Studland substitute

 Scuppered:

The danger of stating your plans before the event is that you have to explain when they don't happen.  I had planned to go to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight on Saturday with the the club and then stay on in the Solent for the next few days.. I'd booked holiday and not for the first time this year, my plans had been scuppered by the weather.  Saturday was forecast to be a great day however the remains of a tropical storm put any thoughts of me being out on sunday firmly out of my mind.  Checking the weather on Sunday showed gusts of F9.
I went  to the club earlyish on Saturday with no real plan, I just knew that I wanted to get out there.   Arjen was there when I got there and after a cuppa or two we decided to go and have a fiddle with the auto helm.  Arjen has one the same as I am getting so it was good to rig his up to see if I would need any modifications. All the fittings are on Ciao Bella from a previous installation.  The unit dropped on perfectly, I will need an extention for the arm but I can't imagine that will cause a problem.
While there I replaced the jib sheets and the furling line.  The Furling line was a great success, I'd chosen a smaller diameter line which now sits well inside the drum when fully unfurled and is also a bit longer so easier to cleat off than the old one.  The new jib sheets on the other hand were not so successful but more on that later.

New plan:

I tried to convince Arjen to come for a sail but he was adamant that if he wasn't going to Yarmouth he would need to get on with some work.  I dropped him back at the club and wasted no time in getting back to Ciao Bella.
I slipped the mooring under full sail and made my way out of the harbour.  There was just enough breeze to make headway and I decided to head for Studland.. I could almost taste the Ploughmans and real Ale.


Mistress leaving Poole Harbour

Leaving the harbour entrance I spotted  Martin on his boat 'Mistress'  Martin made this boat in a car park while recovering from major heart surgery.  It's incredible, I can barely make toast while recovering from a hangover.  It was about here that I first noticed my jib sheet problem.  As I tacked towards the entrance a small motor boat hailed me and said that I was in shallow water, 4 foot he claimed.  My sounder showed 4 metres, however I heeded his warning and tacked away.  Unfortunately when close hauled the jib sheets are too short on the windward side, stopping the jib clew from moving back along the boat.  I had to adjust the sheet tracks every time I tacked to give enough slack on the windward side and to bring it back on the leeside... what a pain. I thought I'd bought more than enough.
Checking the chart later showed that I was in about 4 metres of water, nevermind, better safe than sorry.

Thanks for stealing my wind.

I tacked along the training wall and eventually got on a track that would take me on to clear the end marker.  about 40 metres from the end a large sailing yacht that had been following me decided to overtake very close on the windward side.  I lost all drive and ended up against the second from last marker, as I frantically tried to start the motor Ciao Bella span off the post and over the wall,  I waited for the crunch but fortunately I went straight over.  I was livid but by the time I'd got her under control the thoughtless Tw@ was out of range for identification... I think he my have heard me though.
Fortunately the only damage was a broken topping lift.  It could have been much worse. The rigging could have snagged and been torn off or the hull / keels could have suffered damage.
I did make a note to self to change outboard proceedure.  I tend to raise the outboard to improve performance once sailing. I will now leave the leg in the water when ever sailing close to hazzards.  The other learning was that to stop the tohatsu I have to pull the cord off the kill switch.  I wasted several seconds replacing this when I needed to start the engine.  In future, once the engine has stopped I will replace the cord.  Two simple steps that could of seen my motor running 20 seconds quicker and maybe kept me off the post... Doesn't excuse inconciderate actions.

And relax.

Eventually into Studland,  There were no spare mooring bouys so I picked a good spot and dropped the anchor.  Happy that it had bit I inflated the tender and paddled over to meet Mrs Ciao Bella, who had driven over.  We strolled up to the Banks Arms where we ordered one of their wonderful ploughmans lunches and tucked into a first class pint of proper beer.   The garden was really busy and the staff would come out shouting the number of the meal, when I eventually heard "ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN!!" I shouted back "BINGO"... not very original I know but it did cause, not only a chuckle, but one poor fellow to fall off his bench.. Sorry :~)
Back to the beach and a paddle out to hte boat.   I didn't hang about, up with the anchor and turned her nose towards home. 
 


   

Although they never come out well on photos.. particularly on a wobbly iPhone, I love the views around Studland bay.Out of the bay and into the channel back to Poole I noticed Mark, another EDSC member who had been moored at Studland, in his Gallion 22 fin keel called Galaxy.  



  









 



Galaxy - An EDSC member on way back to Poole.





 





Galaxy easily catches and overtakes.

I have to say, I was disappointed with how quickly Mark caught up and over took, especially as he was towing a dinghy.  I know his boat is 2 foot longer and the keel configuration probably produces less resistance but even so.  Ciao Bella had fealt sluggish all day, certainly not how she seemed at the start of the season.  Although there doesn't look to be too much weed around the water line I suspect the underside may have quite a lot of growth. I didn't see over 4 knots all day which was a surprise.

All in all not the best days sailing but good to be out anyway.  I'd learnt a few new things, mistified by others.  Back at the club I had a quick chat with Mark,  Maybe it was as simple a thing as Mark has just spent a week on his boat and knows how to make it respond well while I have barely stepped aboard for two month and have forgotten the few tricks that I had learnt. :o))

New crew

Looks like I might be getting a new crew mate... One of the chaps at the club is upgrading his Autohelm and has offered me his old one, like the one below,  for nominal amount.

Ciao Bella already has the fittings and electrical connector for this unit so should be a doddle to fit and assess.   Should make things like stowing the anchor chain etc a little easier in future. :o))

Faffing about.

It's been a funny old few weeks.  We had our summer holiday in France during the first two weeks of August and since our return, for one reason or another, there has been very little sailage. One day I took my father in law out for an afternoon potter around the harbour; including a picnic with family on Brownsea island.   The trip didn't start too well as when we got to the boat the cockpit had several inches of rain water in it.  I tried clearing it with various tactics but eventually had to close the seacocks and remove the pipes.   They were completely blocked with some organic matter... looked and smelt disgusting.

Anyway, that out of the way and we set of for pottery pier.  The was very little wind and it was hard to make headway so after a while we started the engine,  once up near the town and out of the lee of the island a useful breeze picked up and we were able to make way under sail again.   

The anchor was dropped just off pottery pier and we inflated the tender, it's quite a small inflatable for two gents but we managed admirably.  

We had our picnic while fending off a hungry peacock.   Time to head back to Ciao Bella and as we where deflating the tender a large motor boat dropped anchor next to us.  The next time  I looked up the motor boat was drifting past us towards the shore, I hailed the skipper to let him know his anchor was dragging.  He repositioned and set the anchor properly as we pulled up the hook and set course for EDSC.   

Everything was going swimmingly until I grounded half way across the harbour..  I'd never worried about the depth around here before so was taken completely by surprise.

The real kick in the teeth was that my super dooper NASA duet depth sounder was telling me that there was 1.4m under the boat even while stuck on the bottom... some things not right :~)

Anyway we eventually made back to the mooring with out any further upsets.   That was the sum total of Augusts sailing.  I now have some time free and it looks like the weathers going to be reasonable so this weekend I'll be off to Yarmouth and the following few days I'll drift around the Solent.  This will be the last blast of the season so it better happen :-)