Tuesday  30 June, 2015

Port  Solent, Hampshire, United Kingdom 50 50.53N 01 05.89W

Today's Blog by David  (Time zone: BST; UTC +1)

Falmouth Harbour at Sunrise

We left Falmouth early on Saturday and largely motored to the River Dart, to the Ferry Boat Inn at Dittisham above Dartmouth in anticipation of an excellent meal ashore.  We did manage to turn the engine off and sail the last 15 miles or so, from just off Salcombe.  My heart sank on approach to Dartmouth; I had started the engine as we  rolled away the sails to enter the harbour - a passing RIB was now  gesticulating vigorously at the engine exhaust which was again bellowing black smoke like a fire in a plastics factory.   In the past this has been attributed to a faulty turbo and threatened rendering the engine u/s for the remainder of the journey to Portsmouth.   

Fortunately, revving the engine hard in neutral seemed to get the turbo turning again but we were concerned that the engine  wouldn’t work the next time we called on it.  Given that  our plan was to anchor a few miles up the river and given that we were also concerned whether the anchor windlass would work when asked, I seriously contemplated aborting and going back out to sea - that would  be the sensible thing to do.  However, never knowingly having passed up a good pub meal, we elected to continue  with the original plan, anchoring in the Dart at the Anchor Stone anchorage, just below Dittisham.

We had several goes at anchoring.  We were using a tripping line which contrived to wrap around the anchor chain. When we eventually  managed to put the tripping line out without knitting it,  we came up too close to the only other yacht in the anchorage so it had to come up again – the fourth time we had raised the anchor.  It was hardly surprising that the windlass then failed - just was we had the  anchor back on board. Inspection showed the breaker was closed so, unless there was a thermal cut out (as there is on the bow thruster),  it was unlikely to work again. If we  put the anchor down again we would have to recover it by hand – (100m of 13mm chain attached to a 75ib CQR anchor) …….. or, more likely,  leave it all behind!   We had too much invested in this meal already not to drop it one more time ……… and hope.  So we did.   

We had had to beg a table early in the evening so by the time we had tidied up we  were on a tight schedule. We launched the dinghy,  only to find that the ever reliable, ‘always starts first time’ outboard engine would not start!   I boarded the dinghy, tool-set in hand and the minutes ticked away.  Richard determined that there was no water taxi available;  a wave of depression and disappointment came over the crew.   Their faces brightened when, sticking plaster duly applied, the engine burst into life and we were ashore just in time for our table booking.   

We were up even earlier on Sunday (circa 04.15), raised the anchor (having found an open circuit breaker on the windlass circuit), and we had a very pleasant sail towards the Solent.  In fact we enjoyed   5-6 hours flying the Frog,  (yes, he with the recent blue rinse with anti-foul  from our passage to Bermuda),  before we gybed,  only to find the wind dying.   In yottie terms,  a visit to the New Inn in Shalfleet on the Isle of Wight  is something of a ‘must do’ adventure involving a .75 mile dinghy journey up stream to the boat yard followed by  25 minute walk into to Shalfleet.  So in order to make sure we were in plenty of time, we started the engine (revving up the engine to wake the Turbo up) and motored the last 3 or so hours  in towards Newtown River. 

Now, as an aside, you might think that we record every minor niggle and mishap on this blog but it is the case that we are sparing about which  of the litany of incidents which are sent to try us we actually report.  And one thing we didn’t mention was that when we changed the dinghy fuel tank in Flores we found the bottom few inches full of water!  The dinghy outboard stalled leading to a happy afternoon dismantling and rebuilding the engine and cleaning and refilling the fuel. What I didn’t do, which perhaps with the luxury of hindsight I now think might have been a good idea,  was to strip down, clean and rebuild the carburetor.

They really do produce good food at the New Inn,  so the fact that the dinghy engine cut out of its own accord when we were still 30 metres from the dock did not seem to dampen our enthusiasm as we drifted to the dockside and then walked briskly to the pub for dinner. We didn’t give it a thought…..  It was a fine summer’s evening; it was lovely to enjoy English countryside again.   

The meal fulfilled our expectations and it was dusk as we strolled back to the boatyard and boarded the dinghy for the .75 mile journey to the boat only to find the sticking plaster applied to the  ever-reliable engine the night before must have become detached because ……… it would not start.  Undaunted, SOMEONE offered to row back to the boat, the stroll back from the pub having not given him sufficient aerobic exercise. Fortunately the tide was ebbing and our passage downriver, past the line of visitors moored in the river was punctuated by their words of encouragement and advice. Sometimes being the butt of other people’s pathetic attempts at humour can wear thin!

SOMEONE ELSE took over the oars for the final leg back to the boat – where we consumed the remaining ice-cream and brandy, together with  some of the remaining chocolate on board before going to bed for our last night on board.

On 29 June, we were up at a sensible time. I started the engine, revved it hard to wake up the turbo and called for the anchor to be raised……………………….. J  ….wait for it…. wait for it  …………. . but,  fortunately,  the anchor windlass, even though it still  protested loudly, managed to lift and stow the anchor for the last time.

It was with a wry smile then, that I received the news that the anchor deck-wash pump (fitted to enable us to clear the mud etc which usually comes up with the chain off the deck) had failed in service – and is now broken.

So, held together with sticking plaster, optimism and a large amount of luck,  Serendipity made her final passage of the world tour towards Portsmouth and is now moored in her new berth at Port Solent, her circumnavigation of 44,456 miles  completed.   Phew!

More later……