into and out of the harbour at Dover but this was the most challenging one yet. We had to cross a big sea with 2 to 3 metre short steep waves beam on to get into the harbour. To make matters worse, we had to wait, bows on into the sea with just enough power to give steerage way, for a ferry to enter before we could follow him in. It was a bit too exciting but we made it in without any damage and with remarkably little gear flying around below deck.

That was the day all over bar the beer. And we didn't go wild on the beer, having just a couple of pints (and dinner) at Cullins Yard before retiring early.

The decision had already been made that unless there was a drastic improvement in the forecast, we'd be using our rest day today in Dover instead of later in the week. It's a decision not without potentual downsides if the weather isn't as forecast over the next few days but with conditions predicted to be as bad today as they were towards the end of yesterday, we'd struggle to make Sovereign Harbour at Eastbourne, the next available port, in daylight, if indeed we made it at all.

Tomorrow looks a little better. Not a lot better but enough of an improvement to make an attempt to reach Eastbourne viable. We've also had a look at the option of crossing over to the French coast but with the tide times and the wind forecast it doesn't really work.

So we're currently hoping to clear out of Dover bright and early in the morning for what promises to be a slog, and probably a slog under motor at that, to Eastbourne. Deja bloody Vu because it's exactly what Glen and I were faced with nearly a year ago.

It'll be worth it though as it will position us nicely for an improvement, hopefully, in the weather from Wednesday onwards.

The track and key log points from yesterday ...

Passage Plan - 17 June 2018

Forecast iss. 1800UT Sun 16 - SW 4 or 5 occ 6 in South. Slight occ moderate later. Mainly fair. Good

Subject to weather ...

Departing North Fambridge 03:00UT towards Dover e.t.a. 14:30 UT (latest 21:30UT)
Alternate Ramsgate ETA 11:15UT (latest 18:00UT)

One day to go then we're off!!!

Much cogitation about possible permutations of passage planning and microscopic perusal of weather charts has been the order of business for the last twenty four hours, along with changing the engine oil and trying to work out why the new second diesel tank isn't feeding fuel to the engine reliably (I think I've got that one worked out and it's a minor nuisance which I should be able to fix later today)

I shall top the boat up with fuel this morning, the crew arrive this evening, the final shop for fresh stuff (and a few things I forgot) will be done in the morning then we'll have a conflab about the initial plan. The conflab will potentially be needed for reasonds I shall expand on below ...

So what's the plan?

It's sailing to a schedule for the first week, inevitably. We're crew changing in St. Peter Port, Guernsey next Saturday afternoon so we need to be there by Saturday lunchtime at the absolute latest and preferably by Friday afternoon.

We have two basic options - day sail from port to port down to the West Solent and then cross over to either Cherbourg or Alderney or a night or two at sea and go straight through from wherever we decide to kick off from.

Tomorrow is easy. It would be a rush to get away early morning, and it would have to be early to make the best of the tide, with Tony and Rik both having been working today then travelling to the boat. So the plan for tomorow is to drop down to the Brankfleet late afternoon and anchor overnight.

If, as looks possible, it's going to be rather breezy overnight (the GFS forecast looks OK but the ECWMF based Meteo forecast, which I find generally pretty accurate, suggests F6 gusting 7 until the early hours which might be a bit bouncy for a good nights sleep) then we'll decide whether to stay put and depart very early from Fambridge or splash the cash on a night in Burnham Yacht Harbour.

Getting downriver to Burnham or the Brankfleet avoids a potential 3:00am start, or start later and miss the best of the tide, and if I've got to get up by 3:00am it's hardly worth going to bed!

Then Sunday I plan to be in Dover overnight. Cullins Yard beckons!

After that it all depends on the weather. At the moment, the forecast is suggesting F4, occasionally F5 or F3 with a lot of West in it until mid-week. If that holds it's going to mean beating down channel in which case we're likely to go for the coastal port hopping strategy.

Of course, typically, by late Wednesday into Thursday and Friday, the forecast predicts the wind going round into a North Easterly or Easterly flow. Ideal for sailing down the channel, not ideal for a night or two in Braye Harbour in Alderney which is what I'd planned.

Tempting though it is to wait for the weather, there's no guarantee that forecast will hold so unless it's blowing a yachtsman's gale, we get on with the job. And if it looks like Braye is going to be untenable, we'll either divert to Cherbourg or press on straight through to Guernsey and give it a miss.

A quick catchup

I said catchup, not ketchup! Less of your sauce dear reader :) ...

Very little progress was made over the winter on the latest round of updates and improvements, for the reasons already mentioned.

However, at last I was able to crack on with some key jobs. The first, to keep the female crew members quite, was finally installing the hot water system I've had all the bits in storage for some considerable time, the only I hadn't had until now was the time!

Fitting the new hot water calorifier was a beast of a job. The only sensible option was to install it in the otherwise unusable space in the engine bay, space that was serving no useful purpose, but that meant squeezing it into a tight space whilst working in an equally tight space!

I'm fairly pleased with the end result though. A sturdy plywood shelf mounted on brackets at either end to the side bulkheads carries the calorifier on top and the water pump and accumulator tank underneath. In the end, it has hardly compromised the engine access at all and made no difference to accessing the sea cocks from the aft cabin.

Hot water is currently mains only but I hope to have the engine plumbing in place in the next couple of days which will give us a tank full of hot water after a couple of hours engine running.

Fitting the new taps was fun ... not but I got there in the end. The joy of having a shower on board cannot be overstated. Marina showers are all well and good but my grumble about them is that you have to get dried (as best you can) and dressed as soon as you step out from under the shower. That's not very relaxing!

I haven't actually managed to run the hot water out yet having a shower (I don't spend a long time in the shower anyway) but I reckon there's a good fifteen minutes or more "on tap". That's comfortably enough for two or three people to have a quick boat shower (wet down, turn off, soap up, turn on, rinse off!).

The major job that I wanted to complete before our upcoming Summer Cruise, was installing the additional diesel tank. As the first step of this job was, of neccessity, moving the water pump, it had to be second on the list.

With the pump in it's new location (where it is MUCH quieter by the way) the new tank could be fitted in the bottom of the locker. This also required a plywood shelf plus the addition of two tie down straps to keep it in place.

I'm part way through the plumbing of the new tank, delayed by the mysterious disappearance of the diesel pick up pipe which should be in our storage and isn't. I've got a replacement arriving on Monday, it was only a few beer tokens to simply order another one rather than muck about.

The second tank will double our diesel capacity from 88 litres to 176 litres which, of course, will double our range under power. We should now be able to run for getting on for 60 hours non-stop without refuelling.

I am though going to leave the two 20l jerry cans behind and reduce my spare fuel load to three 10l plastic cans. The jerry cans take up a lot of space and have a habit of leaking (I found a little puddle of diesel in the bottom of the locker which explains the complaints from the denizens of the aft cabin about a funny smell). It's also a pain to refuel from the jerry cans especially at sea.

Work came to a temporary halt mid-May when Jane and I had a fortnight on board. We decided to spend a few days away from our berth but return on the same springs in order to get on with sorting the boat out. We had a bit of sailing, a bit of motoring, two nights at anchor and back to base. Very pleasant it was too.

What wasn't so pleasant was the developing abcess that had me well out of sorts by the second week. So once again things got in the way of things that needed to be done. Oh well, anbtibiotics work wonders and hopefully it won't flare up again.

Jane had a hospital appointment which kept me up in Kettering until yesterday so now it's full steam ahead to get ready for our planned departure a week tomorrow (of which more anon)

2017 - a year of ups and downs - and looking ahead

Last year was not a good year for the Peckett family. Never the less, there were positives and they were all sailing related.

Our first cruise of the year back in May was cut short following my father's heart attack. Jane and I still managed a few days out once it was clear he was in no danger, visiting Ipswich Haven for the first (and probably last) time.

Our summer cruise was the longest yet at four weeks. The upside of being self employed is being able to take more time to go sailing and the removal of that ticking clock in the back of my mind that "we must be back by a week Saturday".

The weather took it's toll on our plans but despite only getting as far West as Lymington and in spite of the rain and at times windy weather, we had a good time in the Solent.

Jane and I were out and about again in early September. Once again the weather interfered and hampered our plans but again we made the best of it and enjoyed a cruise up as far as Woodbridge and back.

Then things took a sharp turn for the worse on the home front with my Mum passing away and my Dad needing a lot of care and support to get through a very tough time. Just when we thought we were turning the corner, Dad ended up in hospital over New Year but happily he recovered.

I have neither the time nor the inclination at the moment to produce the usual detailed log for last season but we managed to cover 637 nautical miles all told. We had some very good sails but we also had some pretty diabolical days as well!

Business has not been good in 2017 and having to put everything boating and business to one side for nigh on three months hasn't helped. We'll see how things go now as we look forward to this coming year but we're anticipating being somewhat challenged financially so our plans for the season are necessarily cautious.

There's quite a long list of jobs I want to get done on Pagan before the start of the sailing season. The hot water system needs to be fitted, as does the second diesel tank. I want to get the cockpit lockers fitted out and there should be a new gas cooker to go in.

Oh yes, that gas cooker. We ordered it way back in September and it finally arrived in late October. However, it was just before Christmas before I could get down to the boat to install it. To my considerable annoyance, it was not only damaged when I took it out of the box, it was also not what we ordered (I believe it to be an older model that has snuck back into the supply chain however there's also the possibility that the manufacturers have changed the specification without telling the distributors. Either way, it's not acceptable). So it's gone back to be replaced. Still waiting.

The big trip this year is going to be to the Channel Islands in June /  July.  The outbound passage is going to be a full on "go for it" leg with only the very worst weather stopping us. I'm committed to getting to Guernsey by the end of that week unless it's absolutely impossible. I've got Tony on the crew and he's up for it, I'm hoping to add to that with one or two more crew who are up for some serious hard sailing.

The middle leg around the islands will be a repeat of last year in the Solent with myself, Jane and my cousin Maire on board. The waters around the Channel Islands are somewhat more challenging than the Solent so it should be more exciting and hopefully we'll get some good weather.

The return leg I plan to coast hop along the North French coast. I especially want to visit the D-Day landing beaches so I'm planning accordingly. I've got Mark to crew for me which is useful as he's flexible about when he gets back which gives us an extra few days.

The rest of the season, we're hoping to get quite a bit of local sailing in. Originally, we'd contemplated a second three or four week cruise perhaps to the Netherlands but anticipating the finances being tight we've cut that back to a fortnight in more local waters.

I'll try and catch up more on the blog as we get going which, hopefully, will be over the next few weeks.