Love Sailing

It was Good Friday, it was spring tides and as always with the first night aboard we had loads of gear, bedding and food to get aboard. The morning tide was going to be to early for us to get sorted before the tide would be gone so we decided to leave on the evening tide.

I got out in the morning to take some food and gear to “Elektra” before the tide went out. When I arrived down at St Anthony there was almost now swell left from the east wind, the tide was falling fast, I decided if she was still afloat I would move her out of Carne Creek and anchor off St Anthony to allow as to get away a little earlier. Arriving at Elektra in the punt I checked the depth which was reading 0.2m, so just enough to get out. Without stowing anything I started her engine and went to the bow to pull up her anchor. The chain came up easy but the anchor was well dug in after the weeks of east wind but in the end broke out, which I pulled up but left hanging from the bow ready to let go. Motoring out of the creek slowly the depth went to zero at one point but never stopped her, in the channel now the depth was 0.3m and then 0.5m until we got to the narrows and the depth went to 1.2m. Motoring slowly over to St Anthony I knocked her out of gear and walked up to the bow and let the anchor go, laying out the chain then making off to the cleat which brought Elektra to a stop as the anchor dug in. Once there I could stow the gear and which I had taken with me, I waited until she settled down and then headed for home.

Being Good Friday it’s normal for the locals to collect Cockles from the shores in and around the Helford River, so the area will be chocker blocked in an hour or two. We had to get everything ready for the weekend, the tide would be coming back to Elektra soon after 1500hrs but we expected parking to be an issue. When we did get back to St Anthony it was, we just stopped in the road and unloaded and I went to park where I could.

I took the punt down to the water line and we loaded the gear and waited for the tide to come up a bit more before I pushed off from the shore and loaded them on to Elektra before returning for Vicki with an empty punt. Now to stow the stores and get ready Elektra for the off. I had to motor Elektra out a bit because her rudder/skeg was bouncing on the bottom in the slight swell. We pull the anchor up and motored out of St Antony at 1615hrs hoping to sail I raised and set the mainsail but the was no wind!

The first weekend aboard is all about getting Elektra set up to go sailing and finding out what we have forgotten! It would have been nice to have a sail but motoring across Falmouth Bay it didn’t seem that bad, it was nice to be out on the sea again after the winters lay-up.

We motored in past St Mawes and up into the Precuir River and anchored at 1800hrs for the weekend, after arriving there seemed some sort of problem with the batteries/charging and also the engine cooling, something to look at tomorrow! Time for a rest!

Back at the end of last season, we had two local companies quote for a new cockpit encloser and spray hood, one was a one man band and the other a big company. Both had been recommend but one was more than half of the other quote of the other, so we ordered from the cheaper of the two (one man band). Neal is very busy all the time and he contacted me to say he was now ready to pattern and make the spay hood, so at the high water on Wednesday 27th March Neal came over to do.

I might have had the work done quicker from the other company but at twice the price it was well worth waiting for Neal.

Neal explained he would make the spray hood first and fit then pattern the encloser to make a good fit.

Back in the winter I had dropped Elektra’s genoa to him for a new sacrificial strip, this sail was ready when I went to pick up on the Saturday before.

The last weekend in March would have been nice for a sail but Elektra was neaped between Thursday 28th March and Monday 1st of April (I knew she would be), so sailing wasn’t to be!

Two days after anti-fouling, at 1000hrs I left St Anthony in the dinghy, soon after arriving at Elektra the tide was gone and I spent the day marooned aboard in the middle of a muddy creek getting her ready to go sailing again. The first job was to bend on her sails again, its a slow job to do on your own and means lots of running forward and back when the sails jam but by lunch time I had done both the main and the genoa.

Then I sat in the sunshine eating lunch with a can of coke, with almost no wind it felt like summer.

After lunch I refitted her dodgers and kept myself busy with other jobs for the coming season. It was not until 1700hrs before the tide came back and I could leave and head for St Anthony in the dinghy, the engine only just had enough speed to push the tide though the narrows.

On the 22nd of March it was time to do the anti-fouling, I wanted to get down there early to allow the paint to dry before the water came back on the following high water, it was a good job I did as the hull needed rinsing off before I could start.

Not a nice job by any account but being on a sandy/stone beach I found it a lot better than anti-fouling in the muddy creek as I had done in 2018. I had also got better organised this year with boards for mixing the paint and smaller boards for painting the keels close to the ground. It was nice at the end to think ” I don’t have to do that again for another year!”

After that it was time to load some cruising gear aboard Elektra, once that was done Vicki and I stopped for some lunch. During the day I asked the boatyard to use one of their mooring to pull her off in the evening so I could pick up her stern anchor which we laid two days ago. While I was at it I also picked up the other winter anchor in the creek and took them home.

Work done all we could do then was wait for the water to float her again, I linked up a stern line to the mooring and cast off the bow line and coiled up. The high water was at 1830hrs but we floated off 1/2hr before. We motored Elektra back into the safety of Carne Creek and dropped anchor but not as far up as the winter mooring to allow us to go sailing in early April.

On the 20th of March our local engineer serviced Elektra’s engine, its something I could do myself but I always find Anthony quick off the mark for repairs in the sailing season when I don’t have time, so like to give him some regular work as will.

In the evening on the high water we cast off Elektra’s winter mooring lines and picked up one of her stern anchors and slowly motored her out from Carne Creek to St Antony beach ready for the boatyard to pressure wash her bottom the following day.

Arriving at St Anthony heading for the beach I dropped the stern anchor again and added another mooring line. Our friend Roger was on the beach and offered to take our bow line as we motored in slowly. Now moored fore and aft, we packed up and went ashore in the dinghy.

With all the dry weather in February I have managed to get quite a few jobs done.

The deadline is moving closer, we need a tide of over 5 metres to move Elektra from her winter mooring down the creek towards the sea but her seasonal mooring will not be available until 1st of April. The first tide in April big enough isn’t until the 18th  so we have decided to move Elektra down the creek to a safe anchorage between the 20-25th of March, this will allow as to go sailing over the first weekend in April to make the most of the sailing season.

I have polished the freeboard and painted her boot top line, washed and treated all her running rigging. I had a quote from the riggers to replace the coax and antenna, I was taken back at over £700 so one nice day Vicki and I did the job ourselves in about 3hrs with the aid of a “Deffee Yacht Mast Ladder” I owned. Vicki is replacing the zip in our old spray hood for use until the new spray hood and cockpit encloser is finished during the season.

After a lovely summer with plenty of time off to go sailing, we laid Elektra up for the winter at the end of October. Then I got busy at work, I am only just now getting the time to do some winter jobs on Elektra.

I was down there last weekend, removed her rudder and re-bedding the fixings on the stern, new A4 bolts and backing pads. It took a little time to do, in fact two days but I have finished doing this work yesterday.

Being at the creek sides are muddy I used duck boards to access the stern so I didn’t carry to much mud aboard