Castle Cove - Outbound

Before I start, this trip has thrown more than it's fair share of problems, which has made me stop and think about how I prepare to do things and double check once they are done.

Saturday Morning was bright and a little warmer than I expected.  John and I loaded up the car and set off for the club about 7.30AM.  We had brought the tender down and put it on the outhaul the previous evening and it was nice to see it was still dry inside... My GRP work had held.  We took our time getting sorted, there was no rush as the tide wouldn't be in our favour until after 9am.  The old Seagull works well but is difficult to start and without a clutch or kill switch, coming along side is similar to watching Kamikaze pilots in the old movies... once you're committed there is no going back! It's also incredibly mucky to handle.. oil and fuel everywhere.   I think I'll be looking out for a replacement.

 By 9:40 we were under sail heading for the harbour entrance, I started the engine to clear the chain ferry and reverted to sail power once through.  Not much progress being made and the wind seemed to be dropping. Jintan passed us on the motor in the Swash channel and after another 20 mins of very slow progress I gave in and started the engine.  We furled away the Genoa and motored sailed out past Swanage.  

Just before St Aldhelms head I went below to grab a chocky bar for John and myself. There was water in the cabin which surprised me as there had been no rain, spillages or large waves.  When I lifted a floor board I was even more surprised, there was about 4" of seawater laying in the bilge; which had definitely been dry when we set off.

The drain hole for the old gas locker, with no gas locker in place any water coming in just drops into the  bilges

 A quick check located the problem.. When I had removed the gas locker, I had not plugged the drain (The first oversight of the trip).  With the engine running the transom was being pushed down forcing the drain hole below the waterline.  Reducing the revs stopped more water coming in and I set about bailing her out.  I have a manual bilge pump, but to be fair it was quicker to bail out with the washing up bowl.  Initially I bailed out into the cockpit expecting the scuppers to do their job.  No such luck, they were both blocked so we had to bail out over the side.  It was then that Brian pulled along side in Figment and asked if now was an appropriate time to wash up :)  I assured him we were safe and under control and Brian went on his way. With the bilge dry I tried to clear the cockpit drain. One eventually cleared but the other was blocked solid.   I turned my attention to the drain hole in the transom. As a temporary measure I used a bolt, 2 penny washers and some insulation tape to seal it.  Once happy that it was watertight we put some revs on the motor again to make up for lost time.

The temporary repair

The cockpit drains where running free at the start of the season, in fact I had shortened the hose in order to make it an unimpeded route but they had still blocked. I whipped the hose off the drain which was still blocked and pulled out an inch and a half of black slime.   I guess anything that goes down the drain and can float will eventually start to slime up and block the pipe.  Not sure what it was but it did encourage me to have better housekeeping in the cockpit area and look out for scuppers with a grate on top to stop some of the things getting in there in the first place.

As I raised my head from the depths of the bilges I could see that we were catching up with JinTan again. Always nice to be sailing in company.   Soon after, the wind picked up and we cut the engine,  wow It was great to be back under sail again.

Jintan passing the recent Durdledoor landslip.

We made good time towards Weymouth, beating all the way.  The wind shifted in the afternoon, forcing us towards the beach. We went as deep as we could in order to make one tack, in 2.5m of water, to get us to the North entrance of Portland.
Into the harbour and we caught sight of the Castle Cove ferry showing Jintan to a mooring, we slinked over and followed suit.  As soon as we were moored, tidied and changed we hailed the ferry again and went ashore.  We had a wonder into Weymouth and had a quick pint on the quay before heading back for our BBQ.  Richard, the Commodore at Castle Cove had really made us feel welcome, it's a lovely club.