Shoreham to Gosport (Track)

I had inteneded to publish the plotted track of each section of the voyage last summer. On reflection, it's probably not too good an idea at this late date as the individual trips are now comparitively ancient history in this age of twitter and instant information - besides which I managed to press the wrong button on the Garmin GPS and have deleted several of them.

So I will only publish a selection between now and our resumption of the trip in May.

You may recall that we left Shoreham at about 9 o'clock and were whisked along by the 18 KN wind and the tide. It was a good thing because we had to get through the Looe channel off Selsey Bill before the tide turned against us.  The various large kinks in the track are (from right to left) where:
- we hove to, whilst I put on some warmer clothing
- we tacked to avoid a large bulk carrier and head vaguely for Chichester
- we turned for Gosport.

 

Last Post (of 2012)

The Owners Agent and I spent the recent festivities in Nova Scotia whilst Vagabond remained in safely in the shed beside the cattle.  I assume she is still there for there hasn't been time to see.

You would think it a short flight from London to Halifax but direct flights were not available. The route offered was via Montreal and this left me with time on my hands at 38000 feet above the North Atlantic. .

I fell into a dream. Where and when do we resume the voyage? Do I trail her back to Balvicar (incidentally, Balvicar got a mention in PBO the other month - did you see it?) to then continue clockwise as before, so ending our journey back at Burnham on Crouch - or shall I trail her to Burnham to turn left every morning so that we arrive at Balvicar some time in the late summer? If we did the latter, Vagabond could rest at Balvicar for following winter and be ready for a cruise of the Western Isles in 2014. I find the idea of meeting ourselves halfway and the following cruise quite tempting.....

My wool gathering turned into a bit of a muddle: do we need a sort of cruising sheet? Does that need a boom? How about a duck board in the cockpit? Or some sort of extension to my legs so that I can more easily stand on the lee side of the cockpit when heeling to the breeze? Perhaps I need built up shoes! And then there is the idea of a piece of wood to cover over the outboard well so that there is less slop and gurgle when going downwind. Do we need more solar cell capacity - it never was really tested this summer as we "parked" in marinas so often. Do I need to replace the wind speed and direction vane that was shaken off the mast. I hear rumours of a new aerofoil shaped mast - will that be stiffer than the current one and less liable to vibration. Oh yes, we need to seal the duct that brings the gas pipe into the cabin from the gas locker. Does the A frame help when lifting the mast? And then there is the matter of charts and pilots - do they need updating? And I though there was a broken strand in the fore stay. There will be some long stretches on the East Coast - could an autopilot be made to work? Or do I try to persuade one of my long suffering friends to do a couple of overnight sails with me? The outboard needs servicing. The centre board lifting blocks need lubricating. The rudder pintles need examination. The scuffs on the centre board and rudder need epoxying from the odd bump or two that they had - (that's an admission that's just sneaked out).

The list goes on and on.

Nova Scotia was cold, with snow. Apparently it rained a lot in the UK. A bit like last summer really. I gather the met office is laying bets on the Jet stream being South again in the coming summer. Looks like an interesting year ahead.

Dover to Eastbourne revisited

Here's the track taken by Vagabond in the leg from Dover to Eastbourne last May.

I hope it is fairly self explanatory

Spray Hood adjustment

As originally fitted, the spray hood frame was mounted on the top rail of the gunnels. This meant that the crew (or owner - usually one and the same) had to tread all over the bottom of it when a hand was needed to go forward of the cabin. Clipping on to go forward was made difficult and the centre mooring cleat was also hidden from view. The owner considered this not particularly satisfactory.



The end result

On a wet day (there have been many this month) the owner was visiting Vagabond in her barn and thought it would be an appropriate time to resolve this issue. The spray hood was removed and the frame pivots undone. After an hour or so "fiddling about" and a discussion with the boat builder, it became clear that the pivots could be repositioned onto the cabin sides.

Appropriate wooden blocks were cut and two were glued onto the inside of the cabin wall (out of sight in the internal locker area). Whilst the epoxy was setting, the two external blocks were spruced up and varnished before being screwed through the cockpit side on the inner blocks. Al that remained to do was screw the pivots to the blocks and refix the frame.  

OOPS. The frame wouldn't fold flat, because the frame shape was an even semicircle  and it fouled the cabin roof. The owner recalled his pipe bending skills and eventually shaped the frames into graceful D's to provide the necessary clearance.

More tracks to be published soon. I bet you can't wait!

Ramsgate to Dover

The Owners Agent and I are now of no fixed abode. On Monday last we moved out of the house that had been the family home for the last 39 years and are now in a "holiday let" waiting for the purchase of our next home to go through the various legal hoops. We have frequented charity shops and ebay pages to "downsize" our household effects: the remaining items are located in various storeroom and friends houses.

Suddenly I have time on my hands to paint and varnish parts of Vagabond, culitvate the (newly acquired) allotment and review our exploits last summer.

Today, it's the track of the passage from Ramsgate to Dover.

The wind was astern and you can see that we gybed a few times on the way!

Moving and Navigating

As the dedicated reader may have gathered, the Owners Agent and I are in the process of moving house. And what a process. We know when we are moving, we know where we are going immediately and we know where we want to be in the longer term (not where we're going to be immediately). What we don't know is when we'll be at the end point.

Just to set your mind at rest, we are not moving into Vagabond whilst she is parked in the barn at Kings Ash Farm. (Not ever, I hear the Owners Agent asserting very firmly.)

As a bit of light relief, I have discovered that I have recorded most of the track that Vagabond follwed this summer and that I can display them on a PC. So now you can be amazed by this technology as I publish these tracks over the next few weeks. You can re-live each leg and refer back to the blog of the day!




The "Nav Station"- the scribble on the right is my passage plan of the day.

 

Firstly, though, a word on the instruments fitted aboard Vagabond. This photo shows the "Nav station" of Vagabond swung into the "under way" position. When at rest, the board can be swung into the cabin. In the middle of the trip (crossing from Holyhead to the Isle of Man to be exact)  I realised that this arrangement was a bit dangerous -  in really rough weather there is a real risk that the cabin could be flooded by a wave coming down the companion way.

I use Navionics software and charts running on my Ipad2 mounted in a waterproof case (the blue rectangle in the photo)  as the main source of navigation information. The Ipad2 includes a GPS and the Navionics software is excellent. There are three snags with this arrangement.

The first is that I have to rely on the internal Ipad battery power whilst it is in the waterproof case and this can be marginal if it's left on all day. I overcome this by making sure the Ipad goes to sleep after 10 minutes of operation (as it is in the photo) but this does mean that you can't record a track as the GPS loses position when the Ipad is asleep.

The second snag is that it is sometimes difficult to see the screen in very bright daylight. I overcome this by having the Ipad mounted on a quick release strap (Velcro!) so that I can take it off the board and put it into a shaded spot to read if necessary (it is tied on too!)

The third snag is that the Ipad does not communicate with any other instrumentation - I daresay you could do it using the wireless interface but that is (a) beyond my competence and (b) would use even more precious amps.

So I have a second GPS, the Garmin 620 already discussed. This serves as a back up to the IPad, as it takes its power from the main batteries and, as I have discovered, records the track.

It talks with the VHF, to give it the GPS details for the dreaded DSC Mayday call, and also listens to the radio information on AIS data from other ships. When the radio identies a potential "target", the GPS displays them and it shouts at you if they are dangerous. Usually this warning is very pessimistic and can be ignored once one has identified the target although it did make me wake up when one of those fast catamaran ferries snuck behind us near Poole.  

As originally fitted, there was a TackTick wind sensor at the mast head, communicating with a Tactick display. This also receives Sog and Cog from the GPS so can show both relative and true wind speed and direction. It's blank in the photo above, showing that the picture was taken after the sensor had been blown off.

Finally, there's a TackTick depth display. On a couple of occasions (when sailing very quickly) is has shown spurious results.

The ship batteries are topped up by a couple of solar panels mounted on the poop. I have not yet exhausted the batteries during a cruise but have only been away from shore power for a couple of days at the most.

Still here

Hello, dear reader.
No doubt you are wondering about the deathly silence on this blog, as it slips down the google lists.......
It's been a bit quiet on the Vagabond front on the last couple of weeks. I think she's still under her dust sheet, in the barn. She was last week, when I anointed all the scuffs and blemishes on the rubbing strip with varnish (well what are rubbing strips for, if not to become somewhat scruffy over a season?).

That's not much to show for a couple of weeks but my mind has been elsewhere. Literally for an hour or so one mornign a couple of weeks ago, although a supsequent scan assures me that I still have one ( a mind, that is) and the neurologist says it's nothing to worry about.

Meanwhile, the mind has been on line, the Owners Agent and Ihave been concentrating on this downsizing activity. This is not something we recommend after living in the same place of 39 years (and after recently acquiring a boat) One skip load has gone from the garage. A number of pieces of furniture have been ebayed for a song and we had a party last weekend at which we managed to give away a few knick knacks. A self store room has been filled and there is still more to go.

We become of no fixed abode as of two weeks hence - the Owners Agent refuses to take up my offer of B & B on Vagabond, so we are in a holiday let in the middle of Buckinghamshire (and winter approaches....).

Chin up - things are worse at sea (as my mother always used to say.....)