Sunday 27 May 2012

A sociable potter



What a beautiful day! not much in the way of wind but absolutely gorgeous.  I persuaded Mrs Ciao Bella to come out for a potter around the Harbour.  My persuading started with me making the picnic and bringing a cup of tea up, whistling 'Dock of the bay'  :~)
Sitting on the dock of the bay
Picnic time
On the boat and Roger was also getting his boat ready for the off.  We slipped the mooring and drifted towards the harbour entrance.  The small amount of wind died and we were drifting backwards, time to start the engine.  We motored up Blood Alley and dropped the anchor to have our picnic and catch up on some beauty sleep.
Big Easy on the move
Get back to work
I saw Roger sailing out in the back of the harbour and decided to go round and meet him; but not before some more sleep and sunbathing.
The breeze picked up slightly and we were able to make slow progress.  We followed the stake around to South deep where we found Roger and Family in 'Big Easy'  We rafted up and had a refreshments ;~P and a chin wag. Rogers mob had been diving off the boat and swimming... braver than me.
Eventually it was time to head home,  we had a good sail back considering there was barely any wind. Maintaining 3 knots most of the way.
We'd had a smashing day out grommit :D


Big Easy anchored

Mrs Ciao Bella






I see you baby...
Rafted up







Big Easy with her smart new sail

Thursday 24 May 2012

Bring on the beats

I bought an iphone dock for Ciao Bella of eBay the other day.  It arrived today and is superb. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200750693277?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_1435wt_1346
I took it over after work today as I needed to take the sail across anyway, Here's a little vid clip of the sound system and some other discoveries :)





The art of the tender

There is a school of thought that suggests the ideal tender should be easy to row, easy to motor, keep you dry, stay afloat but above all.... Look totally un-covetable :-)
I think I have perfected this last point and am considering going for the Turner prize.
I have actually put some more fibreglass on the hull which should hopefully mean she won't be floating just below the surface every time I want to use her. Last year she was so bad, there was weed growing inside :D
The last job before she goes back to the club is to screw the large hose around the edge as a rubbing strake... This should complete the scrapheap challenge look.

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Bucklers Hard

Saturday morning.
Saturday started early, everything was packed the night before so John and I were able to to get down at the club by about 0730.  The plan was for me to paddle out to the boat and bring it back to the pier to load up.  Arjen, another club member was there and kindly offered to take John and some of the kit out to the boat.  I got to the boat first and realised my keys were still at the club... This is a familiar story, probably one that I will never learn from.  John and Arjen dropped off the gear and went back for my keys and some other bits of Arjens.
I was glad Arjen was there as the tide was ripping out and there was no way I could have got Ciao Bella to the pier head.  While they went back to the club I motored over to a mooring near Arjen's boat. He has a beautiful looking Finesse 21 called Woodmouse, pictures of that later.
Once set up and ready for the off we circled around a bit until Arjen was ready to go.  By 0915 we were heading for the harbour entrance, the wind was forecast to be very light but was probably at the bottom end of F3 and with full genoa and main Ciao Bella didn't hang around.
Heading out of Poole harbour with Woodmouse in the background.
Once out in the bay I took my usual heading towards the Island,  I was somewhat shocked when I heard one of the keels scrape the bottom, I bore away and headed up the Swash channel.  With the low tide and extra depth of keel I'd nearly been caught out.  Woodmouse kept his course and avoided to bank. When I checked the GPS later I only just touch it and really only needed to make an adjustment but it wasn't worth the risk.
Saturday Afternoon.
We'd had a good sail across Bournemouth bay and with the wind coming from the NE we didn't even have to tack.  Into Christchurch bay and things got more interesting.  We were going to have to tack to get inshore so that we'd have a reasonable heading through Hurst channel.  Before we tacked we noticed a plane flying low towards the needles, we wouldn't have remembered but because it was so low it took some time to see it even though we could hear it.  We put our tack in and forgot about the plane.  About 15mins later there was a mayday call from  Solent Coastguard, they had received a 999 call saying that the plane had gone over the needles battery and disappeared.  an hour and a half of helicopters and lifeboats followed with intermittent scoldings from the Coast guard for people breaking the 'See-lance' before the search was called of as the aircraft had been located back at it's airfield. 
Enough excitement for one afternoon we tacked our way into the Hurst narrows,  running the engine briefly as the wind died for just a few minutes.  Getting into the Solent had us thinking we were nearly there.  Not a hope, the entrance to the Beaulieu river is a fair way up the Solent, a good visual aid is to aim for the Fawley Chimney, eventually you'll see a white boat house on the beach and that where you need to be.
We dropped the sails before entering the river, they weren't doing much by now anyway as the wind had slowly ebbed away during the afternoon.

First view of Bucklers Hard
 We motored up the river which gradually changes from seascape to a wooded river.  At Bucklers Hard we were greeted by the harbour masters launch who gave us instructions on where to berth.  I had decided to pay the extra and have a walk ashore berth.. well worth it.
Room for a little un
 We ate in the Master Builders Arms. I can't really recommend it for food, I had Chicken, bacon and leek pie but it looked as if it had been zapped in the microwave.  The beer on the other hand was tip top :~) We eventually met up with some of the other club members and spent the evening discussing the trip over.
Leaving the river 
 Sunday Morning.
We set the alarm for 6am as we needed to be out of the Solent by about 10am.  Several presses of the snooze button later and eventually we crawled out of our pits and prepared to go.  There was absolutely no wind as we set of and as we left the river the Solent was smooth as a mirror. To make up for our lazy start we motored at 6 knots from the river entrance to Hurst castle.
Shingles bank high and dry.
 Once out of the Solent the breeze started to pick up, we killed the engine and unfurled the Genoa .  Ciao Bella responded immediately and we were coasting along at 3 knots.
Poly put the kettle on
 John learnt some new skills,  making tea on the go and using his mobile while helming... I must have been to busy to help :o))
Confidence building, John multi-tasks
 Soon after leaving the Solent we saw Woodmouse so detoured over to take some pics.The wind had picked up nicely now and we were at optimum speed.
Arjen in his 1966 Finesse 21  'Woodmouse'

Soon after this I snagged a lobster pot around around the skeg,  the marker was a good 4 meters off the starboard but it had excessive line that was lying along the surface ready to snag the unsuspecting.  I managed to free it with the boat hook and got under-way again.
Arjen kindly took this pic of Ciao Bella
Sunday afternoon.
The  wind continued to build through the afternoon and once into Bournemouth bay it was upto F5 and right on the nose.  We furled a good chunk of the Genoa but as the borrowed main didn't have reefing points we spent the afternoon on our ear.  and tacking all the way back.   Just off Bournemouth pier we did the marine equivalent of a handbrake turn.. just after a tack an unwelcome noise started, it was the anchor chain running at speed over the bow roller.  It dug in in 10m of water like someone had nailed the bow to the floor. It took a bit of time to break it out but we were soon on the go again.
We tacked our way into the harbour and back to the mooring.  It had taken us about 8 hours to get back, not to bad considering the wind was on the nose.  A great week end and a long time coming.  Looking forward to Castle Cove in a couple of weeks.


Thursday 10 May 2012

Beaulieu

After some really horrible weather it looks like we are finally going to get a good weekend.  I am joining some of the boats from East Dorset Sailing Club on a cruise to Bucklers Hard, up the Beaulieu river.
It will be another chance for John to get out and gain some more experience before the Alderney trip.  I've even pushed the proverbial boat out and booked a walk ashore berth as I don't fancy paddling back across the river after one to many 'Old Thumper' .

Pictures below from the Bucklers Hard website.  http://www.bucklershard.co.uk/beaulieu-river

Saturday 5 May 2012

New crew

Last night John and myself had our first joint sail.  John  has volunteered to crew for some of the cruises this year, the Alderney one in particular and as he is a complete novice sailor I thought we'd better get some practice in :o))

After a quick safety brief and an overview of the basic controls we raised the borrowed main sail (Thanks Roger) we slipped the mooring and made our way towards Pottery pier.  After a short period I unfurled the Genoa and Ciao Bella stretched her legs.  It was a good confidence builder for John as he could feel the power coming through the boat as he fettled the boat in and out of the wind with the tiller.
Round the back of the Island and even in light winds, due to being in the lee of the Island, we made reasonable speed against the tide. We took the chance to have some tea from the flask before breaking from the cover of the Island.
As we approached the the Eastern tip of the Island I could see the wind had picked up on the water.  We rolled in a good chunk of the Genoa and headed straight into the wind and the tide.  The next few miles gave us a lot of Tacking practise, the depth sounder also came into its own as I nearly put us on a sandbank in the harbour mouth, see the avoiding action around the five mile mark.  The tacks got slicker as we approached the end of our trip.  As the tide was starting to rip out I put away the rest of the Genoa and sparked up the outboard, I'm still impressed with this engine :) and motored back to the mooring.
A great start to the season, we have an excursion to Beaulieu planned for next week and Portland at the beginning of June.  We will cram in as much as we can before the planned trip to Alderney... I'm sooo excited.

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Survived the storms

It was a blessed relief today when the sun came out and the EDSC webcam made a rare attempt at working.  Ciao Bella was still sat happily on her mooring.  It's been a rough few days down in the harbour and I half expected a phone call on a few occasions to say that she'd either broke free or been hit by another drifting boat. One day the was a 30 to 40 foot ketch beached in Whitely Lake, the area that the wind surfers and kite boarders use.
On Thursday I had to brave the weather and row out in 24Knot wind with 35knot gusts to secure the main sail which was flogging about.  The sail has sustained some damage just below the head, there are 2 or 3 small rips covering an area of about 6 to 8 inches square.  I will hopefully be able to repair it myself  but if the damage is worse than I thought I will have to remove it and get it repaired properly.  I wasn't in the mood to spend too much time aboard while she was leaping about on the mooring chain.
I'll let you know how I get on with the repairs, in the meantime.. and while the sun is out I'd better have a look at the tender which is still languishing on my front lawn.