The Gremlin strikes again!

I definately have a gremlin.  ….  not satisfied with making the 12v system behave in ways that shouldn’t be possible, I had all the boat flags fall down yesterday for no rhyme or reason, leaving the rope at the top of the mast. A quick sorti up the mast to retrieve said rope was required. I think I may have an etherial crew member – I am sure you know where the red wine is Bill!

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D-day is saturday!

Out there – there be dragons!

Well tomorrow was sail out of Hoo day. however the start has now been postponed until Saturday. The current westerly gales make any trip up the Thames a non starter let alone being trashed on a buoy overnight. So plan B is to go straight to Queenborough then head north. The met office forecast is showing S/SW force 5/6 for the week which would be pure bliss but experience tells me never to trust a weather forecast!! Dressed overall - the last time for many weeks that the old girl will have dry feet!

4am Panic setting in!

Yesterday was an odd day – Started with breaking my big toe after loosing an argument with the safety line on the boat. Now hobbling around looking pathetic! As the day progressed Goodwill was sponsored by two dogs (Sadie and Harry) and a friend who died last year…… the motoring light fell off the mast for reasons known only to it and a can of diesel jumped into the cockpit with the inevitable consequences!! Do I have a deceased spirit by the name of Bill, on board I wonder??

From 7 -12pm I was cooking bar b q for what seemed like hundreds but raised a further £100 bringing us closer to the 1K target.

Martine vs Barnacles!

For the last four days I have crawled around and mostly under the old girl. chipping off all the old antifouling. I can think of better ways of spending my time than lying on my back in the medway mud showering myself in antifouling! Only plus side was it proved a great source of entertainment for others! However I now report to have a clean, silky smooth bottom. Two days now since the new antifoul was put on and not a barnacle in sight – for once I have won! This was my view two days ago when the hard work was finished.

Time – yes please!

Two weeks today I will be on the way to Lowestoft! Meanwhile back to reality – I am back on the scubbing dock only to find that in the last week my bottom (no comments) is covered in thousands of baby barnacles. It is 8 years since I antifouled and plan A was to inhabit dry land for a couple of months next year and ‘do’ the hull properly…. no such luck. The antifoul has chosen right now to fail! So nothing for it but have to clean boat inbetween tides and antifoul – I haven’t got enought time!!!!

Crab for starters!

Engine up and running so next step is to go out and play and see what is does isn’t it? The engine however had a different idea of playing than I did! Saturday, the day of the Medway Thames Sailing Barge Match – couldn’t move on the river for barges under full sail waiting for the start of their races…. we happily chugged around…. well we did til the engine died! We were in too close quarters to get our act together quickly enough to sail out of trouble so we resorted to throwing out the hook in the middle of everything to anchor us to the mud while we and now everybody else sorted themselves out around us!

The only thing that stops diesels in their tracks is no fuel and knowing I had a full tank the culprit had to be air in the system ….. somewhere. After a couple of starts and stops we picked up a mooring bouy just to rest for a couple of hours. By now we had missed the tide and couldn’t get back in to the marina so sailed down river to a little creek called Stangate. As I cooked a bar b q the sun set and avocets scrabbled in the shore mud. And then a crab sauntered down the deck….. I can only guess he was in the weed from the mooring bouy. Eventually made it back to my berth. Two hours of investigation found the offending air leak so hopefully that particular teething trouble is now put to bed.

Progress is being made!

Listen carefully – I have a tiger in my tank! You turn the key and it purrs …..

Something’s afoot!

This saga started last Wednesday with a simple operation to tow the engineless Goodwill to the scubbing dock (200 yards away) to lift shiny new engine in….. 3 days later I tied up there at 3am! I wont bore you with the details of this little sortie, but needless to say we provided a free entertainment show to those sensible people who believe on staying on terra firma! Safely tied to the shore I retired back to my bed… within hours the wind had seen the opportunity to have fun and gale force 8’s came ouit to play and that put pay to any meaningful relationship I was going to have with my bed for the next 2 days!





Yesterday we moved the shiny new engine to the cockpit (using the boom as a crane gib). i have photos but currently the phone and computer are refusing to talk to each other. Warm and dry the engine and me settled down for the night….. 4am and it and I were soaked after the side of the cockpit tent was ripped off in the gales. Unfortunately I had forgotten to connect back the cockpit drains so…. 6 gallons of rain just emplied from the bilges!!

After much admiration the new engine took up residence in the engine bay. Bless its cotton socks it did not give us further grief until I spent £60 just on the liquids to keep it happy – wine is much cheaper! I am still drying the bilges, the wind is screaming the rain is chucking it down, but hey I got a shiney new engine !

We may have a new engine….

We have just liberated a large ply box from Colin’s workshop that claims to contain the new engine! Too scared to look! True to form the new engine has no intention of sitting nicely on the old mounts so the task of building new engine bearers has commenced. Resin and hot weather is not a good mix! Needless to say the car got jealous of all the attention being directed at her arch enemy and declined to remind me her MOT and insurance were about to expire – Hey Ho!!

Was this a good idea?

The first requirement of a boat going ‘deep sea’ is that it has a reliable means of propulsion for when the wind is is on the nose and the pub is in the same direction or the wind dies and leaves you going nowhere very fast. So the obvious place to start the preparation for this 1000 miles of craziness is to … yes - remove the engine! There is a rumour she will shortly have a shiny new engine though where 29 horses are going to go …The engine bay is spotless. I have a new permanent perfume-a gentle blend of diesel, oil and kerosine! Watch this space, it could turn into a saga!