APRIL 2007

April 1st 2007!  April Fools Day!! It could only be us!!!!

WE DID IT!!!!!

Well, the weather wasn’t perfect.  The sun was shining, it was a bit chilly, the wind was coming from the right direction although the sea was a bit sloppy - but when we left Sunderland we couldn’t have imagined the farewell we’d receive. Over 20 boats escorted us out of the harbour (probably just to make sure that we left and weren’t winding them up with an Aprils Fool joke!!) and the promenade was lined with friends and well-wishers. We were both very emotional and would like to thank everyone who came or sent their regards for our departure.

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We left Sunderland at 1300 and were tied up in Hartlepool by 1630.   El Lobo was lifted out of the water on the Wednesday for a final underwater hull check, replacing of anodes and anti-fouling, then we sailed down to Scarborough on Good Friday. We had had visitors again in Hartlepool. Dave and Marge Collins from ‘Jack Flash’, Mike and Rose from ‘Kes’, Norman and Eileen from ‘Lionheart’, Paul from ‘Silora’ not forgetting Alan Henderson from Hartlepool Marina, who kindly gave us a Marina flag and a ‘North of England’ pennant we will be flying for sure! See www.hartlepool-marina.com  Also good friends Brian and Lynn from ‘Hypo’ again together with sister Sheila and her husband Jim with Stella. By the way, Brian is the worst courier ever as he has only just delivered some T-shirts for us!!! (May) One last evening in the Small Crafts Club then we were ready to leave.

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We left Hartlepool for Scarborough on the 6th (Good Friday) and stayed there over Easter and were visited by Graham and Helen from ‘Macavity’ and Jean, Julian and David who were on holiday in Whitby from Huddersfield. We actually got away from the boat for a while when we went walking on the Yorkshire Moors with Helen and Graham on Easter Sunday. Scarborough was very busy over Easter of course, but it was nice to be there and seeing old friends.

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We left Scarborough at 1230 on Tuesday 10th sailing through the night and tied up in Lowestoft at 1545 Wednesday. That was our first ‘overnighter’ for a long time but we managed it OK with a good westerly wind helping us a lot of the way. The passage was 137 nautical miles and it took us 27 hours. Not too bad for an old lady (and gentleman!!)

We moored up at the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club in Lowestoft which we found very helpful and accommodating. See www.rnsyc.org   We had just missed Princess Anne by a couple of days. She had been opening a water sculpture on the promenade and had visited the club the same day. We walked up to Oulton Broad one day to visit the chandlers there and passed a lot of small boatyards which seemed to be doing good business. We also had another visitor. Mike’s old work mate Andrew arrived with a bottle of gin for Mike and a bunch of tulips for the little woman! Very thoughtful - they lasted nearly a fortnight and lived in the sink when we were at sea. Of course Pat will be sharing the gin when we open it!

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After a few days at Lowestoft we left to sail to Ramsgate and arrived there at 0420 on 15th. There was a ferry coming out as we went in - at that time in the morning! Mike found yet another chandlers there, a real one this time. More of a ‘boaters’ place than a ‘yachties’ place. It’s called Marlec Marine and is just on the quayside in Military Road. See www.marlecmarine.com   We had our first ice cream cornet on the sands at Ramsgate and really enjoyed the town.  It has a nice feel about it. I’m afraid we didn’t too much exploring. Just replenished stores and bought even more spares and gubbins’ for the boat. What we started to notice was that mooring prices had begun to rise.

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The next stop on our journey was Eastbourne, where the prices continued to rise and the surroundings became more ostentatious but lacked something in atmosphere. There was an Asda within walking distance though.  We moored up next to a small motor boat which belonged to a Dutchman in his 70’s. He had done a circumnavigation in the 80’s which took him 6 years and was interesting to talk to.

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We then moved on to Brighton on the 19th which was even more ostentatious and lacking in atmosphere - unless you like trendy bars and restaurants and looking at luxury flats and boats! I think we lowered the tone a little with El Lobo. I’m afraid we must be getting too old to appreciate such things. It was all worth it though when Margaret and John turned up for the weekend. It was good to see them again and the wedding, of course, was discussed and menus and place settings were delivered by mother to a chorus of oohs and aahs.  We bought a new Yamaha 2.5 hp outboard motor at Oakley Marine, a dealer in Brighton, and it is behaving well. It is a four stroke and seems to have a lot more oomph than our last little two stroke 2 hp Suzuki. The dealer couldn’t believe his eyes when Mike loaded the engine on to our bike trailer to transport back to the boat!

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We sailed along the coast on Sunday 22nd and stayed at Lady Bee marina in Shoreham for a couple of nights. This was more our style of marina. There were more boats of our type there and the price was nearly half that of Brighton and Eastbourne. This included ‘locking’ in and out and our electricity. The owner, Mr Barnes, who ran the ‘Aladdin's cave’ chandlery, was most accommodating and we even got free internet access through his network. We would certainly recommend this marina as it was the only one we found on the south coast which didn’t charge a fortune!

The marina is in a suburb of Shoreham called Southwick and the village centre a short walk from the industrial surrounds of the docks is lovely with a large village green and adequate shops and banking facilities.

We proudly flew our St George’s flag and North East England pennant on the 23rd! See www.adurboatsales.co.uk

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Our next longish leg was from Shoreham to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight and it took us 10 hours. This was the first time we had had to ‘motor sail’ as there was little wind to drive us. The weather for our trip had been wonderful up until then but on this day it was quite misty and the Solent was very busy with large merchant ships and cruise liners. It relieved the boredom a bit to keep watch for them as they hove into view in the distance through the mist. Our AIS (Automatic Identification System) radar was on the blink (literally) but we could see our way clear as we passed. We had found the boon of the AIS as we crossed the Wash and the Thames Estuary in the dark as it told us who everybody was , the direction they were going, the speed they were doing, or if they were anchored. There was one ship showing ‘not under command’ and was almost stationary in the water so we were pleased when we left him behind in the Thames estuary!  Mike has fixed the AIS now by the way.

The Isle of Wight was lovely but we didn’t really have time to see much of it as we wanted to get to Beaulieu in time for the Boat Jumble on the 29th. (Things to buy - still!) We wished we had had a few days more there but we did go into Newport on the bus one day to buy a new saddle for my bike.  It had been flipped off the bike by the sheets as we were tacking in light winds off Brighton. There were some interesting large plaques on the quay wall at Yarmouth including one advertising best Durham Walsend(sic) coal.  We wished the merchant was still in business as we were finding coal hard to come by for the stove! We visited the Royal Solent Yacht club in Yarmouth and signed in as members of the Wear Boating Association. A lot of the boats there were again on the large side and a man who was just leaving mentioned they were going across to Beaulieu and Mike said “ Oh, you’re going to the boat jumble?” The man looked puzzled and said “What boat jumble?” I suppose with a boat like his he wouldn’t be looking to buy anything second hand for it!

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We said good-bye to Yarmouth on Thursday 26th and made the short hop over to the Beaulieu river on the mainland.  The whole of the area including the riverbed, is owned by Lord Montagu and we were charged £5 by the harbourmaster for the privilege of dropping our anchor for the night. We travelled upriver in the dinghy but it took us about 3/4 of an hour to get up to Bucklers Hard from the anchorage so decided to up sticks and move up to a vacant buoy the next day. We still had to pay £17.50 for the buoy but it would have cost £35 a night on a pontoon! Never mind, our surroundings were beautiful and it was lovely and peaceful watching the world (boats) go by. Mind, we still stuck out like a sore thumb as a lot of the locals seemed well-heeled, although we saw a lot of lovely smaller boats including old wooden ‘gaffers’ and motor-sailor types.

Bucklers Hard village itself is lovely.  Over 50 wooden ships for the Royal Navy were built here from the 1740’s including the Agamemnon which fought at Trafalgar in 1805. It was said to be Nelson’s favourite ship and he was serving as her captain when he met Lady Hamilton in Naples. It was also on Agamemnon that he lost his eye at the siege of Calvi.  See www.bucklershard.co.uk

We also discovered the name of a small black and white bird from our ‘Seabirds of the World’ book. We had thought it a tern but found it was a black headed gull. The next day we had taken our bikes up to the village of Beaulieu itself and we were sitting having our lunch by a lake when a man with a small boy stopped and asked if we knew the name of that fast moving small black and white bird!! We nonchalantly replied, “Oh, that’s a black headed gull” before confessing we had only found out ourselves the previous day. I think we may be turning into ‘twitchers’ as we have since bought another book! By the way, it was a sight to behold seeing Mike transporting two full size mountain bikes on the dinghy up and down the river.

We carried on with our ride on the Saturday afternoon and spent a lovely couple of hours following trails in the New Forest. We didn’t have a map but just followed the sun (we’re navigators remember) and luckily emerged from the forest just a couple of miles along the road from Beaulieu.

Came the morning of the 29th and the big moment had arrived. We were taken up to the jumble by courtesy coach from Bucklers Hard then guess who we saw AGAIN - Brian and Lynn from ‘Hypo’ - and he still hadn’t delivered the T-shirts!! We also met up with Norman and Eileen from Hartlepool who were camping in the New Forest then we all split up to look for bargains. Mike immediately found another self tailing winch to match the one we bought last year for a staggeringly low price of £90.  He has since found it needs a bit of attention but it should soon be in place helping to raise our foresail. We bought a second hand flotation vest for £2, furniture and plumbing fittings, some rope and other bits and bobs.

During the afternoon we were joined by friend Lori and her new man Clive. They kindly gave us a lift back to Bucklers Yard and we entertained them on board El Lobo. Lori was sussing out the boat as she has promised to join us for the big push over the Atlantic, probably in the New Year. We will be a bit cramped but an extra pair of eyes and hands is most welcome.

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Our final leg of this months update was to Weymouth in Dorset and we made a fast passage from Beaulieu on the morning of Monday 30th April. It is possible to do the trip from the Solent to Weymouth within one tide but our old lady was a bit more sedate and took nearly 9 hours hours to do the 45 miles, still averaging 5 knots. We decided to anchor in Portland Harbour that night and we paid £5 as we were amongst the club moorings. It blew up a bit in the night and we experienced our first uncomfortable sleep. Neither of us slept very well and it was maybe this that caused us to make a mistake as we left to move round to Weymouth the next morning. 

We were just leaving Portland when we heard the engine alarm sounding and saw the red light showing on the control panel. Mike (without his glasses) thought it was the charging alarm and went below to check but could see nothing wrong with the fan belt. We carried on but after a few moments were engulfed by smoke coming from behind the instrument panel. We then saw it was the temperature alarm sounding, not the charger, and realised that we hadn’t turned on the stopcock for the sea water to the engine and she was running without cooling water. Mike immediately turned on the water and managed to get some antifreeze into the water jacket and the alarm stopped! Unfortunately, the smoke began to pour out again and this time was accompanied by acrid exhaust fumes. On checking, the plastic water lock had started to melt with the heat, and the sea water was just emptying into the bilge. We immediately turned off the engine and raised the foresail and managed to sail back into Portland and dropped anchor again. Luckily, the engine compartment fire extinguisher hadn’t discharged so the heat mustn’t have been critical!

Our engine is below water level so our routine is ALWAYS to turn off the water every time we switch off, otherwise water could syphon back and swamp the engine.  Conversely, we ALWAYS make sure we turn it back on before starting again, otherwise we could overheat. In our tiredness, we both thought each other had turned on the water, and neither had checked that water was coming from the exhaust. This, combined with not recognising the right alarm light, cost us the price of a new water lock and impeller, but luckily no engine damage.

Mike managed to botch up the water lock with filler and gaffer tape which got us into Weymouth with me keeping an eye on the bilge pump. Everything is OK now, thank goodness.

We mulled over whether we should report this mishap here or not as we did not want to be considered idiots, then decided we wanted to report our adventures, good and bad, and are human, after all, so are reporting everything, warts and all! We will NEVER make that mistake again, hopefully.

Since being in Weymouth we have been able to do a bit of sorting out. We still have far too much on the boat as our waterline confirms but we are gradually getting rid of unneeded items. We have done some jobs too, the main one being Mike fitting our wind vane self steering gear. It is a very old Gunning model, but should work all right now we have replaced all the chain and fittings. I now have a smart leather large knife holder behind a locker door so now have more room in the utensil drawer and all the pots and pans are sitting in cut-outs under the sink so won’t move around any more. The only other urgent job we had to do was to replace the blocks at the top of the mast for our halyard (rope to raise the sail). The foresail had become very difficult to raise and we thought the bearings in the blocks had gone. We bought them second hand a couple of years ago so we had to order new ones last week. They finally arrived on Friday but the wind has been so strong that we only managed to change them this morning. Pat up the mast again!

We have been enjoying Weymouth mind you. We have had visits from Mike’s family, brother Dave and wife June, sister Val with husband Andrew and son Alex, then friend Andy with Jennie, who Mike hadn’t seen for 30 years (as they were chatting Mike’s accent reverted into pure Somersetian, if that’s a word). We have also made some new friends, Sheila and Mike, who are related to Di and John Barlow in Peterlee. They introduced us to a folk night in the Sailors Return pub where we enjoyed a convivial evening. We enjoyed it so much that it inspired Mike to unearth his mandolin and start practising. I have also bought a harmonica and penny whistle so we will be able to serenade you all on our return!!!

We have done a bit of sightseeing in Weymouth and have visited the Nothe Fort and the Time Walk at Brewers Quay.  The fort is very interesting and was built in the late 1800’s to defend Weymouth against the French. It was used during the First and Second World Wars then was abandoned. It remained derelict until the late 1980’s then was refurbished and is run by a voluntary group. The Time Walk takes you back through time covering Weymouth’s history. See www.weymouth.gov.uk

We visited the RSPB reserve at Radipole Lake which was where we bought our new bird book. We also had a day out on the bikes and covered 16 miles when we went along the coast to the island of Portland and rode along the path to the southern tip at Portland Bill. The ‘race’ was in full flow and we watched as a yacht was sailing backwards and sideways through the choppy water! Why she was sailing in that direction we couldn’t figure, other than the skipper might have been one of those macho types who thought it would be fun. I bet his crew didn’t think so.  I’m pleased this Skipper is not that way inclined!

Well, that’s about all for this bulletin.  We are hopeful that we will be leaving for Guernsey later in the week when the weather improves. 

Check out some photos below.

For some unknown reason photographs of the actual leaving day and our journey down the east coast of England until Lowestoft have been inadvertently put into the ‘Leaving 2’ folder on the ‘Archived Photos’ page above this one. Just click here to see them. Photos from Lowestoft onwards are below.

Oh, by the way, Brian has delivered the T-shirts!

We have found a couple of movies for this month.

El Lobo on her mooring on the Beaulieu river. The precarious journey of the two bikes on the Beaulieu.