Haul out – HandsOnDeck

Groundhog Day

Early on a calm and sunny Friday morning in mid May, we were welcomed back to the boatyard by the wonderful team of Graham, Trevor and James who expertly manoeuvred us into the slings for the third time in as many weeks and hoisted Cerulean out before lifting her into a cradle located close to the slipway. Since our last visit the yard had been cleared of the majority of the other boats with just a few left to be launched. The G7 forum was taking place in Cornwall in early June and several large spaces had been commandeered by the organisers to cater for the huge media contingency expected for the three day event. The boatyard was one of these spaces and all boats needed to be cleared by the 28 May so preparations could be completed for when the delegates arrived ten days later. Graham was under pressure to not only meet this deadline, but meet it early so work to transform the boatyard could commence.

The new gearbox had arrived so we left Gary to get to work removing the one currently installed. The new one had been delivered unpainted, so it was sprayed red (to match our engine) and left to dry, ready to be fitted the following Monday. We spent the night on the boat in the empty boatyard waking up early to eagerly greet the security guard who was unlocking the toilet block, desperately willing him to move faster!

I left Steve working on the boat while I jumped on a train and headed to Truro to meet Jocs, Tina and Andrew, friends/family who were down from London visiting friends for the weekend. I hadn’t met Sally and her husband, Peter, before but had heard a lot about them over the years, so was really pleased to finally get to see them in their beautiful home. It felt so good to be able to catch up with friends again after such a long period of isolation, particularly as I had hoped that our extended stay in the UK meant we would see more of them and our other friends.

Bea and Andy had left earlier that day to drive to Liverpool, catch a ferry to Northern Ireland and spend time with their daughter and grandchildren. They had left Lilian and Turki in charge of the house, garden and chickens for the month they were away so we decided to keep them company for a few days and enjoy a couple of nights on solid ground. Lilian and Turki are from Palestine and we loved getting to know them over our few days together, particularly as the renewed fighting between Israel and Palestine was escalating and we were able to learn more about what life is like living in such a conflicted region. It made us appreciate our privileged lives even more, particularly when hearing of the daily challenges, racism and obstacles this beautiful young couple endured and still grapple with. Bea and Andy have given them a fantastic opportunity to make a life together in Cornwall and they deserve success and happiness.

Turki made us a special lunch one day of beautiful breads and a feast of Eastern delicacies which we devoured greedily, loving the flavours and textures of each dish which he had effortlessly produced. I think they found our dinner offerings very bland in comparison to the amazing flavours of their cooking!

We were heading back to the boat on Monday afternoon, our bags bulging with clean laundry, leftovers from lunch and on-line shopping deliveries, when the phone rang. There was a problem with the new gearbox and a fault had been discovered which meant a new one needed to be ordered from Beta and wouldn’t arrive until the next day so our splash date would be delayed until Wednesday at the earliest! Feeling despondent we returned with Turki and Lilian for another night off the boat.

A storm was forecast for Thursday morning which meant that any problems with the gearbox being fitted by Wednesday mid-day would delay our re-launch until the following Monday. We spent Tuesday night on the boat with the hope of an early launch on Wednesday morning but when it became evident this was not going to happen, we left the boat clear to allow uninterrupted access to the engine bay so the work could be completed while we strolled into town and then to our favourite café, Muddy Beach. We had become regulars at the café and the wonderful staff always welcomed us like old friends, delivering our coffee to the table before we’d even ordered it and preparing delicious food from their great menu. As we left we said a fond farewell to them all, as we believed this would be our last visit before we start our journey south.

On our return the gearbox was in place and we were ready to be re-launched with huge expectations this would be the final obstacle to overcome in the long saga of our engine refit. Graham and his team arrived to hoist us at 1pm, already 2hrs after high water, which did not give us much time to test out the new gearbox. It was with some trepidation we started the engine and revved her up in neutral and then in gear. We were all looking at the rev counter to see whether we could get above the 1800 revs we were stuck on at previous attempts to confirm the engine would achieve maximum load and propel us at the top speed. It failed, again. We were all devastated. While letting this slowly sink in and try to understand what would happen next, we were firmly reminded that the tide was going out fast, and we would need to leave the slipway now to make it safely down the river. As the enormity of this situation was being processed, we were pushed off the pontoon and motored back down the river to look for a safe place to shelter for a few nights until the strong winds abated.

Our first call was to Richard. He had come to see us while we were on the boat and had taken measurements and angles of the prop in order to gather as much information as possible, in case there was a problem (legend!). That information would proof invaluable as we tried to unpick what had, was and would be happening to resolve this frustrating situation. The definition of madness is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different results, so before adjusting the prop again, we wanted to make sure there was no other possible cause of this lack of engine power as it seemed everyone was solely focused on the prop being the issue. Richard was wonderful and agreed to accept the challenge of piecing together what had happened and assess the whole situation before jumping to any conclusions.

Steve collected Richard in the dinghy from nearby Malpas during a break between rain and strong winds. He immediately started systematically going through and checking each part of the motor – fuel, air, water, cables, aquadrive …… we were really hoping for something definitive, something that could be switched/pumped/crimped/tightened/cleaned but there was nothing that stood out. We had noticed a wobble in the aquadrive (a flexible link between the engine and propellor shaft) as we were powering up and Richard felt this could be something to address but was not 100% sure this would resolve our lack of power issue. With no immediate solution it was decided we would be hauled out the following Wednesday for what we hoped would be the final time to try and resolve things, once and for-all. With time ticking away, and only one week until our final Covid vaccine, things were really coming down to the wire to try and resolve this problem before we left.

The strong winds continued to buffer us for five days and we moved from our safe protected mooring on the Truro River and returned to Falmouth as Richard had arranged for us to have a marina berth from early Tuesday morning so he could tinker with the engine again on the Tuesday morning in a final attempt to avoid us being lifted out again on the Wednesday morning. The strong winds blew unabated all night as we spun around our mooring buoy infront of Shadowfax, our sister boat, with Tim and Emmie on board who were preparing to leave for The Scilly Isles at the earliest opportunity.

In the morning we headed to Port Pendennis marina and carefully berthed in a very tight space, squeezing in between Super Yachts and expensive cruisers as we nervously negotiated the strong winds and tide in the small berth we had been allocated. After a hot shower, coffee and a full load of washing done, Richard arrived and started work. His head was buried in the engine compartment most of the day as the rain continued to beat down and the howling of the wind occasionally broken with a shout of triumph, despair or bewilderment until the alignments were completed. Every day we spend with Richard we learn more about his many talents and skills. We feel so privileged and lucky to have met him and had him work on our boat – he loves a challenge and we presented him with a few that he accepted with relish!

The next day we were woken by the noise of a big boat arriving in port. The sound of the engines reverberated through our cabin as our bed is just below the waterline. A large cruise ship, The Viking Venus, was arriving in Falmouth on its first cruise since the start of the pandemic.

Richard arrived early (for once!) and we cast off, celebrating the light winds and overcast skies as we headed out into the bay to put the engine through its paces and see what was, and was not, behaving as expected. The result was positive – a definite improvement and our first encouraging sign that things were moving in the right direction at last!

We dropped Richard off at the marina and anchored nearby with the intention of waiting until the tide turned so we could fill our tanks with diesel in preparation for our departure to Spain the following week. While we were waiting, we were given the option of being hauled out that evening for relaunch in the morning instead of first thing in the morning, so the pitch of the propellor could be adjusted one last time. Wanting to get everything sorted as quickly as possible, we jumped at the opportunity and started preparing the boat for yet another hoist. There was little wind and we were quite relaxed on the anchor as we slowly put things away enjoying the quiet and sedate pace…. Until we heard the faint sound of running water. On lifting the engine compartment we found a lot of water in the bilge and more coming in (note to self, why was the bilge alarm not working??), even though we had turned off all the through hull fittings but where was it coming from? We discovered the culprit was a hose that was lying in the bottom of the bilge, spurting water as if a tap had been left running on a garden hose. We urgently tried to find out where the other end of this hose was connected, pulling up carpets and flooring in our desperate attempt to stop the water. Eventually, having managed to stop the water by holding the hose upright, we slowly made our way back up the river to be hauled out while pondering on how close we had been, yet again, to loosing our boat, home and dreams…….

In, out, shake it all about

Life living on board a boat tends to go in ebbs and flows. Some days are relaxed when we can enjoy exploring new places; a few days are filled with elation when we manage to complete jobs which may have taken a few attempts to complete; others are filled with frustration when, despite endless research and planning, nothing goes to plan, some are very social when we meet new people, or old friends visit and finally a few days are stressful as we might be “sailing in unchartered waters” and need to repair/work out how to do things on our own or enter new, unfamiliar harbours. Fortunately, at the moment we have an army of experienced and knowledgeable people on hand who can help us with the latter while we get on with the former!

After a few days sheltering from some strong Easterly winds up the beautiful Truro River, waiting to find out what the next move was on fixing our prop, Richard (our trusted electrician and master of all trades), secured us a place at Pendennis Marina in the centre of Falmouth. We had a number of jobs to complete left over from before we launched and a couple of niggly issues that needed to be resolved.

Billy, our go-to marine electronics guy, visited us when we arrived to try and work out why our depth sounder kept losing signal – an annoying and dangerous trait we needed to get fixed as it seemed to happen at the worst possible times leaving us to guess the actual depth which is not an ideal situation, especially considering my recent history! In addition to this, we had Roy visit us to service our fire extinguishers. Roy was wonderful and came up with some good alternative solutions for our engine bay automatic extinguishers which saved us a substantial amount of money while increasing the range of the extinguishers if there was a fire.

Richard rode in on his white steed (read “van”) on Friday afternoon and set about completing the short, but essential, list of electrical jobs we had identified. Three days later we helped Richard pack up his tools after he completed the list of essential tasks, including fixing the watermaker (elation) which turned out to be a very lucky find as a couple of wires were arcing and a fuse had become so hot it had started melting, and finish wiring/installing our final solar panel. With everything now working as it should, we decided to remain in the marina for a couple of extra nights as strong winds were forecast and it seemed pointless having a few stressful nights on anchor when we had the opportunity of a protected, safe berth.

Cafes and bars with outside seating opened in mid-April and Falmouth was seeing an increasing number of visitors. We met some friends (social), Helen and Mick, who were visiting their daughter in Falmouth over the early Spring Bank Holiday weekend; invited William and Louise (social) over to the boat for coffee and caught up with Bea and Andy for a drink in a nearby bar. While in town Steve managed to buy a particular Cornish pasty he had been hankering after from our local café, after several earlier failed attempts as we had arrived too late and they had already sold out. We called in early and, much to Steve’s hungry joy, found there was one still available. I could almost see his mouth dripping with anticipation at the thought of devouring this much looked forward to pasty. We started walking back to the boat with Steve eating the pasty which was happily living up to his expectations. He was about to take a bite from the remaining half when a large seagull suddenly appeared from behind him, swooped down and with incredible accuracy, took the rest of the pasty, just as Steve was about to bite down on it – all done with such precision and so fast, the gull did not even touch Steve in the process!

Bea and Andy invited us for dinner on our last night in the marina. We had a lovely evening together with lots of conversation, laughter, good food, great company and maybe a little drink or two! Our times together are always so special and I have loved and valued the long winter we have spent with them both. Their company, patience and love has been wonderful and we feel humbled by their generosity. This was almost certainly the last time we will spend a full night with them on this trip and the thought of not knowing if/when we will share such special times with them again makes my heart lurch and throat ache. Bea and Andy have sold their boat and bought a mobile home so they can visit their daughter and grandchildren in Northern Ireland as well as hopefully head to Europe in the middle of May.

Big winds continued to buffer the Cornish coastline so we returned to our previous bolthole up the River Truro while we waited to be notified of our next haul out date. We had been in touch with the owners of the sister boat to Cerulean called Shadowfax who were visiting Falmouth. We made our way up the river and dropped anchor next to them before catching up with Tim and Emmie on board Cerulean (more social). It was lovely to meet them as we had been in touch with each other for over a year and we had followed and listened to their exciting sailing adventures to far off places in their lovely boat. The two boats have the same layout but, because Seastreams were privately commissioned, each boat has a very different feel and design features. Tim flew his drone and took some wonderful pictures of our boats sharing a beautiful anchorage. The next day we were joined by Remi, another Seastream 43 but this time a MK2 so a little older and a ketch (two masts). It was a privilege to have the three boats together for the first time and share experiences, hear sailing plans and learn more about these wonderful boats.

One day, while Steve and I sheltered from the cold rain and wind we heard a twang and then thud outside. A strange noise on a boat always puts you in high alert and I spun around to see two red webbed feet sticking up on the deck. A duck had tried flying through our rigging and must have mistimed his flight, hitting the starboard shroud with a twang and hitting the deck with a huge thud. Sadly it did not survive the experience and we now had a dead duck bleeding on the deck! We were in a quandary – as we don’t eat meat any more and couldn’t deal with the gutting and plucking of a (still warm) dead duck, do we keep it and offer it to someone else or give it a burial at sea? Before I could decide, Steve threw the recently deceased mallard into the water and we watched it float away! A short while later, when retelling the story, we regretted the decision as several people would have been keen of the gift of the beautiful bird.

Our first, multi-staying guests arrived in early May and we welcomed Marion and Suzanne on board (more social) as we collected them from Port Pendennis Marina. I shared a house with Suz and Marion in Cambridge in the early 80’s and Steve and I had travelled back to the UK 18 months earlier for Suz’s 60^th birthday celebrations. Knowing the weather was going to be bad for the next couple of days, we took advantage of the light winds and sailed up the Truro River. Suz and Marion had taken the train from London and we were all excited at being able to spend four days on the boat – the longest time we’ve had together for nearly 40 years! The weather forecast was accurate and during the night the heavens opened, the temperature dropped and the wind spun us around in our sheltered anchorage, keeping the four of us hunkered down in the cabin together. Unfortunately Marion became more and more unwell and we all became extremely concerned about her as her temperature sore and she was obviously not her normal happy self. The next day, with Marion still not well, we headed back to Falmouth and picked up a mooring close to the town centre so, if needed we could seek medical help. Suz, Steve and I were able to get off the boat, leaving Marion to rest while we went for a walk.

Suz and Marion’s stay was extended by two days due to all trains being cancelled on the GWR line which covers SW England long distance travel. This was a bonus for several reasons – more time together, Marion could continue recovering from her bug (not Covid!) and we could enjoy the improved weather and sail to other bays. When they left us after six days together, it was with sadness but also happy in the knowledge they had experienced a taste of what our life is like living on anchor.

While Suz and Marion were with us, we were hauled out for the third time to try and discover why the engine was not performing as we would expect. Just before we were due to relaunch we managed to talk to a very informative man at Darglow, the manufacturer of our propeller. He informed us that we had the wrong gearbox ratio and our current propeller was too big for the gearbox on the new engine. As we launched I was still talking to the technician on the phone and passed this information on to the engineer who had installed the new engine. Fortunately, after an initial stressful and upsetting time letting the discovery sink in, it was agreed they would cover the cost of a new gearbox and haul us out again to fix the problem.

After spending a lovely final evening in the company of Bea and Andy and Louise and William we were lifted again for what, we hoped, was the final time before leaving the UK a few weeks later. In the last 12 months we have been lifted out the water five times, which is four times more than most other boats, so our hopes were high that this time everything would go smoothly. Oh, how naive we were!!!!

B.O.A.T – Bring Out Another Thousand

We have been in Falmouth for nearly three months – hard to believe, considering it has been raining for most of that time! My amazing sister, Bea, and brother-in-law, Andy, have welcomed us into their home and we have become one very happy family living together while respecting each other’s space and needs. For me, at least, this has been a special time for me to be able to re-connect with my UK family while we work hard on the long list of jobs we need to finish on Cerulean.

The boat has been out of the water since mid-October and in that time she has been stripped of everything that made her a home as well as almost everything that made her a boat! We took everything – and I mean everything – off and out of the boat, including the old engine! If it could be carried, lifted or unscrewed and removed, it was. We stored most things in Bea and Andy’s garage and what wasn’t needed any more, we sold or threw out. The old engine was sold and shipped to it’s new home in Scotland along with many spares, manuals and fittings that will not be needed on the new engine. We took our sails to be cleaned and serviced at SKB, a nearby sail loft who we had already contracted to make us a new sprayhood and main sail bag, called a stackpack. After lots of deliberation we are changing the colour of our canvas from beige to blue as it will hide the dirt better! The team at SKB were fantastic and agreed for us to be present when they inspected and assessed our sails so we could learn more about sail repair and future maintenance. We took five sails to the loft and discovered that three were past their use-by date, meaning the material was starting to disintegrate and stitching was becoming compromised due to UV and age. We had not anticipated getting new sails immediately, but had expected to replace them before crossing the Atlantic in 12 months. New sails were added to our shopping list.

The wooden grating on the floor of our cockpit had slowly fallen apart over the summer and needed to be replaced. We received a toe curling quote from the boatyard to have one custom made. I went in search of a local carpenter who quoted a much more acceptable price. We added a new grate to our shopping list.

Our new engine arrived in the same week as the old engine was removed and we immediately started cleaning the bilges to get rid of years of grease and oil build up. Gary, who removed the old engine, announced it was the dirtiest engine and space he had ever worked in – not a great badge of honour for us to wear and I vowed I would never let it get that dirty again, particularly after spending four days cleaning the engine space until it gleamed! Due to a communication breakdown somewhere along the lines, the new engine had to be returned as our boat runs a 24V system and the one we were sent was for a 12V system only. This led to a delay in the new engine being installed – not a major issue as we have plenty of time up our sleeve – but does mean we have to live with a mess in the main cabin, making moving around the boat difficult when trying to do other jobs. A new engine is already on the shopping list.

Continuous rain meant our attempt to remove, clean and re-bed all the through deck fittings, was strung out over a period of about a week. Our daily bike rides from Bea and Andy’s to the boat were getting wetter and less enjoyable for me, in particular, and I often suggested Steve take the journey on his own while I found other work to do at the house. During these short days I made a missing cushion for the forward berth which meant the two berths can now be made into one big double. I also made fitted sheets for our oddly shaped bed which will mean making the bed will be much easier. I sewed a hanging toolbag for the back of the passage berth door so the regularly used tools can be kept in one place, and started sewing flags for the many countries we hope to visit next year. In addition I started making covers for our fenders to protect them from UV damage and the boat from grease and dirt. Sewing things were put on the shopping list.

Andy is a marine electrical engineer and he designed a new battery management system for us. It will be essential for us to be able to keep the batteries topped up and generate enough power to drive all the electrical items on the boat, including lights, navigation equipment and fridge. New solar panels, battery charger and battery monitors are in the shopping list.

In early December, the riggers came and removed our mast. In addition to checking all the rigging, the mast needed some attention. The survey we had done while purchasing the boat, found several points of corrosion and chaffing on the mast and these repairs could only be undertaken with the mast down. We were also getting a lot of water entering the boat from the side of the mast and this needed to be addressed as it was impossible to keep the boat completely dry. Once the mast was removed we were able to clean under the mast itself, an area that had become choked up with all sorts of dirt and grime. A new mast collar, new halyards and replacement cleats are on the shopping list.

A small break in the weather meant we could finish rebedding the stanchions (poles) that held our safety lines in place. The safety lines are like the fencing that surrounds the outside of the boat and are an essential barrier between you and the ocean when moving around the boat. Twenty years ago, when Cerulean was built, it was thought that a plastic coating over the top of wire was a good way to prevent corrosion and help avoid chaffing as well as making the wire more comfortable to hold. However, it is now considered bad practice to have a coating on the wire as it is hard to see whether the wire is rusty or breaking thereby making it unsafe and possible to fail when you need it most. We started to remove the plastic coating and found many broken threads. New safety wires are on the shopping list.

A few months ago I made contact with Peter Snow, the first owner of Cerulean who had the boat commissioned and built in 1994. Peter has provided us with lots of valuable information, including providing us with the name and contact details of the original boat builder who still lives in Falmouth. I was very excited to be able to get hold of Phil and talk to him about Cerulean, obviously stirring up some very happy memories of his time building our beautiful boat. Sadly, lockdown meant we were not able to meet up immediately, but we arranged to do so in the New Year and, as Phil was still working as a boat builder, we discussed the possibility of him coming to do some work on the boat helping us reseal the windows and hatches which seem to be leaking. We are going to attempt to do one on our own and see how easy it is!

As you can tell, we have been busy and have a lot of work, and expense, ahead of us. While some of these jobs and expense could be delayed, we have decided to press ahead. We have a long journey ahead of us and we consider it important to have a safe, seaworthy and reliable boat, regardless of the expense at this stage – we consider it worth it!

When we’re not on the boat we are making the most of being in a beautiful part of the country. We are extremely lucky to be in Falmouth, not just because of it’s beauty and history, but also because there are lower Covid cases here than any other parts of the UK. Life for us has continued pretty much as normal during the lockdown. Apart from cafes, pubs and restaurants being closed we were still able to work on the boat and buy the necessary tools and equipment to keep forging ahead.

Now it is a few days to Christmas. We celebrated early with Bea and Andy before they left for Northern Ireland to spend time with their daughter, Fay and her beautiful family. We have been left in charge of the house and chickens for a week and will have a quiet Christmas together, just the two of us.

As 2020 comes to an end and we reflect on the last year, we consider ourselves extremely lucky to have been able to continue with our adventure in spite of the lockdowns and restrictions. Our hope is that things improve in 2021 and restrictions are lifted so we can start our journey back to NZ in the New Year. In the meantime, we are continuing to improve and prepare ourselves and Cerulean and look forward to getting her back in the water in March.