Captain Slog, or 'thats another fine mess you've gotten us into'
On this page we will give a blow by blow account of voyages made, no embellishments will be made to try
and convince the reader that sailing is an idyllic pass time, which some of the time it is, but the wind does
not blow a steady force 4 from the south all year, honestly, it doesn't.
I will up date this page as an ongoing project, so check back often, and 'give us a quid' or euro, or dollar
whatever.
So here on these pages we will tell it 'warts n all' although I am sure when the crew see this they might
have something to add, and I will let them, just so long as it does not make me look a complete idiot, after
all I am well able to do that.
and convince the reader that sailing is an idyllic pass time, which some of the time it is, but the wind does
not blow a steady force 4 from the south all year, honestly, it doesn't.
I will up date this page as an ongoing project, so check back often, and 'give us a quid' or euro, or dollar
whatever.
So here on these pages we will tell it 'warts n all' although I am sure when the crew see this they might
have something to add, and I will let them, just so long as it does not make me look a complete idiot, after
all I am well able to do that.
Captain Slog
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| Updating in progress |
| July 2009 Plymouth to Falmouth |
Ok, so we left Jubilee Green, Saltash after a hearty breakfast in the local Café, and proceeded
downstream to Mayflower Marina and filled up with fuel, then left Plymouth via 'the bridge'
towards Rame Head. As we passed Cawsands I was tempted to anchor off, as there is a
particularly inviting pub but I resisted manfully. We motored out towards our 1st waypoint, and
as usual the wind was bang from the SSW with a slight to moderate swell coming from the same
direction. As we headed out past the west end of the breakwater I could see long grey clouds
building in the west, we would definitely be getting wet on this trip, which was a real shame as
the weather had been great on the lead up whilst at Boating World.
After an hour I went below to plot our position on the chart and was disturbed to see quite a lot
of water slopping around in the bilges, I switched on the bilge pump and emptied the bilge,
making a mental note to keep an eye on it.
I had noted that there was still an amount of water dripping from the starboard garboard seam
even after being out of the water for the best part of 9 months, its pretty safe to assume that
where water is coming out, thats where its coming in.
However we were making great speed over the ground at about 7 knots, and averaging 4.8
through the water, things were going pretty uneventfully, the weather had closed in by about
2pm and a steady light rain was now falling, Micky was in full wets at this point, and I was taking
skippers prerogative and sitting in the relative shelter of the companion way, half in half out of
the cabin, which is, by the way my favorite position on the boat, especially if the engine is
running its lovely and warm. All was well
until we were a few miles south east of
Portmelin Head when an alarm sounded
from the engine control, the low oil
pressure light was on so I quickly pulled
the engine stop, and disappeared below
to investigate. The engine had thrown all
its oil out through the top of the tappit
cover, there had always been a slight oil
leak via one of the bolt heads, but
obviously with the increased engine revs
and subsequent pressure the oil had
gradually disappeared into the bilge.
Luckily I still had some oil left over from
the last engine service in Weymouth, so
we had enough to get us under reduced speed into Falmouth. Having arrived in Falmouth and
picked up a swinging mooring we called the water taxi no: and no one came to get us, so we ate
on board that night, with a couple of tins of ale settled down for the night.
The next morning we awoke to a fine Cornish Mizzle, the sort of stuff that gets you really soaked
without you noticing it, I needed to get oil for the engine so we headed over to Custom House
Quay, and moored there for a while. While she was there I could no help but notice how at
home she looked, and remembering her past lives, she must have moored there numerous
times during her time as an open ferry on the Percuil river.
We had some breakfast in a local Café, and found some oil in the local ‘Trago Mills’ store, on
our return to the boat, a local ferry was sharing the berth so having already heard the weather
forecast was not looking good, I decided to glean some local knowledge. I asked the Ferry
Skipper what the outlook was likely to be and was told that it was going to ‘get bad, get real bad’
by the evening, I made my decision there and then we would stay put and sit it out. By 10.30
the weather was visible deteriorating so we decided to head out towards St. Antony Head just to
make up my mind, as we came out of the relative shelter of Pendennis Pt. the wind, now a very
healthy SSW 5 with an ebbing tide was taking the tops off the waves and adding to the driving
rain, I think Mike and I discussed heading back to Plymouth for about 30 seconds before
reason and common sense prevailed, I turned the ship 180° and we returned to our bouy.
I decided to take some time ashore so we pumped up the dinghy and rowed to the pontoon,
tied up the dinghy, and made our way to the ‘Chain Locker’ a very well known local hostelry
(insert) where with the help of a few ales,
I located and arranged a berth and a lift
out at a local marina. I wanted MQ out of
the water so I could get to the seam that
was causing problems, all I had to do now
was to find a shipwright.
We had the rest of the day off, and having
played a lot of pool, got involved in a 50th
birthday party, and discovered a few pubs
that are off the beaten track! We eventually
made our way back to the pontoon and the
dinghy at about 8:30pm, by this time the wind
was howling through the rigging of the boats
that were lucky enough to have got alongside,
luckily it was blowing our way so all we had to do was dip the occasional oar in to steer and as
we passed MQ make a grab for the shrouds, we climbed on board and quickly made the dinghy
fast astern, the rain was blowing horizontally and stung as it hit exposed area’s of face and
hands, a good F9, I doubled up the warp to the bouy and retired below to my bunk.
That night we were tossed around like the proverbial cork, the rain lashing on the deck and the
wind rattling over the boat, driving the rain into previously unknown cracks and crevices and
causing leaks in places where there were no leaks before. One of these leaks was right over M
berth and during the night I taped a bin-liner up under the leak to divert the water away from his
already sodden sleeping bag, he actually slept through most of this, but woke in the morning
looking like he had slept in the bath!.
downstream to Mayflower Marina and filled up with fuel, then left Plymouth via 'the bridge'
towards Rame Head. As we passed Cawsands I was tempted to anchor off, as there is a
particularly inviting pub but I resisted manfully. We motored out towards our 1st waypoint, and
as usual the wind was bang from the SSW with a slight to moderate swell coming from the same
direction. As we headed out past the west end of the breakwater I could see long grey clouds
building in the west, we would definitely be getting wet on this trip, which was a real shame as
the weather had been great on the lead up whilst at Boating World.
After an hour I went below to plot our position on the chart and was disturbed to see quite a lot
of water slopping around in the bilges, I switched on the bilge pump and emptied the bilge,
making a mental note to keep an eye on it.
I had noted that there was still an amount of water dripping from the starboard garboard seam
even after being out of the water for the best part of 9 months, its pretty safe to assume that
where water is coming out, thats where its coming in.
However we were making great speed over the ground at about 7 knots, and averaging 4.8
through the water, things were going pretty uneventfully, the weather had closed in by about
2pm and a steady light rain was now falling, Micky was in full wets at this point, and I was taking
skippers prerogative and sitting in the relative shelter of the companion way, half in half out of
the cabin, which is, by the way my favorite position on the boat, especially if the engine is
running its lovely and warm. All was well
until we were a few miles south east of
Portmelin Head when an alarm sounded
from the engine control, the low oil
pressure light was on so I quickly pulled
the engine stop, and disappeared below
to investigate. The engine had thrown all
its oil out through the top of the tappit
cover, there had always been a slight oil
leak via one of the bolt heads, but
obviously with the increased engine revs
and subsequent pressure the oil had
gradually disappeared into the bilge.
Luckily I still had some oil left over from
the last engine service in Weymouth, so
we had enough to get us under reduced speed into Falmouth. Having arrived in Falmouth and
picked up a swinging mooring we called the water taxi no: and no one came to get us, so we ate
on board that night, with a couple of tins of ale settled down for the night.
The next morning we awoke to a fine Cornish Mizzle, the sort of stuff that gets you really soaked
without you noticing it, I needed to get oil for the engine so we headed over to Custom House
Quay, and moored there for a while. While she was there I could no help but notice how at
home she looked, and remembering her past lives, she must have moored there numerous
times during her time as an open ferry on the Percuil river.
We had some breakfast in a local Café, and found some oil in the local ‘Trago Mills’ store, on
our return to the boat, a local ferry was sharing the berth so having already heard the weather
forecast was not looking good, I decided to glean some local knowledge. I asked the Ferry
Skipper what the outlook was likely to be and was told that it was going to ‘get bad, get real bad’
by the evening, I made my decision there and then we would stay put and sit it out. By 10.30
the weather was visible deteriorating so we decided to head out towards St. Antony Head just to
make up my mind, as we came out of the relative shelter of Pendennis Pt. the wind, now a very
healthy SSW 5 with an ebbing tide was taking the tops off the waves and adding to the driving
rain, I think Mike and I discussed heading back to Plymouth for about 30 seconds before
reason and common sense prevailed, I turned the ship 180° and we returned to our bouy.
I decided to take some time ashore so we pumped up the dinghy and rowed to the pontoon,
tied up the dinghy, and made our way to the ‘Chain Locker’ a very well known local hostelry
(insert) where with the help of a few ales,
I located and arranged a berth and a lift
out at a local marina. I wanted MQ out of
the water so I could get to the seam that
was causing problems, all I had to do now
was to find a shipwright.
We had the rest of the day off, and having
played a lot of pool, got involved in a 50th
birthday party, and discovered a few pubs
that are off the beaten track! We eventually
made our way back to the pontoon and the
dinghy at about 8:30pm, by this time the wind
was howling through the rigging of the boats
that were lucky enough to have got alongside,
luckily it was blowing our way so all we had to do was dip the occasional oar in to steer and as
we passed MQ make a grab for the shrouds, we climbed on board and quickly made the dinghy
fast astern, the rain was blowing horizontally and stung as it hit exposed area’s of face and
hands, a good F9, I doubled up the warp to the bouy and retired below to my bunk.
That night we were tossed around like the proverbial cork, the rain lashing on the deck and the
wind rattling over the boat, driving the rain into previously unknown cracks and crevices and
causing leaks in places where there were no leaks before. One of these leaks was right over M
berth and during the night I taped a bin-liner up under the leak to divert the water away from his
already sodden sleeping bag, he actually slept through most of this, but woke in the morning
looking like he had slept in the bath!.
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