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!)

Three years MIA (Missing In Action)

 It is astonishing when I stop and think about it ... just a month or two shy of three years since I updates this blog. And that's because it is just a month or two shy of three years since I had anything to say that I wanted to share.

So what has happened in those three years?

Well after our last local cruise in August 2018, we had Pagan hauled out for the winter as we intended to refit and refurbish the forward cabin and tackle various other tasks before relaunching the following spring. 

However, our finances were becoming a bit of an issue. I'm not going into all the reasons in public but the marine electrical business was simply not working out. For reasons outwith my control I simply wasn't getting sufficient good work and I wasn't keen to get involved in an all out war for business ('nuff said on that front). There were other personal reasons too and to cut a very long story short I decided to knock that particular cunning plan on the head and attempt to find a proper job.

By early 2019, things were getting really dicey financially and no work had been forthcoming. There had been only a handful of jobs advertised over the winter that I was both physically capable of doing and/or even vaguely qualified to apply for and I hadn't got any of them.

We simply couldn't afford to launch Pagan that spring. In fact, we were close to the point where we couldn't afford to keep her. The temporary save was the offer of regular work as a self employed courier using my own van from a friend on the YBW forums who owned a courier company based in Essex.

That meant moving back aboard and once again potentially only getting home every couple of weeks on average. As it turned out, I could often get work that took me North on a Friday and even, occasionally, work on the Monday that paid me to go back South!

I enjoyed the work for the most part, excepting days in London which were no fun at all. I much preferred the long runs to places like Scotland and Cornwall. However, the money was frankly pants and the hours were at times ridiculous. There were certainly times when I was driving when I shouldn't have been due to fatigue. Never the less, it brought in sufficient pennies to clear our debts and get ourselves into a good position financially - indeed by early 2020 we were, for the first time in our entire married life (and we're only a couple of years away from our 40th anniversary) completely debt free.

The plan was to carry on with the courier work full time for a while to generate the cash needed to sort out Pagan and then wind it back to something a bit more part time. It wasn't ideal but it was "do-able" and we could live with the situation for another year or two

And then ...

Along came Covid. And lockdown #1

The rules and regulations were announced on, if I recall correctly, a Monday evening to come into effect 48 hours later. It quickly became obvious that I could not, legally, continue to use the boat as a base of operations (I was not, bear in mind, legally resident on board and only residents were permitted to remain in marinas, caravan sites etc.). Furthermore, the work was obviously going to dry up especially the lucrative long distance aircraft parts transfers which were the jobs that made it worth doing.

A further concern and consideration was that the bus service that Jane used to get to and from work was to be suspended. As what became known a a "key worker" (she works at a major supermarket distribution centre) Jane would not be furloughed and her income was not under threat but she had to get to and from work. Taxis cost a fortune and whilst there was a possibility of her employers allowing her to vary her hours to suit the limited bus service available, the advice from the health experts was very strongly to avoid public transport. 

So we took the decision that I would suspend my courier activities and come home to be a "house husband" and family taxi provider for a while. And I still am! Albeit that during the latest lock down,, we moved in with my elderly father for the duration as he really needed the company and some help with shopping etc. His entire social world had ceased to exist overnight and loneliness was a serious mental health issue. Our presence at least gives him something to grumble about :)

As it has turned out, we have found that we are not a great deal worse off than we had been towards the end of my 15 months working as a courier. The loss of earnings is largely offset by the reduction in living costs. Even so, we could really do with a boost to the boat fund!

So what now?

Well Pagan won't be back in the water this year, there simply isn't enough time available to sort her out and then get some sailing in. So it's a third year out of the water which isn't what we want at all.

However, the forecabin refit I started in on nearly two years ago has now progressed at last! When Covid kicked in, we'd got as far as stripping the old headlining out and cleaning up the GRP. I'd then epoxied plywood pads all over the place to give me something to attach a new internal plywood lining  to. And that's where the job sat for a very long time until Jane and I were finally able to spend some quality time aboard earlier this month.

We've now glued foam matting over the whole cabin deckhead and sides and we're ready to start lining out. The materials are all ready and waiting in our container and we're back on board for another 12 days or so in a couple of weeks with the aim of getting that stage complete. Then there'll just be trimming and finishing left to do!

There's an awful lot to do before we go back in the water though. The engine needs a major service, the hull needs antifouling and something doing with the terrible state of the topsides paintwork (very disappointing but hey ho). We desperately need new sails but whether we can afford them any time soon remains to be seen. The poor old boat needs a whole lot of love she hasn't been getting for far too long but things look to be getting better.

We absolutely have to get back in the water next year come, er, hell or high water! If for whatever reason it doesn't happen, that will be the end of our sailing. We always said that if we failed to keep it up for two successive years we'd give up and it will now have been three. We'll make allowances for Covid and give ourselves one more chance ...

And what of this blog? I rather lost interest towards the end of 2018, never finishing the reporting of our final cruise that year, and I haven't touched it since. I'm undecided whether to pick up the traces and kick it back into gear or give up and not bother!

Passage Plan Tue 24th August 2018

Departed Ipswich 05:20UT towards Burnham Yacht Harbour eta 15:00UT

Alternate Bradwell Marina

Passage Plan- Tuesday 21 August 2018

Departing North Fambridge by 10:00UT towards Bradwell Marina eta 17:00UT

Alternates: Burnham Yacht Harbour, Brankfleet anchorage (River Roach), Pyefleet, Brightlingsea

The Channel Islands - Paradise with a Twist (2018 Summer Cruise Conclusions)

This was our longest cruise away from base to date ... and for reasons I'll come back to later almost certainly our last "long" cruise for some years to come.

The leg down channel was not, it has to be said, a pleasure cruise. Dover to Sovereign Harbour was, for the second year running, particularly frustrating. Pagan doesn't much enjoy bashing into an F5/6 on the nose with a steep Channel chop knocking the stuffing out of her forward progress. And frankly the crew didn't enjoy it much either.

In hindsight, it was probably a little too ambitious to plan to make St Peter Port in a week. Do-able, certainly, but it put pressure on that we could have done without. That said, the overnight passage from Eastbourne to Guernsey was very satisfying (I do like night sailing!). Another time I'd make sure we had a more relaxed schedule.

Once in the Channel Islands, we were blessed with a sustained spell of astonishingly good weather. There was, perhaps, a little bit too much wind from the North East in the first week (and oh how we could have done with that wind a week earlier!) but it did little to affect our enjoyment.

It did though get a bit too windy for comfort over the middle weekend but we'd wisely cut and run back to St. Peter Port on the Thursday. That proved to be a very astute decision as St. Peter Port filled up rapidly on the Friday with everybody wanting to get into shelter over the weekend.

As detailed in the earlier posts, we felt we hadn't done Sark justice and changed our plans to go back a second time rather than move on to Jersey and St. Malo. That too proved to be good judgement. Sark is without a doubt magical.

We missed out on Herm but we didn't mind. It gives us an excuse, as if we needed one, to go back another time!

We spent a lot of time in the two marinas, more perhaps than we envisaged. But it's impossible to regret that. St. Peter Port is lively, vibrant and full of places to go, places to eat, places to drink and places to shop. Beaucette is peaceful, sheltered and has a superb restaurant (but nothing else). Each in their own way is to be highly recommended.

And now for the twist.

Swell

Only in Beaucette, and in St. Peter Port when the cill was uncovered, were we ever entirely free of the influence of a (mostly) Southerly swell. No matter what the wind conditions, no matter what the wind direction, no matter what the tide was doing, the swell made it's presence felt the whole time.

With the exception of the one night on the buoy at Havre Gosselin (Sark) it was never particularly bad or uncomfortable but it was always there. And we had near ideal weather conditions. Even so, there were times when even in the shelter of Victoria Marina in St. Peter Port the boat was swaying about sufficiently to make life on board slightly annoying if not downright unpleasant.

And I would reckon that if the wind blew up for a spell there is probably nowhere in the Balliwick of Guernsey which could be described as fully sheltered at all states of the sea and tide. It isn't a reason to avoid the islands but it does have to be considered - especially in high season when the availability of inner marina berths is at a premium. Out on the outer pontoons at St. Peter Port over the middle weekend the moored vessels were plunging about sufficiently to make life damned uncomfortable.

Despite changing our plans half way through the cruise, the crew changes worked smoothly. I am most impressed by the service provided by Flybe - being able to go onto their website and quickly change flights at minimal cost (anything up to two hours before flying although we did it several days ahead) made the change of plans very easy to execute.

The return leg was definitely more of a holiday than the outward leg. With neither myself nor Richard needing to be back for ten to twelve days, we were able to take a bit of time at the nice places along the way. Unfortunately we also had to take a bit of time at my least favourite port due to the weather.

So would we go back to the Channel Islands again? Hell yes! But there is a but. I would want to have at least six weeks to do it - two out, two there (minimum) and two back. And preferably longer in the middle. And it has to be acknowledged that on another visit the weather might not be as good, indeed it's unlikely it would be as good, which could make all the difference.

Looking ahead, we learnt a great deal from this cruise.

The first is that we simply have to upgrade Pagan's anchoring gear. Hauling 45m of somewhat rusty chain aboard with the old manual windlass was a killer job. We want, as soon as we can afford it, a self launching anchor, new (and longer) chain and an electric windlass.

The second is that we need to sort out our dinghy and outboard(s). The borrowed roundtail dinghy proved an excellent servant but can't really carry the 4 stroke outboard all that well. The Avon 3.1 I bought cheaply earlier in the year has proved to be just too big.

So we want a transom dinghy around the 2.7m mark with three chambers. Not easy to find these days but I've found one. And I want to fit a pair of lightweight removable davits in due course. The dinghy will get flip down transom wheels on it as carrying the damn thing up the beach nearly killed us!

As for the outboards, the borrowed Mariner was reliable and effective (but as mentioned too heavy for the roundtail) and our 2 stroke Tohatsu went from being ultra-reliable to refusing to start at all at whim. It needs a major strip down and overhaul of the fuel system. It'll get it before next year. The bigger Mariner 4 stroke I acquired from a friend also needs sorting out as I plan to continue to carry both outboards.

All of this will have to wait on finance being available. We are very nearly skint and by the time we've had one final excursion for ten days or so next month and had Pagan hauled ashore for the winter the sailing coffers will be empty.

My mission from September, for as long as necessary, will be to earn some serious pennies to refill the coffers and then save up the money to do the ongoing improvements and upgrades to Pagan and the kit we carry.

And as that is likely to involve me being back in proper gainful full time employment for a couple of years or more, we are going to be back to holiday sailing and weekending from next year for the forseeable future.

And that leads to one final decision that has been taken - when we relaunch next spring we'll be going back onto a swinging mooring and giving up the mud berth. It has served it's purpose for the last three or four years but the logisitical problems of only being able to get on and off the berth on Spring tides don't sit well with getting good use from the boat when we can only take a maximum of two weeks holiday at a time.

Oh and a final final bit of thinking is that we're thinking of not going very far afield next year. We, and especially Jane (unprompted), have identified a need to improve our skills in a number of areas. Jane in particular feels she really needs to get to grips with helming the boat when we're anchoring or picking up buoys (but probably not, she says, in the confines of marinas!). We've talked about having a year where we devote ourselves to learning to handle the boat better and as yet we haven't done it. So maybe next year will be the year

2018 Summer Cruise - Homeward bound

I'm going to keep this one fairly brief (you'll be relieved to read!) ...

The girls flew out from Guernsey on the Monday morning leaving Rich and I to get in some shopping and make ready to leave on Tuesday.

Leave we duly did making a decent passage to Longy Bay on the South side of Alderney where we'd hoped to anchor. To my annoyance, somebody has laid two "private" moorings that occupy the whole of the decent anchorage area.

Being reluctant to pick up a mooring clearly marked as private, and equally reluctant to anchor in an area with unknown ground tackle just waiting to foul the anchor, we bailed out and headed around to the East of Alderney towards Braye.

Technically, we thus sailed, or should I say motored, through the Alderney Race. In fact, I gingerly picked my way through the inshore rocks and shoals to avoid a line of offshore breakers and a long detour. In an area marked on the chart as "incompletely surveyed" this was a slightly edgy experience but I had taken into account that any shoals or isolated rocks would show up as a disturbance on the surface (the marked shoals and rocks could clearly be seen this way).

Arriving in Braye, we picked up one of the last four visitor mooring buoys. Within quarter of an hour the other three were occupied by yachts that had come up through The Swinge. We'd snuck in ahead, just, which was a bit of a result! We might have been able to pick up a buoy on the other side of the harbour, although the available depth over there might have been an issue otherwise it would have had to be down with the hook and lie to our own gear.

Conditions in Braye, which can be nasty, were very benign so we decided to stay put for a day. Then we discovered it was three nights for the price of two so we decided to make it two days!

Alderney is very different to the other islands in the Balliwick of Guernsey. Different archtecture, different atmoshphere, different scenery. I liked it!

Come Friday we made shift to get back across the Channel. We'd decided against heading along the North French coast due to the long legs between harbours and some doubts about the weather for the coming week. Off to the Solent was our decision.

We had a contretemp with a freighter heading East who was clearly not keeping a good watch. As the stand on vessel, it was my legal obligation to stand on until it was obvious the other vessel was not making an effort to avoid a collision. When we started to get too close for comfort I called the vessel up on the VHF to clarify his intentions and, somewhat to my surprise, got a reply.

The reply was less than reassuring. The voice on the other end sounded confused and unaware of any of the traffic around him. He stated his intention to maintain his course and speed and when I pointed out that this would result in a collision with the yacht off his starboard bow (us) he replied that he couldn't see us! I responded that I was rather surprised by this as we were barely 1.5 miles apart, we were transmitting on AIS, our radar was active (meaning we would definitely show up on his radar) and the visibility was perfect.

After a further confused sounding response, where he proposed that we BOTH alter course to starboard (which would have resulted in his running us down from astern instead of from the side. Not exactly an improvement) I got authoratitive about matters and made it VERY clear that he should do NOTHING, maintaining his course and speed, and that I would circle around and pass astern of him.

Thankfully he got that message and the incident passed without further ado but it was a worrying indication of the reported suspicions that smaller cargo vessels are increasingly so poorly manned as to be unable to keep a proper lookout.

It was blindingly obvious that the person who replied to my VHF call had zero situational awareness and that he was struggling to get a grip. One can only speculate whether he'd been asleep, texting on his phone having just got a signal for the first time in weeks, or doing something else. What he clearly had not been doing was looking out of the window, monitoring his radar or his AIS

Anyway, rant over and on to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight we proceeded. The fun though wasn't over yet!

As we approached the Needles, Solent Coastguard put out a request for any vessel to assist a small speedboat broken down just off the Needles. A yacht somewhat closer than us responded and headed their way, nobody else chimed in at all (despite several more suitable vessels being in the vicinity). So I called up the Coasties and offered our assistance if required albeit we were around 40 minutes away from the incident. A few minutes later we were called back, thanked and released to continue our voyage.

Entering the Solent via the Needles channel was a first for me and it's an impressive sight. I suspect it would be rather less pleasant in unsettled weather but we still had sun, heat and not a lot of wind.

We arrived in Yarmouth and rafted up to a rather pretty yacht with very friendly owners. The next morning we moved to a finger berth. Although I could have had free nights in Lymington Yacht Haven, I fancied a visit to Yarmouth as I'd never been before by boat. Very nice it is too.

We probably should have moved on on Sunday but the Solent was wall to wall boats. Big boats, little boats, sailing boats, motor boats, jetskis, speedboats, dinghys. it was just boats everywhere. So we went to the pub again!

Come Monday morning we set off hoping to reach Eastbourne. However, Pagan was proving to be rather sluggish and we simply weren't making good speed through the water. At the start of the passage, the sea was like a mill pond but by late afternoon off Brighton it was building an increasingly annoying steep chop, the wind had got up and we were being chased by a cold front coming in rapidly from the West.

We gave up and bailed out into Brighton. Our first stop was the refuelling dock as it seemed sensible to take the chance to top up the tanks then we moved onto a finger berth. I offered to take a berth that would have our keel in the mud at low water to avoid the chaos that was the visitor berths. The marina staff were doing their best but the number of boats trying to get in was overwhelming the capacity of the availabe moorings and their ability to cope.

Brighton marina desperately needs dredging. It's been allowed to get into a parlous state and although some aspects (such as the toilet and shower facilities) are better than they used to be I do object to paying the same to visit Brighton as I pay to visit Soveriegn Harbour or Chichester where the facilities are fantastic and you can always get a good berth.

Grumble aside, we then had to stay in Brighton for a second day as the cold front and the following low pressure system blew through. It wasn't an absolute "no go" day but an examination of our hull below the waterline at low water had revealed a considerable amount of fouling. This accounted for our lack of get up and go and I felt it worth trying to shift some of it with the deck brush.

I also had a suspicion about the cooling water intake filter. Whilst we were by no means overheating and there was a reasonable amount of water being ejected from the wet exhaust, my instincts were telling me that it wasn't as much water as usual.

So we took the chance whilst in Brighton to have the basket filter out of the intake box and sure enough it was partially choked with weed. We also gave the air filter a clean while we were in the engine hole, a job I'd meant to do before we left several weeks ago that didn't get done. It wasn't desperate but it could do no harm. And some work with the deck brush shifted some of the weed.

Wednesday saw us make the relatively short hop from Brighton to Sovereign Harbour. We left with some hopes of perhaps making Dover but we were still lacking in the boat speed department. It was frustrating but there was no help for it. We were resigned to making Dover on Thursday and then having to split the final leg with a stop at Ramsgate on Friday.

To cut a long story short, we did indeed make Dover on Thursday and in fairly good time too. Pagan had suddenly found at least some of her missing get up and go. I have a feeling we had something, perhaps weed, foulding the prop as the prop wash on the run from Brighton to Sovereign Harbour had struck me as being unusually violent and on this run it was back to something like normal.

That, and other considerations, put us in the mood to stop idling about and get the hammer down on Friday. There was a reasonable chance of getting Pagan back onto her mud berth Friday evening and that would be the last chance for over a week. So get the hammer down we did and happily we made the passage from Dover to Fambridge almost exactly as planned.

Less happily, the tide failed to make by well over a foot and Pagan will have to lurk on the river pontoon for a week until Jane and I can go down next weekend and move her