Ciao Bella is a Hurley 20 bilge keel sailing yacht, she is my second 'proper' boat. having had some great times in a Fantasie 19 called Jelly Bean I decided it was time to increase my sailing range with a boat that could successfully bridge the gap between the huge fun of being able to explore every nook and cranny of a harbour or estuary and proper sea going ability. I hope this will be the case :~)
Today I should have been setting off bright and early across the channel to Alderney, but the great British summer has put paid to that. Fortunately a chance meeting with Roger at the weekend hatched a plan to go for a potter today instead.
The forecast had been for F4- 5 but it turned out to be F6 for most of the day. We made our way out to the boats at about 10:30. First onto 'Big Easy' for Rog to check all was ok. She still looking good inside, Rog has made a great job of refitting her. We then slid across to 'Ciao Bella' and prepared to set off.
With two reefs in the Main and no Genoa we fair flew across the harbour.
Once settled down I unfurled a small amount of Genoa just to help with going to windward. We practised a few tacks, getting better with each beat, then made one long beat towards the town centre.
I had considered meeting James in Town for a bite to eat but the conditions had got our blood pumping so we carried on, tacking away from the town towards pottery Pier. Beating into this wind was quite exhilarating. As we passed the commercial dock I noticed that there was a new marina near the ferry terminal. I had heard that there was going to be one but hadn't realised it had been built.
Once into Blood Alley, I never did like that name, we had the wind on our tail and the whole feeling changed, it was now almost serene. We were still tanking along at over 5knots but it just felt calm.
We moved in towards the beach and dropped the anchor and spent a pleasant hour eating our lunch and chatting.
The sky looked much better, almost summer like, however the wind was still blowing. Pulling the anchor up was a chore, it had really dug in and it was like tug of war trying to break it free. it eventually came up with a huge clod of mud on it. By the time I'd got the anchor stowed and the chain away Roger was steering us towards the harbour entrance at 5knots with just the reefed main up.
Back around the bottom of Brownsea and the harbour was busy, we deviated to avoid the Condor catamaran. We were back at the mooring before we knew it but picking up the mooring was not going to be easy. Eventually we sailed out to open water and dropped the main sail before motoring back to the mooring. Even without the sail up it was hard to get the mooring on board and secure.
Well it hadn't been my big adventure to Alderney but we had had a great day... Cheers Rog.
Last night I found myself at a strange junction... I had time (every one had gone out) and a weather window, so I took the opportunity to slide on down to the boat.
I had a couple of jobs to do. The VHF needed refitting and also the MMSI number needed to be programmed in.
I had also recently bought a passive radar reflector from the on-line chandlery / junk store that is eBay. This turned out to be a good buy, having read the report into the sinking of the Ouzoafter buying this I was glad to read that although none of the radar reflector are great, this one performs better than the tubular ones that I was originally looking at. It's quite large and in good condition. Also, the trick to improving your chances of detection is to raise it in the catch rain position.. I took this to mean with the opening upper most as opposed to pointy end up. Not sure how I'm going to keep it like that with 30 degrees of heel!:)
I considered attaching it to the back stay but eventually plumbed for a line slung over the spreader to hoist it on. I experimented on were to cleat it off. I eventual decided on using the cleats on the mast as this way it doesn't rub against the shrouds too much. I think judicious use of the guy line while on each tack will be needed to try to keep it in the correct orientation.
I then turned my attention to the VHF, I installed it in minutes and then ran through the private channel selection process to ensure I knew how to do it before needing to do it.
Having done something useful I thought I should reward myself with a pint and a chocky bar while watching the sun go down... Marvellous.
When I bought my radio I had no idea that there were private channels or even if there was that there was a possibility of them not being programmed in.
When I went to Castle Cove I was unable to hail the taxi because they monitor channel 37.... Easy I thought except when I pushed in 37 it wouldn't stick. Channel 37, I later discovered, is private channel M1.
On my return I checked the manual and followed the instructions but couldn't find these fabled channels, it must need reprogramming so it was time to take it to a dealer.
I took it to Greenham Regis in Poole where a very nice man plugged it in and started playing with it. "These old Simrads have odd menus" he said. After a bit of head scratching he phoned another sage who talked him through it.... The channels were there all the time, you just needed to be a code breaker to find them.
He didn't charge me any thing for his time so I promised to stick a couple of quid in the RNLI tin.
So here's an unashamed plug for a very nice man who deals with boat electronics. Greenham Regis. Use them :-)
This evening I took the sail back to the boat after making a repair to the leech. I think this sail is destined to be replaced sooner rather than later. I did this repair myself as I wanted to see what kind of a mess I could make of it :0)) I bought some 4 inch wide repair tape, some waxed thread and a book on repairing sails.
It's a good book with not only advice on sail care and repairs but also DIY projects like over boom sail covers and sea anchors. The leech had torn about 8 inches just inside the hem. I cleaned the area around the damage with acetone. I then used the self adhesive main sail repair tape, which I cut it to length and folded over along the edge of the sail. I then used waxed thread and hand sewed around the edge. It's not as pretty as Jans repairs but it looks ok to me and it means that I now have the kit on the boat in case I need to do any small repairs while away from home.
Before fitting the sail I replaced the shackles on the main sheet gear. The shackles that were on were probably originally galvanised but the zinc had long since disappeared and the shackles were very rusty. During the trip to Newport the other week we had to replace the shackles on the main sheet traveller as they had both failed so it seemed prudent to change the other dodgy looking bits.
Once the sail was on, I put two reefs in and decided it was too good an opportunity to miss. I dropped the mooring and set off across the harbour. I unrolled a small amount of Genoa and practised my single handed tacks.
One of the problems I'd been having was getting the Genoa wound in in good time when there was a lot of heel on the boat. I over came this today by putting a couple of turns on the leeward winch then leading the sheet across to the windward sheet and winding it in. This way I can sit on the high side and face forward while cranking in the Genoa.
I made my way over towards Northaven as I wanted to have a look at 'Lady of Ower', a Fantasie 19 which had made it into the water this week. The wind had picked up to F6 and was too risky for me to be trying to thread my way through the tightly packed boats so I gave up and moved out towards the main channel.
I decided it was too blowy for me to be out single handed so I rolled away the genoa, sailed back towards EDSC; turned into wind; dropped the main and motored back to my mooring and packed everything away.
I wouldn't normally have gone out in these conditions but I'd been going stir crazy and it was good to get out on water, even if only for a short sail.
I have been planning to go the Alderney for some time, We were all set to go on Wednesday morning. Another Hurley 20 owner was set to join us as well but by Monday it was obvious that the weather wasn't going to play ball.
As I'd taken the time off work I wanted to do some sailing, it looked like we'd be able to go to the solent and back on Wednesday and Thursday so I started to hatch a plan.
We motored out to Studland bay on Tuesday night and picked up one of the Bankes Arms buoys. We spent an amusing 30 minutes trying to inflate the tender. I don't normally take the big inflatable with me but as John is rather tall there was no way my little wetline 180 was going to work. After much jumping on, pulling at and pushing in and nearly falling in it was inflated, thrown over the side and engine attached. We would need this in the morning to find some facilities.
It was a beautiful evening and we settled down with a beer or two in the cockpit listening to tunes on the ipod.
Wednesday morning and to be fair, we weren't exactly up with the Lark. We climbed into the tender and motored over to the National trust site on Studland beach for our morning ablutions. We were hoping for traditional sinks but they only had the hole in the wall type handwash stations, a tricky manouver trying to have a decent wash at one of them :o))
RNLI visiting Studland bay
We were back on the boat and on our way by 10am. The wind was variable F3 from the south east giving us a good heading for one long beat to Hurst. As we crossed Bournemouth Bay we were treated to a display from a Hercules dropping stuff into the sea for the marines to retrive, not sure what it was as they were just too far away.
Hercules dropping bits for Marines to find
With full main and Full genoa and good steady wind we were struggling to make even 4 knots, I was expecting much better. Fortunately we had plenty of time to get through Hurst channel and up to Newport before the tide left us.
Towing the tender cost us about 1.5 knots
As we approached Barton on Sea our one long beat ran out and we had to start tacking to make it into the solent. Into the narrows and wind dropped, the tide was running in all directions and we eventually fell out the other side. The island was shielding us from the wind and headway was slow. As we made our way along the solent the Lord Nelson came into View. We tacked across to take a closer look, this was near to Newtown creek, The Lord Nelson is a tall ship operated by the Jubilee sailing trust and is set up for taking able bodied and disabled crew.
JST 'Lord Nelson'
Eventually about 1 mile from the entrance to the Medina the wind died completely so we rolled away the Genoa started the outboard. The final leg along the Medina, even though on the motor, was very relaxing. The gradual change from Town to industrial to countryside with an eclectic mix of water craft all the way.
A nice sculpture near to Newport.
The one telling thing was that even with the engine on full throttle the boat speed through the water was only 4 knots. Towing the tender was really having an impact and I don't intend to be towing long distances again.
On the way up the Medina I spotted Peggoty coming the other way, Peggoty is the Hurley 20 that was going to join us across to Alderney, we had a very brief chat as the tide was falling and we needed to be be in Newport ASAP.
Ciao Bella on the Visitor Mooring
Getting ready for a pint
Once tied up and ashore I could hear my name being called, Liam, the owner of Peggoty had driven round and was prepared to get the beers in while we tidied up.... Hurley owners are just the best ;O))
We had a great night in Newport ending up in the 'Newport Ale house'... Tip top.
The next morning... once again we were hardly up at the crack of dawn, in fact my first words were Sh@t, we'd better go. We quickly tidied up, packing the tender and stowing it and the engine in the cabin and motored back down the Medina to Cowes. Just so you don't think I've forgotten my roots, I passed this Fantasie 19 moored in the middle of the Medina. Very nice with roller furlung jib, baby stay and back stay.
It's not one that I recognise, I was keeping an eye out for 'Pamala' but this was not her.
We stopped at Cowes Yacht haven to use the Showers and grab some breakfast at Tiffins, a good call. We left Cowes just after 11am and motored out before raising the sails. The forecast was for 4's and 5's from the South East, become F6 later turning more southerly. It was perfect conditions, we put up full main and most of the Genoa and we set off at a pace. We saw 6knots on the NASA with nearly 8knots on the GPS.
The tide turned against us by the time we were in Christchurch bay but it was have little effect on our progress. We were back in Poole harbour in 6 hours with the only really lumpy bit being around Henisbury head.
The forecast increase in wind was bang on time as we tried to pick up the mooring. We got it straight away but really hard to pull it on board.
It hadn't been the planned trip to Alderney but we had had a great couple of day sailing.
I had volunteered to crew for one of the club members for the Annual Candelabra race. I have no race experience so I was there as ballast and a spare pair of hands. The start was out in the bay at 12 noon so we met up at the club, ready to get away by 10:45. It was pretty blustery, blowing between F5 and F6, so was going to be exciting. The boat is a Horizon 23 bilge keel. It's like a tardis, full standing headroom, separate heads decent galley; a great cruising boat but also not too bad as a club racer.
We got away well at the start but as we were the smallest boat we were soon overhauled. We tacked our way to the first mark then had one long beat to the second mark at the far end of the swash channel. We rounded the mark and for the first time had the wind on our stern.
The skipper asked if we were ready for bacon sarnies, not what I was expecting half way through a race but welcome just the same. The next comment was even more shocking... "I don't think there should be this much water in here!" The skipper was wading around in about 5" of sea water. We abandoned the race and headed for the harbour, busy bailing out the bilges. No more water came in so it must have been a leak through a window or deck fitting, while the port rail had been under water for the whole of the long beat.
Back in the harbour with the sails down and motoring to the mooring the skip went to the mast to start putting the sail cover on. He lost his balance and I watch him do a perfect Fosberry flop over the guard wire. The other crew circled him while I searched in the cabin for a line to throw him. We got him back on board, he'd been in the water for four or five minutes which was more than enough. I was glad he had a boarding ladder, it would have been difficult dragging him out of the water. The most disappointing thing was that a race safety boat for another harbour club just sat and watched. The other worrying thing was that the bladder on his life jacket was already deflating by the time he was back aboard.
Back at the club and we eventually got to eat our bacon sarnies. The day was finished of with the post race BBQ and a few beers.
Sunday afternoon and I got round to fixing the main sheet car that got damaged last week end. I'd bought some delrin bar of the right diameter during the week. One of my neighbours has a lathe and he kindly bored a hole through it a pared it off into discs for me.
White one is original, black ones are new.. I have plenty of spares.
Car as I'd left it.
New wheels fitted
I had to remove a few of the screws holding the end of the track down to allow me to raise it just enough to slide the car back on. The Genoa is also repaired so Ciao Bella is fighting fit again.
Fitted and working.
Another wee job that got done this week was the short shaft outboard for the tender. I had stopped pumping water when I dragged it out of the garage. I changed the impeller last week but it still wasn't pumping. Time to dig deeper, I took the cover off the thermostat and was greeted by a salty sludge in every waterway.
Once cleaned out and reassembled I fired it up and it ran lovely pumping water like a fire pump then just like that it stopped. It would run with a rag soaked in fuel held over the carb but could get it to run on its own. As it was late it was time to leave it for another day, I turned back to my tea to find this unwelcome gate crasher... Yewk!
I returned to the engine again today and in the cold light of day I could immediately see the problem. The actuating rod for the fuel tap wasn't connected so it had simply run out of fuel :~) I took it down to the club today and gave it a blast... muck easier than rowing. Just praying for some half decent weather next week so we can get to Alderney and back.
This weekends excursion was from East Dorset Sailing Club in Poole to Castle Cove Sailing Club in Portland harbour. This was going be a step up from previous trips for John as the weather forecast was for F4 and F5 on Saturday and Sunday. In our favour was Easterly on Saturday and Westerly on Sunday.
Paul and Arjen on Woodmouse
We were ready to go by 9am and left he harbour with Woodmouse. The wind still hadn't built and as I wanted to take the inner route I didn't hang about, We had full main and Genoa up and was able to make good speed and course along the training wall; only having to tack twice to clear it.
We had to do a little jig around Old Harry then a clear run past Peveril point, Durleston and St Aldelms head. We were through the notorious bits without issue, a little choppy but not bad. By now the wind was building and I decided to furl away some of the head sail. Unfortunately the reefing line had dropped of the drum and got tangled. I went forward to sort it but it was like spaghetti. While clinging onto the front three extreme gusts came through, putting us under a bit of pressure. By the time we'd untangled the line and started to reef, the head sail had an 18 inch rip in it from the clew end up along the line of the UV strip. I furled it away completely and hoped it would be repairable.
Back on track with just the main up we headed along the gorgeous Jurassic coast past Chapmans pool, Kimmeridge bay and Warbarrow bay before sailing into Lulworth Cove for some lunch. Lulworth is really petty but it's not a great anchorage. The waves roll in making it uncomfortable and there are big ribs taking
holiday makers in and out of the Cove every five minutes with no regard for the amount of wake they make, Boiling the kettle was a treacherous task!
Spinach, Ricotta and ham tortellini with roasted Mediterranean vegetables... Yarp.
Eventually lunch was over and we pulled up the hook sailing out of the Cove and back on track. Sailing close to the coast we had great views of the rock formations that make up the Jurassic coast, we didn't see any dinosaurs though... maybe next time.
Clay cliffs at Kimmeridge
Warbarrow Bay
Durdle Door
Durdle Door with White Nothe in the background
By the time we were at White Nothe the visibility was closing in. I took the opportunity to practice plotting our position on the chart using the Iris compass. I took three bearings and plotted them on the chart, expecting a cocked hat of some kind.... no such thing, all three lines intersected perfectly, I decided to quit while I was ahead. Even from here I couldn't see Portland, I plotted a course and we followed the compass straight to the Northern entrance. The wind and waves now were quite substantial and we were glad to be heading for shelter.
We made our way to the Castle Cove mooring buoys and spotted Woodmouse already tied up. I went forward to pick up the buoy while John steered.. we struggled to keep direction and I called to John to give it some more power... It was already flat out, the wind and tide were giving us a hard time, we took a run up at the next buoy and this time I grabbed it.
A change of clothes before a phone call to call out the ferry and we headed for the club house. Castle Cove Sailing club looked after us admirably, good company, great food and a well stocked bar. Fabulous views over Portland harbour to the Olympic venue. The evening was over far to soon and we were ferried back to our various boat, I was glad I'd taken my wet weather gear ashore as it was a VERY wet trip back, with all getting a good bucket load of water at one stage or another. Despite the weather being blowy it was still quite warm so after one last pint we turned in with the washboards out.
Waking around 8am I started checking various weather forecasts, it wasn't looking good with 35 knot gusts forecast. I was considering leaving Ciao Bella in Portland for a few days but wanted to discuss with others before making a final decision. We hailed the Taxi when he started at 9am and after some ablutions made our way into Weymouth. We met Mark (EDSC member) who was on his way home by car, he'd already decided to leave and come back on Wednesday. We cadged a lift into town and settled down for a full English breakfast. Weymouth was all decked out for the Jubilee and there was a River Pageant on the go. It's always odd to see pirates and morris dancers wandering the streets.
The decking at CCSC with the ruins of the castle in the background.
The forecast was for F5 - F6 with F7 Gust but at least it was going to be a westerly and predominantly dry where as Tuesday was going to be wet, windy and from the wrong direction; for a boat with no headsail. Decision made... we were going. We set off at 13:15, still against the tide but I knew we'd still make good headway with this wind.
As we left the harbour there were plenty of international sailors around, the first we saw was a Japanese Laser, followed by two Russian crews in 470's and an American crew in a Star Class keel boat.
After a little indecision about the inner or outer route we plotted a course for the outer range, The wind direction was more SW than W making it the safest route despite being further. We made great time with a fully reefed main and the tattered Genoa fully furled. It was an exciting ride home, surfing down huge rolling waves with the GPS showing over 12 knots on occasion. We found the boat was best balanced with one person in the cabin, during my stint in the cabin we crashed into a wave and I felt a drip of water; when I looked around the front hatch was was pouring water through. When I told John he said the front of the boat had disappeared into the wave!
One last bit of drama was as we gybe round to bear on Poole, the boom crashed over ripping the car off the runner in the process. We got it tied down and usable again and continued on our way. Without a head sail and now beating into the wind we were making considerable leeway. It became apparent that I would have to tack several times if I was going to make it into the harbour under sail. I'd had enough adventure by now so I fired up the outboard and we charge into Poole harbour at about 8pm.
On the whole the boat had performed excellently, never feeling unsafe even in the blowiest conditions. The failures had been down to a mixture of my actions and general ageing of equipment. Allowing the headsail reefing line to foul and letting the boom crash over were my fault, so I can't blame the boat for that.
