Sailing and Maintenance crash course

When we purchased her, Cerulean was berthed at Port Solent marina near Portsmouth, which is located at the end of a long meandering channel with a lock that keeps the boats in the marina secure and stops the water from drying out at low tide.   One of our first tasks was to move to another marina located at the sea end of the estuary and closer to shops as well as the wonderful sailing grounds of The Solent. 

First we had to move the boat out of the very narrow marina berth without hitting any of the large and expensive boats located around us.   I was a little nervous about doing this on my first attempt at reversing our new home, but with the help of Jamie from Ancasta Brokers, we gracefully slipped out of the mooring and glided into the lock.   Jamie left us once we were safely in the lock and we were left on our own for the first time.    It goes without say that handling a 43 ft, 14 tonne, long keeled, high windage boat is quite different to my previous 29ft, light, production boat, so I was nervously excited as we negotiated the winding channel.   It is said pride comes before a fall – we were just marvelling at how good it felt to be on our way to starting the dream, when I realised that all the markers indicating the channel had disappeared and the depth had dropped to nothing!   I threw the wheel to port and increased the revs on the engine.   A cloud of mud indicated we were on the bottom but we made sluggish progress back towards the channel.  It was a relief to see the depth increase and our speed pick up – there are two types of sailors, those who have run aground and those who lie about not having done so.   We were now baptised on Cerulean!

Gosport Marina is operated by the same company as Port Solent.   As it had been Cerulean’s home berth, we were allowed to move there and, as we had no other place of abode in UK, we were given permission to stay on board even though it was not generally permitted under current restrictions.   The marina is now considered our home, so we are not allowed to leave for longer than a day sail and we will need to stay until the government relaxes the rules about sleeping away from home – hopefully on 4 July otherwise it will get expensive! 

The huge benefit of being in the marina is access to amenities, clean showers and laundry facilities which we regularly avail ourselves of.   We spent the first couple of weeks cleaning and organising the boat, getting familiar with the systems and going for day sails, practising our reversing and docking skills and generally settling into life living on a boat.   Evening sundowners while lounging in our comfortable and big cockpit, breakfast on the deck and a very comfortable bed made the transition incredibly easy. 

Our first solo sail was perfect.   Cerulean glided through the water on a broad reach in 15knots of wind, getting up to 8 knots in speed – ok, it won’t win us any races, but not bad for a big heavy boat with only 2/3 of the available sails used.   Returning to the berth, we celebrated with a G&T and as the sun set we ceremoniously removed the Union Jack ensign and “London” lettering from the stern as Cerulean has been de-registered as a UK vessel and is now a fully-fledged kiwi boat!  

Over the next few days we completed numerous boat jobs, including cataloguing everything on board so we knew what we had and where it was stored.   Every night we go to bed exhausted after a full day of physical work but with a real sense of achievement. 

Jason is a friend of my sister, Lynn, and he is an RYA sailing instructor.  Jason had offered to help us get to know Cerulean, go through her sail wardrobe and teach us the best way to handle her.  We had a great day practicing Man Overboard (MOB), reefing, using the autopilot, getting in and out of the marina berth, turning in a tight space and picking up mooring buoys.   We had practiced picking up the mooring buoy three times and had three very successful attempts so our confidence was high as I turned Cerulean hard to port with the engine on, to get out of the cluttered mooring area and back into the busy channel.  Suddenly the wheel locked and, confused as to what was happening, I checked to see whether I had run over a mooring line.   There was no evidence of this, so I threw the boat out of gear and yelled to Steve and Jason that I had lost steerage.  I wondered whether I had accidently engaged the autopilot but the instrument panel by the wheel did not respond when I tried to disengage so I assumed it was not on.   We were heading towards a boat on a mooring and, although I put the engine into reverse to try and avoid an impact, we continued heading towards the small boat as the strong tide swept us, out of control, towards the vessel.   The crunching sound of our boat hitting the other yacht will haunt me for some time.  Steve and Jason tried to soften the blow by fending off at the bow, to lessen the damage.   While all this was going on, I was trying to figure out what had happened.  I ran below deck and switched off the autopilot from the main switchboard.   When I returned to the wheel, it was turning freely again – at least we had our steering back, but when I turned off the master switch, all our other instruments were turned off – GPS (navigation), depth sounder and wind instruments.   At least with the autopilot turned off at the main switch, I was confident it would not automatically re-engage again so we were able to cast off the damaged boat on the mooring buoy, take photos of the damage and mooring buoy number and return to the marina.   I felt sick leaving a boat I had been responsible for damaging and my legs were shaking as my confidence suffered a huge knock after such a wonderful day full of highs – Jason suggested we tried some other manoeuvres to build my confidence up again before returning to the marina. 

We discovered the damaged boat was on a mooring owned by a neighbouring boat yard but by the time we visited them, the office was closed so we needed to wait until morning to report the accident.  The next day we returned to the boat yard office and asked for help finding the owners of the boat.  Incredibly it turned out the owners had arrived at their boat that morning, discovered the damage and had already brought the boat in to the yard to start the repairs.   We met the owners who were just lovely and very understanding and forgiving.  I still felt awful as they had arrived at the boat hoping to enjoy the beautiful weather on the hottest day of the year so far, to discover a damaged rig and railings with no idea who had done it or what had happened.   They were very grateful we had found them, owned up to the accident and agreed to pay for the repairs – I don’t understand why people would not be honest but, judging by the number of people who thanked us, it appears to be a common problem.

The staff at both the Premier Marinas in Gosport and Port Solent are wonderful – helpful, supportive, friendly and knowledgeable.  They recommended a marine electrical engineer who could help with our Raymarine autopilot issue and on Wednesday morning a lovely man called Mike(www.oceanelectronics.co.uk) came to investigate the problem.  He was very interested in trying to discover the reason why our self steering had automatically engaged as he had heard of this fault happening once before, but as it was extremely rare he seemed intrigued to look at the offending instrument!   Mike had previously worked for Raymarine so was very familiar with the equipment we had installed.  He discovered that the drive unit, that attaches to the steering cable, needed servicing and told us that, although the autopilot was old, it was definitely worth keeping as it was a solid, usually reliable, piece of equipment.  Although the autopilot was old, the GPS and other equipment, were replaced four years ago and it appeared were overdue a software update.  This could have added to the problem we experienced.   Mike suggested we have the steering checked as he felt there was too much play in the wheel and recommended a local firm who he called for us and arranged for them to come the next day.   In the meantime, we removed the offending drive unit, packaged it up and couriered it to Raymarine for servicing.   

The next day Carl came to visit to check on the steering.  Another really lovely, helpful and friendly technician!  He wanted a second opinion, so contacted a colleague, Bob who arrived 30 minutes later.  The two of them crouched side by side, squeezing their heads into the narrow aft locker, turning the wheel from one side to the other trying to find the source of the problem!   After about 20 minutes the problem was found and, for once, was an easy fix with a replacement split pin.  They did not want to send an invoice for such a small job so we called into their office later and dropped off the agreed GBP20 – a bargain!

As Cerulean is a big boat to manoeuvre, and is not a great boat to reverse as she has a lot of windage, she is fitted with bow thrusters – an engine and propeller at the front of the boat – that, when engaged, will quickly turn the front of the boat to keep it heading in the right direction.  We had been having issues as the power was lost from the thrusters after just one or two quick bursts.  This made getting into and out of the marina quite nerve wracking as there was little room for error if the turn into the berth was misjudged or the wind/tide carried the boat off course.   On investigation we discovered the batteries were completely dead so ordered two new ones which were delivered the next day.    With the new batteries installed, we were excited to check them before heading out for a sail with a friend, Marion – our first social sail visitor.   Upon testing the bowthruster and anchor winch (which had previously worked when the engine was turned on), we discovered neither were now working, even with the engine on.   We decided to go for a quick sail and enjoy the lovely weather so spent a lovely few hours with Marion, sailing on the Solent.

Later that day, after a few phone calls to my uncle Tom and brother-in-law, Andy, we discovered the batteries had been connected incorrectly and, although everything worked when they were re-installed, it appeared the alternator was now not working as the power surge caused by the mistake, had damaged it!   This meant we could not go out for a sail until the alternator was fixed to try and avoid any other knock on problems.   Luckily we found a spare alternator on the boat but considering our earlier electrical error, we quickly came to the conclusion that fitting this was beyond our very limited technical abilities!  

After the lovely sail with Marion at the end of the week, the weather at the weekend deteriorated dramatically and strong winds buffeted us for three days – we recorded 30knots wind speed in the shelter of the marina, so going out for a sail would not only have been unpleasant but probably foolhardy!   We had arranged for my wonderful friends and family, Paul, Wendy, Jocs and Bella, to visit on Sunday and we shared a lovely lunch while sitting below catching up.  Not quite the experience I wanted to share with them but a great catch up, none the less!   One of the wonderful things about Cerulean is her large spacious deck saloon which allows up to seven people to sit around the table and two more either side of the chart table while still enjoying 360 degree views of the outside – one of many of the features that appealed to us about this lovely boat.  

Boris Johnson announced more restrictions would be lifted on Saturday 4 July, allowing overnight stays on boats which means we can start looking forward to leaving the marina and heading west.  The only delay will be the return of the autopilot part which should be returned by 9 July at the latest.   Fortunately the marina has agreed to allow us to extend our stay on a daily basis, so the urgency to leave is not governed by a lack of a marina berth and we are able to leave when we are ready, and not before.

Each day we feel we take two steps forward but one back – some days it does feel like one step forward and two back – but we are learning a lot and know the mistakes we make now will only ensure they are mistakes not made again!   We remain focused, excited and, although we are finding each day exhausting, we are loving the life we have chosen.