A cruise to the West Country .... part 1
An updated version of this blog is available at my updated blog site over at www.sailingsouth.org. You can find the blog article here.
I finally got around to making my first full trip for a while on the boat, along the south coast of the UK towards Cornwall. A cruise in company with friends from Poole Harbour on their boat, Powder Blue.
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| I joined up with Powder Blue for a cruise in company |
After a few days on the boat checking that everything was good to go, especially with the engine & fuel filters after problems I'd had with fuel bug in the past, it was time for me to head out.
Now, when things start to go wrong, they tend to do so just when you thought things were going so right.
Suddenly there was a Mayday alarm going off on the ships radio. After a couple of minutes I thought I should listen in to see if it was someone close by to me, not that there was anyone close but just in case. I was more than a little shocked when the coastguard made a call to "Mayday station Isosceles".
I tried to call them back on the radio, but my radio had obviously developed a fault and I couldn't disable the automatic mayday message being sent out. My only option was to turn the radio off and phone the coastguard to cancel the alarm.
Of course I have been spending time moving things aboard the boat now I'm retired, and so my sheet with my call sign and MMSI identity number on it were not where they should be. I must have looked like a madman throwing things around looking for my details sheet!
We were all up early for the 8am bridge opening so we could continue round Portland Bill and head west. Portland Bill has quite a reputation. Even in calm conditions and moderate wind it can turn rough very quickly. In good weather and with the right tides it is fine, but timing is everything.
I went to start my engine and "Click" ..... it wouldn't even turn over.
The engine on Isosceles is a newish Volvo. These engines have an electronic control box on the side. The engines are reliable and solid, like most things Volvo, but the black boxes have a reputation for being suspect.
Day One : Swanwick to Yarmouth IoW
The first step was sailing to Yarmouth on the Isle of White. This is a really pretty little town and is incredibly popular with weekend sailors and can get very very busy.
The sailing down through the Solent was excellent and with a good wind from the north west the boat was going well. Sailing at 7.3 knots towards the wind feels faster than it really is. Of course as the afternoon wore on the wind decided to blow more and more from the west, which was the direction I wanted to go in. Unfortunately the boating version of "Sods Law" states the the wind will eventually come from the direction you need to go in, and boats can't sail directly towards the wind.
The sailing down through the Solent was excellent and with a good wind from the north west the boat was going well. Sailing at 7.3 knots towards the wind feels faster than it really is. Of course as the afternoon wore on the wind decided to blow more and more from the west, which was the direction I wanted to go in. Unfortunately the boating version of "Sods Law" states the the wind will eventually come from the direction you need to go in, and boats can't sail directly towards the wind.
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| Yarmouth harbour on the Isle of Wight, viewed from the moorings outside the harbour |
This time I was only using a stop over at Yarmouth so I could get an early start out of the Needles channel tomorrow. As it was already looking busy in the harbour I picked up a mooring outside of the main harbour. Perfect for an early start the following day.
If you time it wrong trying to go through here it's very easy to end up going backwards as the tide gets funnelled into narrow entrance to the Solent. Not a good plan. Instead the tide was with me and I shot out of the narrow channel and on my way across Poole bay.
Day Two: Yarmouth IoW to Weymouth
Bright and early the following morning I was up and ready to set off towards Weymouth to meet up with the crew on Powder Blue. First I had to go through the narrow needles channel between the Isle of White and the mainland.If you time it wrong trying to go through here it's very easy to end up going backwards as the tide gets funnelled into narrow entrance to the Solent. Not a good plan. Instead the tide was with me and I shot out of the narrow channel and on my way across Poole bay.
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| Sailing past the Needles at the western end of the Isle of Wight |
Once again the sailing was as good as it gets. The wind was coming from more behind the boat this time, pushing us along at 8.8 knots for most of the morning, this is a great speed for my boat. We were both in our element flying along the coast.
Now, when things start to go wrong, they tend to do so just when you thought things were going so right.
Suddenly there was a Mayday alarm going off on the ships radio. After a couple of minutes I thought I should listen in to see if it was someone close by to me, not that there was anyone close but just in case. I was more than a little shocked when the coastguard made a call to "Mayday station Isosceles".
I tried to call them back on the radio, but my radio had obviously developed a fault and I couldn't disable the automatic mayday message being sent out. My only option was to turn the radio off and phone the coastguard to cancel the alarm.
Of course I have been spending time moving things aboard the boat now I'm retired, and so my sheet with my call sign and MMSI identity number on it were not where they should be. I must have looked like a madman throwing things around looking for my details sheet!
Eventually I found the information I needed, then managed to search the internet for the phone number for the coastguard, satisfy them that I was genuinely who I said I was and I was calling from the right boat, I was OK, and the call had been a faulty radio, only then was the mayday call cancelled.
It is a bit disturbing to realise your boat has suddenly decided it wants to call an mayday all on its own, especially while you're all at sea!
I was left sailing without any radio to call for help in an emergency, but also to call the marina as I needed to when I was entering Weymouth, or to call the bridge operator to be allowed under the lifting bridge to get in to the town centre.
Luckily my buddies on Powder blue were ahead of me, so they would make the calls for me when the time came for me to enter the harbour.
Of course it never rains but it pours.
The wind had died by now and I was motoring towards Weymouth when I suddenly lost all power to the engine, the revs dropped from 2000 to 800 and the engine just sat there chugging slowly. Dashing below to look at the engine it seemed that the motion of the boat had churned up some age old gunge in the bottom of the tank and was beginning to block the fuel filter.
Luckily I have 2 fuel filters on Isosceles, and it is a simple job to switch from one to the other. This cured the problem but I really didn't need the stress on top of the radio incident.
It is a bit disturbing to realise your boat has suddenly decided it wants to call an mayday all on its own, especially while you're all at sea!
I was left sailing without any radio to call for help in an emergency, but also to call the marina as I needed to when I was entering Weymouth, or to call the bridge operator to be allowed under the lifting bridge to get in to the town centre.
Luckily my buddies on Powder blue were ahead of me, so they would make the calls for me when the time came for me to enter the harbour.
Of course it never rains but it pours.
The wind had died by now and I was motoring towards Weymouth when I suddenly lost all power to the engine, the revs dropped from 2000 to 800 and the engine just sat there chugging slowly. Dashing below to look at the engine it seemed that the motion of the boat had churned up some age old gunge in the bottom of the tank and was beginning to block the fuel filter.
Luckily I have 2 fuel filters on Isosceles, and it is a simple job to switch from one to the other. This cured the problem but I really didn't need the stress on top of the radio incident.
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| Waiting to go through the lifting bridge in the centre of Weymouth |
Day 4 Weymouth to Brixham
After 2 nights in Weymouth, and a new hand held radio for me and the fuel filters all nice and clean, it came time to leave.We were all up early for the 8am bridge opening so we could continue round Portland Bill and head west. Portland Bill has quite a reputation. Even in calm conditions and moderate wind it can turn rough very quickly. In good weather and with the right tides it is fine, but timing is everything.
I went to start my engine and "Click" ..... it wouldn't even turn over.
The engine on Isosceles is a newish Volvo. These engines have an electronic control box on the side. The engines are reliable and solid, like most things Volvo, but the black boxes have a reputation for being suspect.
We arranged to stay another night in Weymouth, and I collected the bits I would need to build the commonly accepted bypass to this black box so I could start the engine in an emergency. There are plenty of web pages and YouTube videos about doing this.
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| The MDI black box on the side of the Volvo D2-40 engine. Unfortunately this is at the bottom of the cockpit locker. |
The problem only repeated itself once more during the rest of our trip, and I'm as sure as I can be that both times I had neglected to turn the engine control panel off, and this had caused the electronics to not want to start the engine for whatever reason.
Day 5: Weymouth to Brixham take 2
The following day we were again up early and off through the town at 8am ready for the trip off towards Cornwall .....Travelling round Portland Bill that morning was as painless as it can get. The slack tide was just about to turn in our favour and push us towards Brixham, there was no wind at all to stir trouble up and we had two boats with eyes peeled for fishing pot markers, of which there were remarkably few to be seen.
Then it was off across Lyme Bay towards Brixham.
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| The two boats went round Portland Bill in very close company |
Again there was some fantastic sailing with the wind from the north east and Isosceles doing 8.6 knots at one point. Unfortunately again the the wind died during the afternoon. In the middle of Lime Bay you are just about out of sight of land all around. I do love the feeling of isolation and self reliance. Powder Blue was the boy racer of the gang, the boat is much lighter than mine and Dave the skipper is much more performance oriented sailor. This suited me fine though because then I had a shore crew to catch the boat as I came into moor at the end of the day.
As we motored along later in the day the engine decided to lose power again, the revs dropping from 2000 to 800 just as before. This time however it came back to life by the time I had got into the cabin. Checking the fuel filters they were fine so I was a little stumped. This repeated 2 or 3 times that day, making me more than a little nervous as we entered Brixham marina.
Once I had topped the fuel filter housings up again this didn't repeat itself during the rest of the trip. Where the fuel hose goes over the top of the mounting board for the filters there is a slight loop. This must have filled with air when I dismantled and cleaned the filters, eventually pulling just too much air into the top of the filter housing and occasionally allowing a little air into the engine side of the system. The other, probably more likely, option is there was some gunk inside the fuel tank that was affecting the fuel pickup. Cleaning and filtering the fuel is now top of my jobs list just in case it was this.
This has turned in to quite a long story
Part two of this blog can be found HERE
