Mooring Work

Sunday 16^th March 2025

0000 hrs

Lat: 50° 24.33' N   Long: 004° 12.32' W
The Mooring

1200 hrs

On a bright sunny Sunday morning I popped down to the boatyard as some packages had arrived! The largest was a new set of mooring strops from Jimmy Green's in Beer. The smallest was a pack of four drawing board clips, my solution to charts flying off the chart table in a seaway.

Given the number of boats that had come off their moorings over the winter, it has been quite a windy one, I decided to move up from 18mm to 20mm strops. The quality of the work from Jimmy Green is outstanding.

Arrived at the sailing club and did my new exercise routine, pumped up the dinghy, and fetched the outboard motor from the shed more exercising, starting it for the first time in eighteen months. Actually, it started after a few pulls which secretly I was quite pleased about.

The visit was timed to coincide with low water springs in order to change the mooring strops. With the tide ebbing I started with the down river strops as they were slack. The first issue was undoing the shackles and much to my surprise it was not as difficult as I anticipated, due to the greasing the threads.

Being careful not to drop the pin or shackle into the water I removed the old strop and replaced it with the new one then worked my way back to the boat and tied onto the new strop. With both new strops on I nipped up the shackle and locked it with a zip tie.

An addition to the strops this year is adding some pipe lagging made of closed cell foam in order that they float and to discourage the growth of aquatic life, mussels in particular and a protective plastic tubing to stop chafing.

Back onboard it was time to adjust the length of strop - I had ordered them a metre shorter, but still think they are too long. With the foredeck all set it was time for coffee and wait for the tide to turn.

Sat in the cockpit with coffee in hand I watched the tide move up river. A line of foam and bubbles moving up stream with larger ripples behind that line.

With the upriver strops loose it was time to change them. Same process, but with a much stronger tide running under the dinghy.  Still not 100% happy with the length of the strops, but will adjust them over the next few weeks. 

1700 hrs

Time to close the boat up and get back to shore, deflate the dinghy exercise and head home.

There had been quite a few boats returning from a sail, what was really nice to see. I still need to get the sails bent on before I let go the lines.

All times are UTC.

---

Raw Water Pump Fix

Wednesday 12^th March 2025

0000 hrs

Lat: 50° 24.33' N   Long: 004° 12.32' W
The Mooring

Following the trip down to the mooring and seeing how badly the water pump was leaking I had ordered a replacement and it had arrived over the weekend a trip down to the boat to fit it was now needed.

I arrived down at Saltash Sailing Club on Tuesday afternoon calling into Tool Station for some bits and bobs, I struggled finding the bits I wanted in their catalogue and resorted to looking things up on the phone! Then took to my latest fitness routine - inflating the dinghy.

A quiet night was enjoyed onboard and I woke to a bright sunny, if chilly morning, and was enjoying a lazy morning, just being back on the water felt fantastic.

Still Waters

Time to sort out the raw water pump.  Companionway steps removed and tools set out when there was a knock on the hull. It was Roger who had been in Treluggan and launched a week before Aphrodite had come to say hello. Naturally, work stopped and gaz lit inder the kettle for coffee and a catch up.  

Coffee imbibed, Rodger headed back to his boat and I got down to work.

The previous time I had removed the pump it was a bugger tad difficult to get back on, so I carefully removed the bolts and watched how the pump came off. With the old pump off and sat beside the new one I could see what the problem was. The bearings on the drive spindle had not been pushed down far enough allowing water to escape through the back of the pump.

The engine was being a bit grumpy as clearly some air was getting into the fuel line, my next job on the to-do list, while starting it would soon splutter, gasp and die. The good news was that the water pump was working, just a few drips that were coming from the front plate that got nipped up. Job done!

A spot of lunch then back to the pontoon, more fitness routine - deflating the dinghy.

Plan to be down at the weekend. With it being spring tides an ideal time to drop the new strops on the mooring and bring the current ones back for a good clean.

All times are UTC.

---

Launch Day 2025

Wednesday 5^th March 2025

0000 hrs

Lat: 50° 59.99' N   Long: 004° 59.59' W
Trellugan Boatyard, Cornwall

I woke at 0600 after a cold night, another one below freezing, and popped my head on deck to be greeted by a blanket of thick fog, a layer of hoar frost and water frozen to 10mm in the bucket on deck. Today might prove to be interesting on the navigation front! At least the radar was working.

As Mark, who had helped me on this trip before, was unavailable I had put out a call to the local sailing WhatsApp group and Morag volinteered to crew and we arrainged to met up at the sailing club at 0754 for the two car shuffle between there and Treluggan.

0830 hrs

The yard team arrived and started the tractor and I removed the last items that needed to go ashore to the car.

The slope was inspected for ice and treated with grit before the tractor started its slow descent to the river. At that point an inbound vessel arrived, realising that we needed to be launched before they could be lifted, drifted back down river and moored to one of the lower pontoons.

Boat Launching Treluggan Style

The dinghy was rolled down the slope and manhandled onto the deck. Time to climb onboard and swap the blanking plate for the depth sounder; an essential bit of kit on this passage.

Next was the moment of truth. Would the engine start on this cold and frosty morning? The Volvo Penta 2000 Series can be a bit grumpy on a cold morning. After what felt like an eternity she caught and after a roar at full revs was happily chugging away at tickover. Forward and reverse propulsion was engaged and the wheel was turned port and starboard - just to check that I had not accidentally shut the hydraulic circuit off. All working we were set to go.

0900 hrs

The bow was led round the end of the pontoon, I pushed the throttle forward and we were off - almost going the wrong side of the first navigation post! A few shouts of 'starboard' and we were on course chugging our way down to the railway viaduct.

Just after the railway viaduct the engine began to hunt for revs, always a nervous moment, I pushed the throttle to the stop and hoped that it was just a few air bubbles in the line - thankfully this was to prove correct.

The Joy of Being Back at the Helm
© Morag Thomson Findlay 05/03/2025

An early morning trip down from Treluggan in good weather is always stunning, the place can be quite magical and so it was today. On reaching the confluence of the river where it branches up to St Germans a bright yellow fishing boat with two massive outboards passed and we roughly followed her down to Dandy Hole. As ever Dandy Hole has a few liveaboards and still has one wreck that has not been lifted.

Past the Royal Navy training ship by Beggars Point and we were out into the Tamar with the tide just on the ebb. We motored slowly upstream and I pointed out the mooring to Morag, let her have the wheel to get a feel for the boat before turning round and as we came alongside the mooring gave a big thrust astern after I picked up the rather mucky lines and managed to get the aft starboard line on the cleat.

1006 hrs

We were back on the mooring!

With one line on it was a matter of adjusting the very messy lines, a mug of coffee and getting the dinghy fully inflated and over the side for the trip to the club pontoon.

On the Mooring - at last!

I had forgotten that the sailing club was having an RNLI Fundraising Coffee Morning, so we sat and had a coffee, by this time I was regretting not putting some sun lotion on! Then it was back for the two car shuffle and Morag could get to her early afternoon meeting.

Back at Treluggan I handed back the keys and had a final wander round where the boat had been and picked up any litter, before chatting to the owners still working on their boats - mainly passing news of the route down and wishing them well for their launch dates.

1400 hrs

Back to the club and out to the boat for a final check that all was in order.

Knowing there was an issue with the raw water pump I had left the engine sea cock open to check what the water ingress was like without the engine on and was surprised to see that the engine bilge was almost full!  At that point I decided to invest in a new water pump rather than faf about repairing the original one as that would take time and a few tools, a three armed bearing extractor, that I did not have.

The fuel leak was sorted by the fuel being turned off and a nappy placed round the leak. On my next visit to the boat I'll need to measure up for a new fuel line and get that ordered.

A final check of the lines and I locked up the boat and rowed ashore - only to discover that I had left the dinghy pump onboard and a couple on a boat on the pontoon were kind enough to let me borrow their outboard to speed up my return trip to pick up the pump.

Finally got the dinghy back to the car for deflation and transport home - the summer dinghy park is not yet open - and into the bar for a well earnt orange juice and lemonade before the drive back to East Devon.

All times are UTC.

---

The Log

Distance NM	Underway	Avg SOG knots	Max SOG knots	Night Hours
5.30	1h 06m	5.00	6.00	0

---

Crew: Sandy Garrity (Skipper), Morag Thomson Findlay

---

Sunrise: 0655 hrs    Prime Meridian Passage: 1211 hrs    Sunset: 1804 hrs

---

Weather: The shipping forecast issued by the Met Office, on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, at 23:30 (UTC) on Tue 4 Mar 2025 for the period 00:00 (UTC) on Wed 5 Mar 2025 to 00:00 (UTC) on Thu 6 Mar 2025.

There are warnings of gales in Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire, Forties, Cromarty, Forth, Tyne, Dogger, Fisher, Rockall, Malin, Hebrides, Bailey, Fair Isle, Faeroes and Southeast Iceland.

The general synopsis at 1800

Low 800 miles west of Shannon 980 expected Southeast Iceland 970 by 1800 Wednesday

Dover, Wight, Portland, Plymouth

Variable 2 to 4, becoming south or southeast 3 to 5. In Plymouth, slight or moderate, becoming moderate or rough later, otherwise smooth or slight. Fair. Moderate or good.

© Met Office Synoptic Chart 05/03/2025

---

The Mast is Stepped

Tuesday 4^th March 2025

0000 hrs

Lat: 50° 24.04' N   Long: 004° 16.92' W
Trellugan Boatyard, Cornwall

With the boat being booked for launch on the 5^th of March I was down at the yard for a few days before making sure the engine ran and to clean the worst of the green algae that covered the decks.

On starting the engine we discovered that the work done on the water pump, replacing one of the lip seals had not fixed the problem, but was liveable with on the short journey down to the mooring. I also discovered where the fuel leak was!  Again liveable with for the trip to the mooring, but will need fixed before we take the boat to sea.

Given the dreich winter we have had the yard was bathed in warm sunshine and lots of people were down and preparing hulls to be antifouled and it was good to wander about the yard chatting to people and hearing of their plans for the summer. 

The mast waiting to be stepped

The yard had two jobs to do, step the mast and moved Aphrodite to the top of the slope to the river in readyness to be launched just before high water. 

Just after lunch the team arrived and I let them get on with it.  The last thing they wanted was an owner looking on while they carefully lifted the mast and positioned it on the deck.  From afar I watched the process and once they had the mast up spoke to Dan to make final adjustments to the halyard catcher so the tension was correct.

1600  hrs

The yard tractor, with launch cradle lumbered into sight and I wander off to chat with another owner. 

It took some time of toing and froing to get the cradle in the correct position, I was beginning to think that Aphrodite had taken root, as there was an awkward angle between a couple of boats that had to be negotiated.

Toing and Froing

Eventually, I heard the clatter of props falling and knew that the boat was on the cradle.  Now just the need to reverse the process, all done quietly without any panic.  Aphrodite was then moved to the top of the slope down to the river ready for launching just before High Water.  The ladder onto the boat was at the top of quite a long slope and I needed to be careful not to fall off!

---

The Mast is Un-Stepped

Saturday 22^nd February 2025

Finally, after weeks of dreich, windy weather with a named storm thrown into the mix, Éowyn was particularly wild, the yard were able to get the mast unstepped from the deck.

I arrived down at the yard to see the mast off the boat and looking rather green with alge. The first job was to find a bucket, hot water and a brush and start the job of cleaning the muck off. Surprizing how long that took, but very pleasing when I finished.

The next job was to sort out the halyards, knowing I had already caused one mousing line to fall down the mast did complicate the job. Just a matter of working out how to use the existing halyard to pull a new mousing line through then use that to thread the genoa halyard through.

A mousing line was attached to the bottom of the main halyard and then drawn up the mast. The next challenge was to pull the thin mousing line out of the gap beneath the sheaves then thread the halyard round the sheave, attach it to the mousing line, feed all of the lines back into the mast and pull gently.

Flushed with success I proceed to the topping lift only to lose that line and had to repeat the 'rescue' process again! I have replaced the topping lift with a second 10mm halyard as this gives me a spare should there ever be a problem with the main halyard.

With all of the halyards safely back on the mast it was time to move to the radar reflector and attach a couple of lines from the cap shroud round the reflector then off to the other side. This is to stop any halyard from being trapped behind the reflector. Something that has happened a couple of times and is a pain in the derriere to fix at sea.

I hope all my measuring works out, but if necessary can always go up the mast and tweak it when afloat - not that I enjoy going aloft!

The final job was to sort out the deck light. Having found out what make of lamp fitting it was I ordered a lamp from Boatlamps that had arrived on the day before I down. It fitted, but was not getting any power. Time to strip the fitting and find out what was going on with 40 year old wiring. As a result I've chopped the wiring and am re soldering the connections to make it easier to fix in the future.

Flag halyards replaced as they were getting rather sun damaged and breaking up.

Just the lazy jacks to sort out.

---

Updated: 24/02/2025