English Summer (continued)

June was terrible... the wettest on record (since records began in 1902).  Not only did this make sailing unappealing, it was not conducive to external maintenance either.

My parents, Donald and Audrey, visited at the beginning of July.  Although we didn't sail anywhere we had a few evenings aboard Toucando.  We also visited Cowes where we saw the classic yacht fleet in the Yacht Haven, and Southampton's new Sea City Museum, which focusses on the city's links with the Titanic... most importantly the 500 crew who lost their lives.

The jet stream which had been causing all the weather trouble moved north in time for the weekend of 21st/2nd July, which was just in time for some planned day sailing.

On Saturday we were joined by Colin, Michele and Steve P for the RYA's "Push the Boat Out Day" - an attempt to get as many people on the water as possible.  We had a pleasant time tacking down Southampton Water, before getting out into the Solent, circumnavigating the Bramble Bank and returning under engine.

We particularly enjoyed seeing the Jubilee Sailing Trusts's "Tenacious" coming up Southampton Water under sail.

On Sunday the crew comprised Hugh, Jane, Michele and Steve P and the main event of the day was going down to the Solent to meet and greet the returning Round the World Clipper Race.  Toucando had seen the fleet go out last summer (http://toucando.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/round-world-racing.html) so it seemed appropriate to see them come back.  We motored down to the rallying point and joined the flotilla.

(More details on the Clipper Race: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-18904550).

After a lunch under way we spent the afternoon sailing round Southampton Water and the Docks.

On Monday Michele and Roger helped take Toucando over to Cowes for a lift, wash and change of anodes.  I think she was going about a knot faster (maybe more) on the way home.

Three good days sailing in pleasant weather!   This is what the summer is supposed to be like.  Toucando is now getting ready for her cruise to Cherbourg and the Channel Islands, due to start on Friday.  I plan to post a few brief blogs en route, and a longer account when we get back.  I hope the jet stream stays where it belongs and we continue to enjoy a proper summer.



Yarmouth Old Gaffers Festival 2012

For me this is one of the best events of the summer: it's an annual gathering of traditional boats at Yarmouth, a small harbour town at the west end of the Isle of Wight. Although the boats are at the centre of things it's a festival for the whole town and beyond.  There is an international street market, craft tent, vintage car rally, entertainers, dogshow, lifeboat display, etc..

Toucando was joined in Southampton by Lesley and Carole on Thursday.  After some lunch on board and familiarisation with the ropes, we set off.  The wind was variable.  It started off in the north, went round to the south, then the south east, then the south west.  The only consistent thing about it was that it tended to blow from the direction we wanted to go.  We raised the main off Dockhead in a blustery Force 4 to 5 from the south east and motor sailed down to Calshot.  Once in the Solent we were able to start beating down towards Yarmouth,  but  by this stage the wind had dropped and backed to south west and we were not making very fast progress.  The crew however got pretty efficient at tacking.  We completed the passage in very light winds arriving in Yarmouth at about 1930.

After securing Toucando we went for a barbecue and were joined by Carole's husband.  Unfortunately the lawn at the Royal Solent has been turned into a builders' compound so we were in the shed at the back of the car park.  Nevertheless it was good to meet up with the gaffers again.

Friday was shore-based... there was plenty to see.  Toucando seemed to enjoy being on one of Yarmouth's new walkashore pontoons between some Memorys including Sepia and Nipperkin.

In the evening the shore entertainment was laid on by Rob Da Bank or Radio 1 and Bestival fame. 
He does a lot of stuff on the Island and brings a new dimenstion to Friday night at Yarmouth.  Cuban Brothers were headlining, but my recommendation for top band was Skinny Lister.  This five piece sings folk songs, shanties and their own material, while passing around a couple of earthenware cider jugs.  It's about time for another folk revival, and Skinny Lister brings a new energy and enthusiasm to the genre.  Best of all they seem to attract a young following who belt out the choruses with real enthusiasm.

Saturday was the day of the race.  Since Toucando will not race until a regular crew has been found I enjoyed spectating from the end of Yarmouth Pier.  Despite the blue skies it had blown a gale overnight and was very blustery in the morning.  Most of the small boats decided to stay in harbour.  Miss Ningi bravely ventured out, had a brilliant start, but had to return when waves started flooding her.  The crowd repeatedly opined that it was "blowing old boots" and that (most of) the competitors were "going like a train".  I haven't the faintest idea who won, but it all looked good.

I decided to give the Abba, Queen and Rod Stewart tribute bands a miss on Saturday night... or at least listen to them from Toucando.

The homeward crew comprised Lesley and Michele.  The wind had dropped considerably.  We sailed quite slowly up the western Solent and Southampton Water.  It was very crowded as youy might exect for the first really warm weekend of the sailing season.  We got back to Toucando's home berth on the Itchen at about 1430.

Thanks to Carole, Lesley and Michele for crewing and miscellaneous old gaffers for the benefit of their advice.

Colour supplement

First of all: Happy New Year to all crew and followers.  Thank you for making 2011 such a success.  I am looking forward to the new sailing season with great enthusiasm.  I hope we will be undertaking some longer passages.  The first is likely to be over the Easter weekend, probably along the coast to Weymouth with stops in Poole and Yarmouth or Lymington.  Meanwhile here are some pictures from the autumn.  First the jib following "hurricane" damage.  It is now expertly repaired and I can barely see how it was done.

Sarah and Michele on a trip which included a stop in Hamble: 

Here we are in Cowes: 

Jean and Roger on a very pleasant day in the eastern Solent: 

Penny, Hugh and Stephen on an autumn trip to Yarmouth:

A view from the foredeck:

Jolie Brise - a very famous old boat:

  

Autumn sailing

We had some amazing weather in the middle of October... bright, almost windless days, and cold nights. On Friday I had booked a lift for Toucando at Sealift in Haslar to replace her anodes, and get a bit of a wash. Hugh volunteered to crew. Our start was slightly delayed by the reluctasnce of the engine to start, which can be put down to the cold weather and relatively long period without a charge. Anyhow we sorted that problem out and had a pleasant motor for three hours to Portsmouth Harbour: there was virtually no wind, and the little there was came from the east.

We were entertained en route by the navy, or perhaps the army, conducting an exercise which involved sending landing craft from a large vessel moored in the middle of the Solent to invade Hampshire at Browndown. Other than that the sea was pretty empty: a pleasant change from summer weekends.

We arrived early, but they were quite happy to bring forward the time of the lift. Although it was only two months since the last one, there was quite a lot of slime and a few crustacea on Toucando's hull, and her anodes had been significantly easten away. I put the slime down to the amount of fertilizer running off down the Itchen, and the erosion of the anodes to the intense industrialisation of the docks. Anyhow, some below waterline attention was definitely required. We got our money's worth as a thorough jetwash was applied and the relevant bits of sacrificial metal were bolted onto the appropriate places.

After lunch we headed for home, and sailed back under main and (newly repaired) jib. The wind had picked up and we made good progress. Instead of her usual mooring we took Toucando to Shamrock Quay so she could benefit from a good period of mains electricity to bring all the batteries up to full charge. In fact, the motoring had topped them up pretty well, but it seemed a wise precaution.

On Saturday Michele came and we had to decide where to go. The barometer had plummeted from 1030 in the middle of the week to barely abover 1010. The winds were much stronger. In the event we decided to go to the Hamble, and berthed in Swanwick: Toucando's first visit. For afternoon entertainment we took the tender and explored the upper reaches of the river, beyond where all the boats are moored. We got up to the point where the river branches... one way to Botley the other to Curbridge. The water was too shallow to get any further - it was some hours before high tide. We returned and repaired to the Jolly Sailor in Bursledon for some soft drinks.

On Sunday the wind was blowing from the south east... we had a good sail back up Southampton Water with the wind behind us. In fact we were able to sail all the way to St Mary's before we needed to make use of the engine for the last few hundred yards approach to the pontoon.

Toucando is now safely back on her home berth looking forward to a relaxing autumn. No more cruises are planned, although some day sailing is not ruled out. It's maintenance mode now. Next week I have booked on to a week long "Yacht Maintenance" course at Hamble School of Yachting, when I hope to discover how much I don't know.

Thanks to Hugh and Michele for their contribution.

A trip to Yarmouth (almost)

Michele and Ava joined Toucando for a trip to Yarmouth.  It was to coincide with the Solent Gaffers' "Centenary Chase".  We left at 1330 with two reefs in the main.  We got the sail up as soon as we were off the mooring and had a very nice sail down Southampton Water.  The barometer had been falling steadily, and Southampton appeared to be under a black cloud as we looked back, but it was fine where we were.

We turned towards Yarmouth after Calshot Spit, putting on the engine to get through the "precautionary area".  The wind picked up to a Force 7 (32 knots) from the SSW (the direction of Yarmouth).  We made slow progress.  We had a go at tacking, but our progress was not good.... another trip with a Force 7 from the wrong direction!  We considered the merits of working our way to Yarmouth, but decided to head for Cowes instead.

We got the sails furled in the Medina and found a berth at East Cowes.  We caught the bus to Yarmouth and arrived in time for dinner at the Royal Solent.  Only five boats had taken part in the Chase, and many of the participants had themselves come by land, or ferry.  The winner of the open boat class had taken a bang on the head from the boom, and had had a trip to A&E as a result.  He managed to get back in order to claim his prize.  Our decision to stop at Cowes was probably the prudent one.

On Sunday we headed back to Southampton.  It was an almost perfect day for sailing... a Force 4 from the west.  We sailed in a nice straight line across from Cowes towards Hillhead.  Then we had to make a few tacks to get into Southampton Water and past the oil terminal.  We then managed to have a long close-hauled tack most of the way up Southampton Water, during which we had lunch.  We dropped the main just off Weston Shelf and headed for the Itchen.  At that point the rain came, heavy and intense... the worst I can recall on Toucando.  Fortunately there was not much wind at that point. We huddled in our waterproofs with the hoods pulled well over, and motored up to the pontoon, where we made a perfect landing.

And so ended Toucando's last scheduled event of the season.... However there will be more weekend sailing, providing the weather is ok.  I have just heard a forecast suggesting we are going to get heavy snows in October.  I hope that is wrong.

A windy weekend

Toucando had the first weekend of September off.  The following week the winds began in earnest, said to be the tail end of Hurricane Katia.  I got a call from the marina saying, "Please ring as SOON as possible!"  That sounded alarming.  The news was that the jib had partially unfurled and was flapping uncontrollably.  To cut the story short, Alan from the marina went out in the launch, got the damaged sail down and lashed it to the deck.  We're not sure quite how much wind there was... Sotonmet said gusts of 195 (which is not believable).  Other sources said 50 to 60 knots.  It was certainly very strong.

I went down to Southampton on Friday not knowing what the jib would look like.  It turned out to have an L-shaped rip maybe about two feet in each direction.  The sail was taken ashore and I got the boat ready for the weekend crew: Michele and Sarah P.  It remained windy and the forecast was mentioning everything between Force 4 and 8 for the weekend.  We had venison goulash aboard on Friday evening and agreed to set off on Saturday. We decided to take the cautious approach and stay fairly local.  Plan A had been to go to Chichester Harbour with Southampton Sailing Club, but they had decided against it on the basis of the forecast.  We decided to go and do a bit of sailing in Southampton Water and see what it was like.  To begin we had some practice handling Toucando under power and a bit of a tour of the docks.  We then decided to head for Hamble where we stayed at Port Hamble Marina.  We took a walk into the village and enjoyed a drink or two at the Bugle, before returning to Toucando for pirate stew.

On Sunday it seemed fairly calm at first.  We made a reasonably early start, motoring up river to begin, then turning and raising the mainsail with two reefs.  We sailed out into Southampton Water.  The wind was very variable... never much less than a four and often gusting well into force six and seven.  We had a good and fast sail up towards Weston where we practised tacking and heaving to, gradually polishing our technique. Eventually we turned for the Itchen and went back to Toucando's mooring.  There was a strong westerly wind blowing us on to the pontoon which made sorting out all the fenders a little tricky, but we got it all done before having a late lunch.  Thanks to Michele and Sarah for their help.

Once the crew had gone I drove (the car) to Lee on Solent for a walk along the beach.  It was a bright, sunny afternoon, but the winds were strong, and all the waves had white tops. There were plenty of walkers, fishermen, kite fliers, wind surfers etc., but I only counted two sailing boats, both well reefed, on the Solent.  On Monday I took the jib to the sail maker... and was pleased to discover that it is repairable.  The sail will now get a wash and full service.  I am hoping that we will get a few good weekends before long... it's time the hurricane season was over.

Here are three pictures from the weekend (courtesy of Michele):

A proper summer weekend

Most weekends this summer have been marred by: 1. too much wind; 2. too little wind; 3. rain; 4. plague... etc.. In other words a typical British summer.  This one was rather better.  Charlotte and Michele joined Toucando on Friday, and after a crab salad we set off for Yarmouth.  We had a pretty good sail down Southampton Water, then tacked down the western Solent.  Yarmouth unfortunately had its "Harbour Full" sign up, so we went to Lymington instead.  We had a few exciting minutes stuck on the mud by the Lymington River channel, but were helped off by a passing rib (rigid inflatable boat).  We stayed on the excellent Dan Bran pontoon.
On Saturday we had thought about going to Poole, but it would have meant a ridiculously early start, so we went with the tide to Gosport instead.  Haslar Marina gave us a good berth - easy to get on and off.  We had a walk around the town centre and up to Royal Clarence yard: then curry on board Toucando and a viewing of "Deep Water" the documentary about Donald Crowhurst's ill fated participation in the 1968 Sunday Times Round the World Race.
On Sunday we thought we would take advantage of the tide and sail east first towards the Nab Tower and then come back into the Solent and up to Southampton with the tide.  It all worked very well.  We went on every point of sail and only had to tack twice to get all the way back from the Nab to Weston Shore and the entrance to the River Itchen.  Thanks to Charlotte, Michele and some decent summer weather.
I am going to try and upload a video: let's hope it works.

Toucando goes to Cowes and gets a wash, and then has an outing to Beaulieu

After less than four months in the Solent Toucando badly needed a wash.  When the water was clear enough weed could be seen growing on her propeller.  The cooling water inlet seemed to be getting blocked (as mentioned in earlier posts) and a scummy line was developing on the side of her hull.  So a crew was assembled and a lift and wash was booked.

We had originally planned to go on Thursday, but near gales were forecast, so we deferred until Friday.  Andrew and Michele took Toucando round to Hamble Point on Thursday evening to get a head start for the trip over the Solent.  When Friday came it was quite breezy.  We came out of the Hamble River to see thousands of boats taking part in Cowes Week racing.  We crossed the water on a broad reach taking advantage of a gap between two separate races.  We crossed the finishing line at 1200: shame we weren't in a race.  We then wove our way (somewhat anxiously) through hundreds of small sailing boats whizzing about in the Medina River entrance.  We got in without incident.  We made our way to Sealift and moored up on the waiting pontoon.

Sealift is a platform which can be sunk to the river bed, and then brought up to enable work to be done on the hull.  It uses submarine type technology with four large tanks which can be filled with water to sink, or air to rise.  We manouevred Toucando into position and then slowly we were lifted out.  Once fully out of the water the three Sealift staff got to work with jet washes.  Toucando's hull was covered with black slime, weed and various crustacea.  Andrew went to a nearby chandlery to get some anodes (sacrificial metal blocks to prevent corrosion of more important things).  It took the best part of two hours for the job to be completed, but Toucando looked a lot better for it.  When it was all finished the platform was lowered and we motored off.  We then had a bit of excitment, almost going agound in the very busy river as boats came back from their races.  Andrew exchanged a wave with Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (the first person to sail all the way round the world, non-stop, single handed... back in the '60s) who was driving a rib with a large party of young children aboard.  I am sure he was impressed with Toucando.  We returned to the Sealift waiting pontoon to have lunch before heading back to Southampton in the afternoon/early evening.

Waiting for the Sealift to be lowered before we could go in

Andrew on the deck as Toucando is slowly lifted out of the water

 Getting started with the jet wash

The propeller before...

... and after

A nice clean hull!

On Saturday Toucando was joined by Ben, Daryl and Nik (former colleagues of Andrew) for a daysail.  We decided to go to Beaulieu.  As we left the mooring we followed Tom and Ros Cunliffe out of the Itchen on their new boat, a 23 year old American cutter, which had just arrived from Florida on the back of a ship.  They were going on their shakedown trip to make sujre everything worked.

Tom Cunliffe and family taking out their newly acquired American cutter (left)

 We got our sails up and had a nice easy sail down Southampton Water.  When we got out to the Solent proper the wind picked up and we tacked down to the Baulieu River entrance.  We motored up the river where we were greeted by Lord Montague's henchmen (aka the Beaulieu River Harbourmaster)... they didn't have a pontoon for us to moor on, but suggested we moor on a buoy.  To our great delight they didn't ask for any money.  Phew!  We had lunch there before returning.

Buckler's Hard on the Beaulieu River

Nik, Ben and Darryl contemplating lunch

By this stage it was pretty windy, so we put a couple of reefs in the main and we had a fairly fast sail back, returning to our mooring just before sunset.  We then enjoyed cups of tea (sic.) sitting on the cockpit, watching the life of the river, human and animal.

Toucando seemed to have benefitted from the wash.  She sailed beautifully, and the engine was perfect. Thanks to Michele for her help over the whole three days, and Ben, Daryl and Nik for the Beaulieu trip.

Ben and Nik flaking the sail