Safely home

From Faversham we sailed round Margate without running aground this time and stopped at Ramsgate where Steve took the train back to Mepal. Next morning early start and with the tide with us (we were doing 9 knots at time - with the help of sails and engine...) we made Brighton just before dark. As both marinas had showers I had 2 showers in 2 days! A record! Early start again on Monday morning with a bit of mist and not much wind. Selsey Bill was passed without trauma and the journey wasn't too eventful except that the exhaust kept overheating and threatening to burn some electrical conduits (!) - we have definitely decided to sav up for a wet exhaust system, and one of the pipes on the engine (water cooling sea water inlet) leaked then burst (!) - John valiantly and skillfully managed to patch it up so it wasn't too drastic... Arrived in Cowes just as a huge sand and gravel container ship was coming out, anchored at the Folly, wonderful!

Tuesday morning, after John took Ian to the Red Jet for his trip back home, we gently made our way back to our mooring. No flags but a police escort accompanying us: they were apparently protecting Blade Runner from protesters...

Back to reality now, putting the sails in the sail locker and other sad but sensible things needing to be done. It is lovely to be home though...

After 5 weeks in Faversham we are off in 1 hour with Steve and Ian Ruffles. Mary and Steve were going to accompany us but all these gales...The wind has at last calmed down! Ramsgate tonight where we'll drop Steve, then maybe Eastbourne or perhaps just go straight home... Wonderful!

A generator

I can't believe it! Yesterday, after nearly a month of battling with the dynamo/alternator problem which involved various train trips to Dover humping the afore mentioned items, countless telephone calls, lenghty discussions with neighbouring barges owners and brain ache, Brendon (who was trying to fit the alternator AND mend the old dynamo) eventually came up with the suggestion of a generator to see us back to the iow until someone can sort out the dynamo (apparently the alternator is a lash-up and a no-no).
Why didn't we think of it before? As it happens Matt was here and he has a generator (like every good sailor should... I have been whining for a generator for the last 2 years...) As he is likely to be working on Raybelle in the next few months eh offered to lend it to us.
So now we are ready to go back! and Steve and Mary are arriving today. So in theory, if weather is favourable (at the moment right direction but too much of it!) we could go on Monday morning tide...

Taking roots

We are still in Faversham, after nearly 3 weeks of drying out hold, puzzling out dynamo/ alternator problem and surviving Ray Harrison. His name should be etched on the "to be avoided list" together with Ian... Ray the Rascal nearly convinced us that our engine was in a really bad way, that it would be unsafe for us to set for the Isle of Wight with it as it was and he proposed he should take our engine out and he would repair it in his workshop. We were devastated. However, we asked around and found that Matt (working nextdoor on his barge Raybelle) had been convinced by Ray to let him repair his engine but now was in the difficult position of having t pay £££ in order to just get his engine back (Ray refusing to quote him a price for the work to be done...) We politely said no thank you to Ray. Narrow escape!(subsequently, Mark, who fitted new injectors and listened carefully to the engine confirmed that there was nothing wrong with it)

So we have caught with jobs, patching up rusty spots on the deck and combing, tarred leeboard, made a shower curtain,painting the hold floor (orange!) once it wsas dry, and enjoyed the various treasures of Faversham: open-air swimming pool, samphire, blackberries, plums, Hop festival, feasting our eyes on the many Thames Sailing Barges around and enjoying peace and quiet.

Lady of the Lea

Life is pleasant and quiet on Standard Quay. We are moored just ahead of Repertor and Henry and behind Raybel where Matt every day patching hull and tarring. He is going to sell his flat in order to pay for the ungoing maintenance. What are we complaining about?

The other day however, Lady of the Lea tried to moor next to Repertor. We were blissfully unaware of the impending impact, sipping a cup of tea with Ray, a Gardner engines expert, trying to extract from him how much he would charge to overhaul our engine, when "Bang!" we were nearly knocked off our seats. Rushing out on deck we found the bow of Lady of the Lea had rammed our port rear quarter! Miraculously, no great damage other than scraped paint. We secretely felt quite smug as we had successfully turned round Wilhelmina only a few minutes earlier.

Faversham

After the race's excitement and celebrations, we discovered the hold was very very squelchy. A leak??

We decided that without a dynamo, we needed to get to some kind of elctric power, sooner rather than later, should our bilge pumps need to start...

So we ambled slowly up Faversham Creek and found a mooring spot behind Sailing Barges Henry and Repertor and not far away from Cumbria who is being restored. The perfect spot for John!

The leak wasn't atrocious but it needed investigating, we still had to wait for our dynamo to be repaired and after so much excitement for over 2 weeks, we both needed to breathe. Diccon said goodbye as he had to go back to Belgium for the birthday of his baby boy, we bought a train ticket back to Cowes for Ian and ... peace at last!

We made it!

What a memorable day yesterday was as well as being John's birthday! It started with a grey drizzle. At 8 o'clock John rowed across to Harty Ferry to pick up Stefan and Julie. At 9.35, there was a 10 min gun for our race and we hadn't got the anchor up, the rigging was in disarray, no charts out, no strategy for the crew. At the 5 min gun, to add insult to injury we went aground on a falling tide and expected to remain there for the rest of the race. Nicole heaved a sigh of relief that we wouldn't break anything and have a quiet day, sipping coffee watching the barges race through binoculars. At this stage, Stefan, who had been quietly in the background, decided that now was the time to take control. He took the tiller from Ian and used the tide to move us off the mudbank. By this time, our main competitor Vechtlust was already far ahead. Stefan clearly and firmly organised the crew into a working team, poled out the staysail and took full advantage of the following wind. We started to race along, doing more than 7 knots and closing the gap between us and Vechtlust although Daybreak was coming close behind us. We cut the corner at Pollard Spit and continued with the wind behind us until we reached Whitstable Street Buoy, left it to port, tacked but went aground. Stefan managed to gybe ourselves out of it, Then our jib fell in the water, slowing us down considerably until we managed to hoist it out. We watched Vechtlust sail on in the distance. By this time, the Thames Sailing Barges were on their way back and the real fun began. The wind was coming straight from Receptive, the finishing buoy, and as the channel narrows until there we were all tacking fast. Great big barges and small smacks were whizzing by, port, starboard, ahead, everywhere, but Stefan was in total control and old Wilhelmina was singing along. She picked up her skirts and ran. After what seemed ages, the finishing buoy came closer and we made it through, dizzy with excitement and exhaustion.

What a day!