Winter activity

I haven't been completely idle.  I joined up with the owner of the longboat Jenny Morgan on Oulton Broad for a very pleasant sail on December 27th.

I also, today, went for this cycle ride from home:


32.5 statute miles - Grafham Water and back

 To say this was 'sailing' related is stretching a point, but it was very pleasant riding around Grafham Water and watching two fleets of racing sailing boats.  Considering this is the closest usefully 'Drascombable' stretch of water to home, it is a surprise that I haven't ever launched there.  I may have to do something about this in 2012.  In the mean time, lots more over-indulgence to make up for down the gym...

Standing orders....!

Late autumn repairs and modifications...

From the last post, I never did manage another trip.  So...
....the season end, and time to see to some repairwork. Firstly, I had a couple of trailer keel rollers replaced with some harder compound rubber. Hopefully these will roll and I won't have to back-winch the boat off the trailer so often.
Also, following some attention last winter, I wanted an expert to look at the centreplate and have it fully serviced. The following pictures show the removed plate before and after renovation. Apparently, there was still plenty of mileage in the plate as it was, but it's along way to Churchouse Boats at Andover, and I wanted it sorted for peace of mind...

Original centreplate strop attachment

centreplate with track, fully removed and showing rust!

regalvanised centreplate ready for return

Also, the fibreglass housing at the ends of the original mainsheet horse has crumbled once again. When I first purchased the boat, I had a repair job done on this, and it has done well since, but hasn't lasted. It didn't help that I kept treading on the blasted pole whilst at sea. I decided to have the whole thing removed and a barton track installed, and the fibreglass patched up.  This brings Daisy II in line with newer coasters, except that this retro-fit is mounted on a lovely teak plinth whereas the new ones have a fibreglass mounting built in to the deck - I think I prefer the wood...  I know that some people do this sort of thing themselves, but I'll limit my woodwork to polishing, painting and varnishing and have the experts do the fiddly bits.
A lovely job by Stewart and his crew at Churchouse Boats.

New mainsheet track following removal of the old pole!

October 29-30 - season's swansong?

Season's swansong...?  Well it depends on weather and commitments over the coming weekends, but it might be good to go up to Rutland Water before putting covers over the boat.  We'll see.

10.7nm; Season's total 580.2nm

Travelled down to the mooring on Saturday afternoon, and had a wonderful sail up and down the Orwell (Green track) topping out at 6.8kts with the tide and including some time messing about with my 'state of the art' navigation lights.  These consist of a set of three clip-on,  battery powered, LED 'bike' lights in red, green and white - purchased on ebay.  They worked exceedingly well from my viewpoint, although it would be good to know how visible they might have been at distance.  I haven't yet found a permanent home for them; on this occasion, I clipped the Port and Starboard ones to the shrouds, and the rear light to a bungee cord tied around the mizzen.  It is certainly an easier option than drilling holes in various parts of the cabin to install permanent ones, especially as I don't currently make a habit of sailing in the dark.  However, I would like to do more of this in future seasons, so may move to a permanent solution in due course.  In the mean time, these seem to do the job.  Incidentally, I also have a white masthead anchor light, again LED, and this works from a 12V socket via the main boat battery.

On the subject of batteries, I had hoped to take some video footage.  However the camera battery had other ideas and conked out.  I'll have to see if anything has been recorded.

After a fish and chip supper, I spent a profitable hour in the Butt and Oyster sampling their beer (Adnams Broadside), whilst waiting for low water to pass so that I could get back to the boat.

On Sunday, I woke reasonably late, except that it was still early, the clocks having gone back.  I needed to wait until High Water before taking the boat out, so went for another marvellous sail up and down the Orwell - red track.  Finally, having taken down the mast, Daisy II left her mooring for the last time this season, and is now sitting on the drive.  Let's hope we can manage a little more sailing before the year is out...