Launching at midnight may seem a little mad but it has its benefits. Firstly, it is surprising just how much light there is especially with assistance from a full moon. Then, there are the advantages yielded by the stillness often prevalent at night - a glassy sea, and no wind to send the boat to places unintended by her skipper. I also quite like launching when people aren't watching so that judgments cannot be made!
This 'slipway' is in fact a developing hard area just opposite the entrance to King's Boatyard. On spring tides, there's always sufficient water to slide the boat into the water once the tide begins to lap at the wheels of the trailer. As usual, I had to make use of back-winching but otherwise launching was pleasingly uneventful and, having found a temporary home for car and trailer, Daisy II, tender and I drifted off into the night and found a vacant mooring for the night, as close as I could reasonably estimate to the position of my own allocated mooring.
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| Friday evening, anticipating the midnight tide |
In the morning, the first job was to find the correct mooring. This year, I have been allocated a place six moorings closer to Pin Mill Hard. It transpires that, in last night's darkness, I had managed to find the adjacent mooring to my own. The mooring line is well maintained by King's Boatyard and, once I'd removed most of the slime that naturally accumulates, Daisy II was fastened securely and breakfast could begin.
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| View from the cockpit on Saturday morning |
Time for the season's first sail. All sails seem to be working well. I've made few changes to the rigging except that the shrouds are now lined in plastic covering for almost their entire lengths. At a few points, I needed to resort to motor which I was happy to do to ensure the outboard was functioning reliably. Unfortunately, this presented the only problem in the whole weekend when the motor cut out when travelling south towards Trinity Terminal. I think this was due to a slight break in fuel supply. I checked all fuel connections and eventually managed to restart the engine which then performed well for the remainder of times I used it. The repairs done during the service seem to have worked, the whine has disappeared and it sounds a good deal less laboured.
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| First sail; note functioning echo sounder - though I gave up on the log ages back. The paddle kept on clogging up with weed and, now that I always travel using GPS, I have an instant reading of speed and distance. At some stage, I'll get the paddle removed and the hull reglassed and, at the same time, purchase a new echo sounder. |
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| View of the bilges after 18 hours in the water. Less than a thimbleful of water ingress, the seemingly redundant, ultra-high absorbency sponge looking up forlornly (long may that continue but, just in case, you're staying put, mate!) In previous seasons, at this point there has often been an inch of water all around the centreplate casing during the first day on the mooring, which had always subsided as the hull expanded. |
Once the sail was complete, it was time for lunch, and I then spent the afternoon doing the various jobs that I never seem to get round to.
Firstly, I replaced the two cords I use for reefing the main with thicker cord. These consist of lines taken, one from the clew to the first (or second) reefing cringle, the other from the tack to the equivalent cringle on the luff. When reefing, rather than disconnecting the block and then reattaching to the cringle, I simply pull the line through the clew and cringle and secure. The purpose of the thicker cord is to try and beef-up this process with a more secure arrangement, and to ease the knot-tying process - often carried out in increasingly rocky sailing conditions
I have also repositioned the hinges on the starboard side locker lid, glassed over any old holes and, today's job, lined the lid with thicker watertight sealing material so that, in the event of a knockdown, the hatches remain more watertight. This job has only partially worked and I may need to reposition, or even to add to the latches in order to complete this.
Various other jobs included replacement screws in various parts of the boat, and ensuring all equipment was safely stowed.
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| Daisy II on her new mooring which is closer to shore than the old one. |
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| Meet Pamela Jean, the latest addition to the Drascombe fleet at Pin Mill |
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| 7.8nm |
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