6th October 2012 - Autumn Has Arrived

Jeff's blog of his life living aboard a yacht, at anchor, in the UK, with his wife, a dog and a baby.

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Jeff
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6th October 2012 - Autumn Has Arrived

Post by Jeff »

Mornings are now decidedly chilly, as are evenings. During the day the wheelhouse gets nice and warm if there's any sun - presumably due to the greenhouse effect which is great. But mornings now start with a good hour of Eberspacher diesel heater, and evenings are dominated by the welcome re-appearance of the Vapalux paraffin pressure lamp.

I love it! It's super cosy and feels very "out there" when there's a bit of a blow and we're cooped up inside all warm and dry, but able to take in the gorgeous views due to the wheelhouse. What a great decision it was to get a boat with one! I'm sure we'll regret it when we find we can't sail very well to windward, but for living aboard on an everyday basis, this is definitely the way forward.

We've had a few exciting moments since I last posted.

My folks came down for a long weekend. Weather was good. Had a lovely time chugging up to Dittisham and enjoying a meal in the Ferryboat.

Rose's mum came down for a couple of nights so we chugged with her up river and had a meal in the Ferryboat.

Got to love the Ferryboat! So much that in a few days, for my birthday, we're going to chug up river and go out for dinner there :)

And on both parental visits, we also chugged out of the river, into the sea, and then back into the river. So we did it!! We left the river for the first time!! Enough of that for a while I think! Nerve-racking stuff! :P Seriously though I was nervous. Weird considering our previous exploits. I think Rose was right when she suggested it's because we've not put the sails on yet so we have no backup for the engine which we haven't learned to fully trust yet. More on this later.


After the family visits it was high time for some real adventuring. We'd tested the engine and anchor enough so it was time to go further afield. So we chugged up river to White Rock Anchorage, just near Stoke Gabriel and had three nights up there while making trips ashore to visit the gorgeous village.

During most of our trips ashore a cheeky seal kept following us really close - it made us feel uneasy - he seemed completely unworried by the fact that each time he popped up, Lunar went absolutely mental.

When it came time to leave (we were bound for Dittisham, and the Ferryboat (we ought to buy shares in it)) it became apparent that each time the tide had turned, we'd wrapped our anchor chain one more time around a submerged tree. It took about an hour of work to untangle us. I thought we were really going to be in trouble for a while, but with much winching, ropes, dinghy use and twisting of 5m high water logged tree, we were free. The tree sank back down. We'll no doubt meet again as White Rock is one of our fave spots.

On return to Dartmouth/Kingswear I checked the oil level again in the engine (it was possibly rising before, which is of great concern) and it was a little teeny bit above the "full" line. But was it because we were heeling a touch in the wind? Or was it because when I sucked out some to take us to the full line, we were heeling a little bit... I can't make my mind up if this is a problem or not. Aagh how annoying.

It was life back to normal at anchor off Dartmouth for a couple of weeks after that. Riding out some considerable winds that would definitely have made me run to the pontoons before. But not now with the Rocna!

But then, this 3 hours of high winds was forecast for Thursday night into Friday morning, last week. It looked like an error in the forecast as it was so short and sharp, with mild conditions before and after. But all the different forecasts agreed that winds could be up to 40+ knots. So we went to the pontoon at about 1600 and waited. Two other boats remained in the anchorage so I felt a bit of a coward.

At 2200, fairly suddenly, the wind ramped up to maybe 25 knots. I went to bed just after spying the other boats in the anchorage, coping fine.

Sleep followed.

Next morning one of the anchored boats was missing and it transpired he'd had to be rescued by the big offshore lifeboat. His jib had unfurled in winds which went over 50 knots (storm force 10) and it caused his anchor to drag. Here's the BBC news report:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-19841041

I can't believe I slept through the whole thing!!

Next night we were back in the anchorage, and so was he. Obviously he was not shaken too much by the experience. Think I'd have been!

So that's where we're up to I think. Oh, we were going to have our deck sorted last month when the weather inevitably would improve for long enough - but it never did, so we now have a deck which will not last the winter, in desperate need for some TLC.... perhaps we'll just rip off all the teak and replace it with some plastic coating instead. Would be a weight off, in both meanings of the phrase, but would not look or feel as nice as our teak.

Some pictures from the last few weeks....

Nina Unsure About These Landlubbers (my parents)
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I'm Unsure About This Landlubber (my mother-in-law)
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Nina Helming Us Up River To White Rock (Stoke Gabriel)
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At Anchor At White Rock
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A Massive Live Oyster I Found (Did Not Eat It)
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Top Of The 5m Hight Tree
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The Chain/Tree Tangle
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The Bottom Of The 5m Hight Tree
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Eberspacher Is On. Lunar Getting Maximum Effect
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janesnox
YF Newbie
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 7:26 pm
Location: Whitby

Post by janesnox »

Love the dimples!!!
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