Love Sailing

20th May 2020

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After an easy day at work I was home early, I suggested to Vicki to move Elektra out to her seasonal swing mooring on the evening high water. Vicki was happy to do so and we set off down to St Anthony.

Out in the punt to Elektra, she was already floating, I decided to pick up my winter anchor and line and leave in the dinghy, the anchor had dug itself in very well but I did get the anchor to release in the end!

Motoring slowly out of the creek, though the narrows and out though Gillan Harbour to a swing mooring the boatyard said we could use. I picked up the mooring and attached punt before dropping again and we headed out into Helford River, trying the engine at differant speeds. There was almost no wind but we did let out the genoa for 10mins before deciding to motor up the Helford River.

Like Gillan there were almost no yachts on the moorings Helford River, very strange for the time of year but Boris had only just let us out to play! Motoring up though the empty moorings there were some yachts on the inner moorings. Then we spotted Gary a sailing friend who lives in Scilly, we motored over for a chat. Gary told us he was moving to the Falmouth area if he could get any of the pro’s to get on with doing some work. Gary had sailed his yacht over from Scilly and now has a mooring in Falmouth.

After our chat we turn Elektra around and headed back out of the river, it was getting chilly now so vicki sheltered behind the sprayhood as I took the helm and headed back to our mooring.

Picking up our mooring we had logged 6.5nm in 1.5hrs, the engine was working great, it well push Elektra along at a steady 6kts at 2,500 revs with plenty of spare power if needed.

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Elektra is now ready to go sailing.

On Sunday the 10th May the news from Borris was for the lifting of the lockdown from Wednesday 13th for all outside sports as long as social distancing rules were followed. Also we found out later in the week that staying away from home woundnt be allowed which kind of defeats the perpose of a sailing yacht!

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We thought we can go sailing at the weekend, I gets the tide tables out at to my dismay I saw Elektra would be neaped until Sunday at the earlest! We carried gear and navigation equipment aboard on Saturday and stowed away with a plan of moving Elektra out to her seasonal mooring on Sundays high water.

On Sunday with food and drink in a bag we headed out to her again but at high water she only had 50mm of water under her keel, so in the end we didnt think it would be wise to try to move her out of the creek. We spent a few hours sitting in the sun instead with our picnic before heading for home again later in the afternoon.

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We are hoping to move Elektra to her seasonal swing mooring durring the coming week ready to sail next weekend weather permitting.

From the 10th of March I got busy at work and by the time I could not get back to work on Elektra again until the social distancing for the Coronavirus was in full swing. With Elektra isolated on a mooring away from other boats and owners I continued with her work hoping to get Elektra ready to sail by the 4-5th April. Then came the lockdown but it still seemed walking was allowed as long as the social distancing rules were followed so I continued working to get here ready.

The talk on facebook and the like was not to go sailing and the RYA was also advicing against. Elektra was coming on but still wasnt ready to sail by the end of March.

Because of the cost of owning a yacht and paying out the adverage yearly costs of £2,500 for moorings ect (not forgetting I need to turnover twice this amount) I always want to use Elektra as much as possible avoiding the bad weather and I was beginning to think we wouldnt be allowed to.

Elektra in the season is on a swing mooring which we access via a punt from a beach and the beach is only a drive of 2 miles from home. When sailing we normally sail to a nice spot and anchor away from others for a night without going ashore, my feeling was how was this not social distancing.

Then came the final blow when the boatyard contacted me and asked for me to remove my punt leaving me with no way of getting out to Elektra if the tide was in.

It looks like Elektra will be staying put until the lockdown is lifted.

With the need to get out to check Elektra’s mooring from time to time and some jobs still to do, I pumped up another dinghy I owned and took it down to the creek, launched off the side of the road and rowed it the length of the creek. I must say it was nice to row down the creek as part of my exercise, once I had checked Elektra I rowed ashore to a isotated beach and turned dinghy over above thre tide mark and made the painter off to a tree. Then a nice long walk along the side of a wooded creek back home, we are so lucky to have this area on our doorstep.

The forecast was poor weather for the planed 2 weeks out of the water, on the 24th of February I phoned Anthony our engineer to ask what he thought, his reply was “go for it, you cant take any notice of these weather men!” So on the 26th Elektra was pulled out at Sailaway, St Anthony for two week to stay their yard trailer, Sailaway needed the trailer again by mid March to move other boats.

With Elektra out Anthony was there as soon as possible to remove Elektra’s old Bukh DV20 engine, we were lucky to have two dry days following each other to get one engine out and the new Yanmar 3YM20 aboard ready for fitting.

We were away over the weekend but I was down there Monday 2nd March washing her freeboard and preping for antifouling, then antifouling on Tuesday. Anthony was also there on Tuesday fitting the engine. Wedensday was heavy rain all day but Thursday came good again and I was able polish the freeboard and paint the bot top line. Anthony was also there finishing the engine fitting, near the end of the day he fired her up for the first time, he had a few eletrical problems to sort which delayed him so by the end of the day he still had a few things to do, so said he would come back on Sarurday.

I had been trying to keep out of Anthony’s way while he was fitting the engine, so it was our turn to fit the davit holders on Friday. But in the morning it was raining again! But it dried out later and we were able to fit the davit holders.

Anthony was there to finish off on Saturday morning and l refitted the hand bilge pump in the afternoon. On Sunday I scrubbed her decks and cockpit, on Monday got our tender (10′ 6″RIB) down from the shed roof, added some air and took with launching trolly to St Anthony, while there arranging for Elektra’s re-launch on Tuesday.

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The tide was high enought to get back to Elektra’s winter mooring but by April we would have to wait 7-8 days to get her out again. The weather forecast was still poor for the rest of March, my friend David said I could use his bad weather mooring above the narrows in Carne Creek until his yacht is re-launched (April). David’s drying trot mooring is set up for east wind (chain to east and rope to west) but this winters wind was all from the west so I wanting Elektra to be facing west. So I set one of my winter mooring anchors up to the west as will (just in case the rope mooring parts in the strong winds).

I asked my sailing friend Roger to help move Elektra from St Anthony to Carne creek. After a slight delay getting away because the stern line getting stuck between skeg and rudder we were then able to start engine and motor Elektra though the narrows into Carne Creek and onto the mooring. Once moored up l stopped the engine checked a few things before returning in the dinghy to St Anthony.

With Elektra moved from her winter mooring, it was time for me to pull winter mooring anchors out of the mud and pick up her lines. While I was there Anthony our engineer came along in his loader tractor heading to Elektra to remove her old Bukh engine.

I had to go to work after that but on looking at Elektra next day the engine was gone.

I was taking a few photos and Anthony arrived with Elektra’s new Yanmar 3YM20, l was able to help get her new engine aboard. Anthony is busy this time of the year and after fitting the new stern shaft and fixing new engine barriers down he was off to his next job. But now the rest of the fitting can be done whatever the weather.

I had arranged with the local boat yard to have Elektra pulled out to allow her to be re-engined, her old Bukh DV20 seemed to be still running well but was over 36 years, time for a change.

The tide was a problem, not really high enough to float Elektra and get her down the channel to the boat yard just 1/2 mile away. I had hoped to float her on the evening of 24th February but she didn’t float at high water, which meant getting out early before light on the 25th which worked and I was able to pull her into deeper water ready for her move to St Anthony the following morning.

I had arranged with Vicki to help, high water was 0650hrs and we were down to Elektra in good time but getting into the punt l knocked the value with my foot and the dinghy started to deflate, quickly back to shore and pull the dinghy out. I then had to drive home for the pump! On my return with the pump the tide was now on the turn, so no time was wasted getting aboard.

Lines were cast off and we pulled Elektra via her port stern line into the channel before engaging the engine drive. Slowly we motor down the creek with as little as 0.5m under the keel but all was ok and we picked up a mooring off St Anthony about 20mins later. The boat yard guys were already getting ready to get Elektra out as Vicki and l paddled the dinghy in, l pulled the dinghy on to the shore, left Vicki there and walked back for my pickup. Then a short drive to St Anthony for Vicki and then home again for breakfast

After breakfast it was time to head back to see how they had got on, they had pulled her out enough so she couldn’t float away and let the tide go out before roping her to the trailer and pulling her out the rest of the way

Elektra had almost been untouched since laying her up on her winter mooring last October because of the wet and windy weather.

With the season just around the

corner it was time to start. First just was to clean as much of the green off her top sides and scrub the mud off her bottom.

Still raining but an ideal cleaning day l started with the top sides while the tide was going out. Once she had dried out l started scrubbing under the her water line, not a great job lying on the muddy creek bottom!

Later with the tide coming in again it was time to head for home, l was happy to have made a start on her winter work.

January. Starting on the winter jobs.

February. Fitting new coax and antenna.

March. Drying out on St Anthony beach to anti-foul and load gear.

April. East wind meant Elektra had to be anchored in the safety of Carne Creek most of the month.

Late April. First weekend away, seen here anchored in the Precuil River.

May. SSOA Rally in Fowey, great event with 18 yachts and 40 owners and crew.

June. Our first and only photo of Elektra sailing so far over 3 seasons.

July. First weeks holiday, seen here in the River Avon, South Devon.

July. At the end of the month another holiday, seen here in Restronguet Creek.

August. A wet and windy month, Elektra sat on her mooring unused.

September. Last holiday, here heading back to the Falmouth area from Fowey before the forecasted easterly gale.

October. The winter weather arrived early, so only one weekend away before Elektra was laid up for the winter.

November and December. Up a muddy creek for the winter, its not long before Elektra is muddy below the water line and green above!

River Avon, South Devon.

The sailing was mixed in 2019, Elektra was ready to go back on her mooring by the 3rd week of March. Our mooring is only available from the beginning April to end of October. With the beginning of April came strong east wind (our summer mooring is open to east wind), this stopped us going out for most of the month. The sailing was good in May and June, then came July, nice weather but and almost no wind. August was a wet and windy month and we couldn’t get out but September came good again and October was a wash out!

We sailed to Fowey for the SSOA Rally at the end of May, great rally with 18 yachts getting there. Then came the time when we looked for the weather to get out to Scilly but no joy this season, the weather was never right when we had the time to go! In the end we went east instead after a easterly gale had blown out at the beginning of July, we sailed to Salcombe via Fowey and Cawsands over three days. Returning to Gillan via the River Avon in South Devon, Yealm River and Fowey. Two weeks later we had another week aboard but we only stayed local Falmouth area due to very little wind.

With the weather this season the cockpit encloser ordered in Nov 18 hasn’t got finished, the stainless work was done be the end of July but the weather in August stopped the guy from taking the template of it, we are hoping it will be finished for spring 2020.

The numbers are, we had 59 days aboard of which we sailed for 39 of them, logging only 491nm. 42 nights aboard and 32 of them at anchor.

26th October

The end of the season has arrived, with strong east wind forecasted for next week it was time to move Elektra onto her winter mooring.

In the morning I took the anchors and the mooring lines down to Carne Creek to set up for later using thigh waders. We have two 15kg Bruce anchors for this job with chain and mooring line attached. The Creek is mostly stone with a little mud on top up by the road but nearer the channel is deep mud, the bottom of the channel and the streams running into it have solid bottoms and can be walked on. I picked up each anchor in turn and dragged the chain via a steam bed to the channel, once at the channel with the anchor I pulled the chain and mooring line to the channel, then working my way along the channel to set each anchor in turn for aft mooring lines. Then setting up fore lines from trees by the side of the road, linking all these lines together makes it easier when we come to moor up Elektra later.

Seems easy but all the time I was setting up the lines it was tipping down with rain, I had a waterproof top on and thigh waders, there was a gap between the waders and the waterproof top so the rain was running down the inside of the waders! The river was full of rain water coming down from the hills and so the channel was deeper than normal.

 

After going home for a shower and lunch, Vicki and I set off again for St Anthony and out to Elektra’s mooring in the punt and then motored her up to Carne slowly watching the depth but with the low pressure the tide was higher and the least depth was 0.9m. Mooring up was easy, then we set about emptying some gear out. Normally we would dry her out on St Anthony beach but the east wind stopped this. We will be clearing more gear tomorrow over the high water.