Thursday, 19 August 2010
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
St Vaast la Hougue - Saturday 14th August 2010
Saturday was predicted to be a Northerly wind Force 2-4. It was Northerly and mostly 4. We only had one reef in the main, should have had two. But we made quick progress from Cherbourg to St Vaast la Hougue.
In this photo, the Seagull is not afloat, but standing on Terra Firma.
For those that don't know, there is a major difference between speed through the water and speed over the ground. On this trip we managed our world record over the ground of 11.9 knots. The tides don't half run past the Pointe de Barfleur.
St Vaast is a port that is somewhat tidally constrained. A few hours after arriving, I took these photos of the channel we had just sailed up.
In this photo, the Seagull is not afloat, but standing on Terra Firma.
But, once again, Bugsy is safely tied up.
Night night. See you in the morning.
Faire la vaiselle
Washing up is always a tricky business on a boat, especially when the Skipper and Crew are choosing hymns. Fortunately, the Galley Slave has mastered the art of stacking the drying up.
It's an artform!
It's an artform!
Starry, starry night
Well, it was a few days late, but Vincent the engineer finally came through with the goods. And here is the new engine bit, once again modelled by the beautiful Claire, this time, just to balance out the composition, I got a bit of broccoli in the picture as well (for the purists, both Claire and the Broccoli were meant to be out of focus).
Once installed, it seemed to work perfectly. No water in the bilges and no oil under the engine pan. Perfect.
Now the toilet is leaking. Oh well, that's boats for you.
Once installed, it seemed to work perfectly. No water in the bilges and no oil under the engine pan. Perfect.
Now the toilet is leaking. Oh well, that's boats for you.
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
BP's oil leak has nothing on us.....
We had been noticing a bit of an oil leak from the engine since we left Dover. Mick our friendly (and ever optimistic) engineer assured us over the phone that everything would be fine.
In Gosport, we had changed the oil filter again thinking that the leak might have come from there. It still leaked.
The Galley Slave noticed that it was coming from something that was screwed into the engine block just above and behind the filter. We phoned Mick, our friendly (and ever optimistic) engineer who said "Oh just tighten it up a bit, it'll be fine". We tightened it up. It leaked a bit less.
On the trip over the channel, we checked and it was once again leaking quite badly. The Skipper tightened up the bolt again, it stemmed the leak for a while.
Next morning we decided we'd take the whole thing out (and identified it as the oil pressure sensor widget) and put some PTFE tape around the bolt and refix it to see if this fixed the problem. The Galley Slave elected to tighten it back up. "How tight should this go?", she asked. "Fairly tight", replied the Skipper. "It's getting tighter", she said, "Oh, it's gone all loose!" Damn thing had sheared off, leaving part of it stuck in the engine
So, now we had a hole in the top of the engine that needed fixing before we could go anywhere.
Off to the local engineer. Eventually he came and had a look and after much sucking of air through teeth, he told us that he would have to take the engine out, take it to his workshop, take the bit out and then refit the engine. Probably in the region of 700 Euros.
That evening, we were invited for drinks and food onto the boat next door, a German flagged Beneteau First 40.7. The skipper, called Geoff, was English, his delightful wife, Karin, was German.
After a lot of pork and even more wine, we mentioned our plight. "Oh, I could get that out in 10 minutes", said Geoff.
So what do you do? Qualified engineer, or drunken Englishman who has made Germany his home?
Next morning Geoff came round and had a look. Went back to his boat and sawed off the end of a file, shoved it in the hole and 10 minutes later the bit was out. We bought him a bottle of wine. Net saving 697 Euros!
Here's Geoff and his lovely wife:
And here are the bits (modelled by the beautiful Claire), this is the bit that was stuck in the engine:
And this was the bit that it was previously attached to:
All's well that ends well.
In Gosport, we had changed the oil filter again thinking that the leak might have come from there. It still leaked.
The Galley Slave noticed that it was coming from something that was screwed into the engine block just above and behind the filter. We phoned Mick, our friendly (and ever optimistic) engineer who said "Oh just tighten it up a bit, it'll be fine". We tightened it up. It leaked a bit less.
On the trip over the channel, we checked and it was once again leaking quite badly. The Skipper tightened up the bolt again, it stemmed the leak for a while.
Next morning we decided we'd take the whole thing out (and identified it as the oil pressure sensor widget) and put some PTFE tape around the bolt and refix it to see if this fixed the problem. The Galley Slave elected to tighten it back up. "How tight should this go?", she asked. "Fairly tight", replied the Skipper. "It's getting tighter", she said, "Oh, it's gone all loose!" Damn thing had sheared off, leaving part of it stuck in the engine
So, now we had a hole in the top of the engine that needed fixing before we could go anywhere.
Off to the local engineer. Eventually he came and had a look and after much sucking of air through teeth, he told us that he would have to take the engine out, take it to his workshop, take the bit out and then refit the engine. Probably in the region of 700 Euros.
That evening, we were invited for drinks and food onto the boat next door, a German flagged Beneteau First 40.7. The skipper, called Geoff, was English, his delightful wife, Karin, was German.
After a lot of pork and even more wine, we mentioned our plight. "Oh, I could get that out in 10 minutes", said Geoff.
So what do you do? Qualified engineer, or drunken Englishman who has made Germany his home?
Next morning Geoff came round and had a look. Went back to his boat and sawed off the end of a file, shoved it in the hole and 10 minutes later the bit was out. We bought him a bottle of wine. Net saving 697 Euros!
Here's Geoff and his lovely wife:
And here are the bits (modelled by the beautiful Claire), this is the bit that was stuck in the engine:
And this was the bit that it was previously attached to:
All's well that ends well.
Off to France
After two weeks in Weymouth (and much merriment at Finns pub - recommended to all), we decided it was time to set sail across the channel. Once again, our faithful crew, Claire, came along to help us.
On Saturday we de-camped to Portland Marina so that we could get an early start on Sunday. A fine, new, marina which has been built to host the sailing bit of the 2012 Olympics. Let's hope they build some shops before that happens.
It was also a jolly long walk to the Gents.
After what seemed like a lifetime, but was in fact only 14 hours, Claire reminded the Skipper that, as we were finally in French waters, we should hoist the courtesy ensign.
The Galley Slave was allowed off duty just long enough to get the mainsail down in the dying embers of sunlight:
and after 15 hours, we finally arrived in Cherbourg.
Encore une fois, en France.
On Saturday we de-camped to Portland Marina so that we could get an early start on Sunday. A fine, new, marina which has been built to host the sailing bit of the 2012 Olympics. Let's hope they build some shops before that happens.
It was also a jolly long walk to the Gents.
At 5am we were rudely awakened by the alarm clock and after a cup of tea, set off on a course of 150 degrees, bound for Cherbourg. All was going well until the skipper failed to notice a lobster pot marker until the very last moment and wrongly decided to try and pass it on the uptide side. We stopped. We couldn't use the engine to try and free ourselves, for fear of getting the rope wrapped around the propeller but fortunately with a bit of backwards and sideways sailing finally managed to free ourselves. Claire slept through all of this. But then she woke up and demanded breakfast.
After what seemed like a lifetime, but was in fact only 14 hours, Claire reminded the Skipper that, as we were finally in French waters, we should hoist the courtesy ensign.
The Galley Slave was allowed off duty just long enough to get the mainsail down in the dying embers of sunlight:
and after 15 hours, we finally arrived in Cherbourg.
Encore une fois, en France.
Guests Galore...
The first week in August we were overrun with guests. We only managed to photograph one of them...
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Pipped to the post
So, we went to have another look at the prospective new boat and totally fell in love with her. It would appear though that someone else has put in an offer that was very close to the asking price and more than we were thinking of offering. Oh well, the search continues......
Sunday, 1 August 2010
A bit Moody
As you can imagine, it's getting a bit cramped living on Bugsy, she's only 31 foot long and we have a lot of stuff on board. We've been thinking of upgrading to something a bit bigger and have looked at a few boats, some were in a bad condition, some were too small, some the layout didn't suit us and some were just plain overpriced.
Then we went to Plymouth and saw "Dreamweaver". She's a Moody 44 from 1992. She's lovely.
So we're off to have another look on Tuesday. Watch this space...........
Then we went to Plymouth and saw "Dreamweaver". She's a Moody 44 from 1992. She's lovely.
So we're off to have another look on Tuesday. Watch this space...........
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