Love Sailing

The day following loading Elektra’s sailing gear looked good for a day sail. The forecast saying almost no wind picking up to easterly force 3, there was a strong wind warning out of easterly force 6-7 for the following 5 days. Normally we would have gone aboard and gone over to the Precuil River before hand, but our car was booked in for a MOT on the Wednesday, so for now, only a day sail was possible.

I awoke early, had some breakfast and drove down to St Anthony. I launched the dinghy, pushed off from the shore and pulled the cord twice before the motor started, pulling away with just a little choke, before shutting it off halfway across to the narrows, 10 minutes I was climbing aboard Elektra. Then unlock the cabin, plug in and fit the chart plotter, plug in and fit the tiller pilot, I put on my lifejacket and took the sail cover off, hook on the main halyard, fill out the header of log sheet ready. Then I had to anchor the dinghy off because I wasn’t taking it with me. I started the engine and switched on the instruments. Then I walked forward and pulled the chain and anchor back aboard, cleaning the mud off it as it came aboard, by the time I got back to the cockpit at 0845hrs, Elektra had drifted with the tide back down stream to the dinghy, so I let the dinghy slide along the starboard side of Elektra and away from her bow before pushing the control lever into forward turning to starboard and heading for the channel, with 0.8m under keel. out over the channel it was 1.4m and once out into Gillan Harbour 2m.

There before getting into the moorings, I pulled up the mainsail and tided the halyard ends and reefing lines. Then motored her though the moorings and out of the harbour, turning to port around Carcrock East Cardinal Buoy. From there I pulled out the genoa and turned off the engine, the wind was showing northeast force 2 and “Elektra was logging 2kts SOG north across Helford River entrance. I tacked Elektra to a starboard under the cliffs between Mawgan Sheer and August Rock Buoy in a east-southeast direction. With the wind being so light she would point tight to the wind, I needed to bear away a bit to keep Elektra moving.

I tacked her again to port once east of Nare Point, from here the wind filled in a little more and Elektra was logging 3kts SOG in 6-7kts of wind from the northeast, with the wind picking up a little more halfway across Falmouth Bay, Elektra would now point better, and we were heading north-northeast. It wasn’t looking like we would be east enough to pass Pendennis Point on the this tack. I would of continued in under the cliff before tacking again, but we were closing in on a some sort of work boat, I started looking for maybe a dive flag, but they are never easy to see when the vessel up wind. The work chap at that moment grabbed end of the flag and turned it toward me, so there was no doubt that she was a dive boat. At which point, I tacked Elektra to starboard and away from her.

We continued in this direction, until halfway across the entrance into the Carrack Roads, before tacking again to port. My plan had been to sail up the Carrack Roads to Channels Creek anchor for lunch and then come back, but when we got into Black Rock, I thought we would be fighting the tide all the way up there and all the way back. So decided to head into St Mawes instead. The wind seemed to change direction to east once in the shelter of the Roseland and Elektra was pointing, and was going northeast towards St Mawes harbour, sailing right into the moorings before starting the engine and rolling away the genoa. With a falling tide I motored Elektra up river though the mooring and droped anchored at 1130hrs having logged 9nm. About half hour later Elektra grounded on the soft level mud bottom, low water of 0.3m was at 1350hrs, but being a lovely day I was quite happy to get on with a few jobs and later sitting in the cockpit and having lunch.

Elektra lifted off again at 1500hrs, and I pulled up her anchor at 1545hrs, motored her back down the Percuil River and out past the moorings before starting to sail again. Nice a still calm inside the Carrick Roads, but once out in Falmouth bay, the swell had built up though the day and it was a quite uncomfortable motion, still very little wind, Elektra was rolling. I thought about motoring but continued to sail back across the bay, until entering Gillan Harbour, I started her engine again and motored her in. With the strong east wind forecast for the next 5 days, I countinued in though the narrows into Carne Creek and dropped anchor at 1730hrs having logged 16nm for the day. It took a while to pack everything away and get back ashore, but I was home by 1915hrs.

I needed to get to Elektra’s winter mooring by 0600hrs, so l was up early. Having driven down to Carne, l climbed into the dinghy and pushed off, the momentum was enough to get me out to Elektra without having to sit down and row. At Elektra, climbed aboard at the tied the dinghy amidships, keeping it clear of the lines.

I fitted Elektra’s chart plotter and switched on the instruments and stared her engine. Then l made the lines ready to let go. I let go the starboard stern line first then walking forward to let the bow lines go. Then back to the cockpit to pull Elektra out to the channel by her port stern line, dropping it over the side when reaching the chain.

I checked the depth sounder, she had 1.4m under her keels as l put the engine into forward. I like to give a blast of powder here, then drop out of gear as she floats over the stern lines of the other moored boats. Once passed the other boats, putting engine into forward again and slowly followed the channel out to Gillan Harbour.

Once into Gillan Harbour, it was too early to dry Elektra out on St Anthony beach. So l motored her on out into Helford River entrance to check engine and instruments, an hour or so later motored her back into the Harbour and slowly eased her speed to almost 0, so her keels slowly grounded on St Anthony beach, then putting the engine forward again to hold her there. When she stopped rocking, l stopped her engine. Locking up the cabin and climbed out into the dinghy and to the shore and pulled up.

Then walk back to Carne for the car, l got my ladders from the woods and loaded in the car, then drove to St Anthony, l left the ladders in the dinghy and drove home for breakfast at 0900hrs.

After breakfast, l loaded up the car with the cruising gear and drove back to St Anthony and loaded the gear aboard Elektra. Once done l lifted the petrol generator out of Elektra and into the car along with the ladders and a few other bits, l also set the keg anchor out astern to allow me to pull her out into deeper water later. Then drove home again and unloaded.

After a coffee l took my wheel barrow (l used to do this with my pickup, but l sold it about 10 days ago) back down to Carne. This time to remove the winter mooring for cleaning and checking before next winter. The joys of a cheap winter mooring is it normally costs time instead of money! About 1.5hrs later l was back home with the 2x 15kg Bruce anchors, 2x anchor chains and 6x lines in the wheel borrow saying, l’m not doing that again! It had been harder than l thought pushing the wheel barrow back loaded.

After that l had a 2hr rest, before driving back to St Anthony to wait until Elektra floated off again. Once floating, l motored her back into Carne Creek, just above the narrows and dropped anchor, back in the dinghy to St Anthony and drove home,walking in the door at 1900hrs.

Elektra had to go up into Carne Creek on anchor because the next 4 days the forecast was showing easterly gale force wind and Gillan Harbour is open to the full force of the English Channel from the east, the swell almost never makes its way above the narrows into Carne Creek. Once into the sailing season we would go elsewhere during east wind but our car was booked for MOT on Wednesday.

The evening 18th April l drove down to St Anthony, and l motored the dinghy up the creek to her and eased the bow lines and pulled her out of her winter berth into deeper water, down the side of the creek bank. Because of my the high pressure, 1026, it had pushed high tide down by quite a bit. And l was worried Elektra might be still aground when l came to move back down river to the sea.

Having done so, l was happier and decided to leave the dinghy tied to the shore of creek for quicker exit next day. So l walked back to St Anthony for the car to drive home.

I alway had a pick-up or trailer to get my punt to the sea, but having become an OAP, I put my pick-up on the market and it sold within the week, for a nice amount.

But this had left me without any transport for the dinghy to the water, but we live within walking distance and the launching trolly is good, it’s only about 1/2 mile from home to the head of Carne Creek, from there I can put the trolly on top dinghy and motor down the creek to St Anthony.

On 15th April, high tide was 1650hrs, but the tide would be high enough to launch at the head of the creek by about 1500hrs. I loaded the punt with a few late delivery items for Elektra and her davits and cockpit seats, straped the dinghy down onto the trolly and set off down the mainly single track road to Carne at about 1445hrs, it was like a big wheel barrow loaded up with gear! The advantage of the narrow road is there wasn’t much traffic and over the 1/2 mile I only saw 3 vehicles, but I did get funny looks, lol.

Now down at the head of Carne Creek, I unstrapped the dinghy and launched into the water, I hadn’t tried it but the trolly sat quite securely upside down on top of the dinghy. I had run up the outboard in a water tank, but you really don’t know for sure it’s working OK until you put in gear and use for real. I pushed off out into the creek and gave it a few pulls before it fired and then started. The short run over to Elektra, never really warmed up the engine, before I stopped it again.

At Elektra, I refitted her davits and unloaded the dinghy into her cockpit, made the dinghy painter off and climbed aboard Elektra and unlocked her. Because it was a lovely day I removed her cockpit encloser which I had put up about a month ago, rolled away dry and stowed below, I also stowed the other items I had bought aboard. Then I started Elektra’s engine to check there wasn’t any problem with it for the 18th when we planned to move her down creek to St Anthony beach to load her cruising gear. Once happy the engine was fine, I shut down, turned off the power and locked up.

I climbed back into the dinghy, pulled the dinghy along Elektra’s mooring line a little to stop it being blown ashore, and starter the outboard again, it needed about 1/2 choke for a bit before it would run without, but ran very well all the way to St Anthony. This 2-stroke outboard I had bought new in 2006, now 20 years later it was still running well and it will possibly do another 20 years before it needs replacing, I think 2-stroke engines are good for a 1000hrs, and we only do about 20hrs a year. I have no plans to replace it with battery outboard as many cruising sailors seem to have done these days.

After pulling the dinghy out on the trolly at St Anthony, I walked back home on the road, passing Elektra now at high water 4.8m, she wasn’t quite floating, so decided I would go to her again on the evening of the 17th to ajust her lines, pulling her out into deeper water to make sure she wouldn’t be still aground when I want to move her on the morning of the 18th.

When I was working full time, April and May were my busiest months of the year and so I always got our yacht ready for the coming season before the end of March because, if I didn’t I woudn’t have the time to do the work needed before June. Quite often our yacht would be one of the first on the swing moorings in April. But April is very seldom a good month for sailing(I think only 2018 was since we have owned Elektra), either very cold or lots of strong wind, most years we would only go out for the first sail at the middle/end of April. So this year with me having become an OAP, I wasn’t going to rush and plan to use the sping tides of 17-20th April to get Elektra back down river to the sea.

I was down to Elektra this morning changing her winter sprayhood and winter cover for her summer sprayhood and cockpit encloser. Then I scrubbed her cockpit and sealed up some tank fittings.

Another difference to other years is that we aren’t paying for a local swing mooring (last year I did pay the £1,200 for the season but only used the mooring for 6 weeks). This year we are planning to be away all of May, back for a day or so early June, then gone again until mid July, back for 1-2 days and then off somewhere else and so on. In the past when I was working, I only had a week long holiday twice a season.

I think we paid £500 in visitor moorings last season also, so I am thinking, I won’t be so bothered about paying for visitor mooring this season, if I haven’t paid for a seasonal mooring. Most of the time we are at anchor anyway for free, but there are always places where your not allowed to anchor.

We haven’t been north of Torquay in Lime Bay to our east for 21 years, we would like to visit Exmouth and Teignmouth at least once, until we visit a place we have no idea if we would want to go back. So we are going to spend May going east visiting places we know and like and some places new to us.

By the 16th of March the weather was looking up and the sun had showed it self, so I spent Monday and Tuesday scrubbing Elektra’s bottom and washing her freeboard and decks. On the Wednesday, I did what I said I wouldn’t ever do again and that was to give her a coat of antifouling on her mud berth (the last time I had done this back in 2018, the mud was 12-18″ deep and it was quite a workout just walking around her in the mud). But this year the mud was almost gone from around her bow area and only 4-6inchs at her rudder, so was a lot easier to do.

On Thursday I refitted her boom, mainsheet and kicker, along with some other internal jobs. On Friday I painted her bot,top line and on Saturday recoated her teak and bent on her sails, On Sunday I refitted her dodgers, by then she was quite a good way along for the coming season. But we hadn’t any plans to move her down the river until the weekend 17-20th April. We had a brief chat about taking her down the river early but in the end decided to stick to our orginal plan.

I still with a few mainly internal jobs, after the week of great weather, and I had 4 weeks to complete, but Vicki had arranged for a cleaner, to do an internal spring clean prior to the season on the 7th April, so I only had 2 weeks in reality but still plenty of time.

And l have to yet pick up the sprayhood from Kernow Covers, which had gone in for repair,  in the photo below, her winter sprayhood was still in use.

Ever since the winter laying up period started in October it had been “wet, wet, wet! and by the beginning of March, I had only been aboard Elektra about 3 times just to check on things.

So it was Wednesday 4th March, before l went aboard to check her out again and start on her recommissioning for the coming season. There was a curtain amount of fresh water in a number of locations which wasn’t surprising considering the winter weather. Ever since we bought Elektra in 2016 we had been trying to solve leaks, summer time these small leaks are manageable but with the constant rain over the winter and my lack of visits to her the amount had built up.

Ever since the rewiring last summer, l thought the automatic bilge pump under the engine to be faulty. It hadn’t worked at all during the winter, so my first job was to hand pump out the bilge and remove the pump and float switch for testing at home. And clean/sponge out under the engine.

I found my torch needed recharging and the clock and smoke detector needed new batteries.

There had been a lot of condensation off the fore hatch and that had ended up under the floor in the head, there is a pump here too but not on a live circuit hadn’t activated. Also the condensation had gone in under the forward bunk and from there seeped out into the cupboard under the sink. I sponged out about a about a gallon of water in all, from the 3 places for the whole winter.

The battery banks where all charged and l checked the history from the last 30 days, all looked good.

I screwed down the under cockpit locker, known to Sadler owners as the bathtub, it and it’s contents had been removed for her engine work back in November. Back then when replaced the bathtub l couldn’t find the fixing screws. But when l opened the cockpit locker to restow the lines, keg anchor and fenders. I found the fixing screws just sitting there really handy!

With the tide coming back in, l locked up and headed for home. There l tested the bilge pump and switch, both were working fine.

As two of the engine mounts had suffered from heat damage in the July fire aboard, they needed to be replaced. I saw my engineer, Anthony was working at St Anthony and asked him when he wanted to jo the job, he was keen to get the job done. So I removed the saloon table and the bathtup(under cockpit floor locker) aft of the engine over the weekend.

Anthony came on Monday morning and moved Elektra’s engine forward into the saloon, I had some fire insulation to make good in the engine compartment before the engine could go back in. And Anthony was going to do a repair on the heat exchanger and engine water pump before the engine would be ready to go back in.

I got the insulation done on the Thursday and Anthony came back on the next Monday 3rd November to replace the engine mounts and refitted the engine. While aboard he did the normal engine service.

The invoice arrived by email on the 7th and I paid the same day, next day I sent the invoice for replacement mounts to the insurance and my insurance paid 86% of the amount on the 11th November having closed the insurance claim.

I hear lots of talk about marine insurance on social media, most owners seem to be more concerned about how much premium they are paying. But really the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I had no idea when I claimed for the fire aboard Elektra what it would be like, but I am really happy with the way my insurance “Beazley” handled my claim. It seemed slow while waiting but not in reality, I had back 100% of labour costs and 70% of replacement parts costs, which amounted to 86% of the total, and they paid this just 7 weeks after the fire. With the final closing balance arriving in my bank 4 days after I sent the receipted invoice.