Time Flies By…..But Not In A Hillyard (Part 1 – Journeys)

 

It is heading towards three years since I last posted a blog entry so I thought it was about time that I put my fingers to the keyboard and updated where we are at with our life on board Wendy Woo.  It turns out that living on a boat actually means that eighty percent of the time the boat is a home and only twenty percent of the time it is a form of transport.  Having said that, we have had several interesting trips and taken onboard many ‘learning points’ for discussion once safely back alongside.  There have also been many repairs, upgrades and general fettling of the boat in that time.  I will go over some of the more interesting (?) events in this blog as a way of summarizing our progress.  Before I start I will just apologise for the lack of photographs.  I’m not very good at remembering to photograph things as I go along; sometimes it’s only after the event that I think about it.  Anyway, hopefully my words will paint the picture well enough and, where I have photos I will include them.

 

So what journeys have we undertaken?  Well, not as many as we had planned and hoped for.  Sometimes life events dictate that priorities change and you have to adapt.  However, we have been out and about around the Pembrokeshire coastline, anchoring off Dale, Tenby and St David’s Head.  One memorable trip (for reasons that will become apparent) was to Port Eynon (Gower Peninsula) via Tenby.

 

We left the marina and headed for Dale anchorage for the night.  For a change the anchorage was flat calm with very little roll and we had a good night there.  The following morning we motor-sailed south to Turbot Bank and then East to St Gowan’s SCM before shutting the engine off and sailing the remainder of the way to Tenby.  The anchorage in North Beach was quite busy but there was plenty of space and we enjoyed the afternoon sun and calm evening.  We made plans to head for Port Eynon the following morning and, as there was little wind, we had a very slow sail/drift with the tide in lovely sunshine.  However, once we had anchored in Port Eynon it soon became apparent that we couldn’t stay there.  The swell on the water was so bad that I was afraid the anchor would have been pulled out or, at the very least, we wouldn’t get any sleep.  We made the decision to head back to Tenby where we knew we would have a safe anchorage.  As there was no wind we needed to motor back but, just as we rounded West Helwick, the engine faltered.  At first I thought we were running out of fuel so I swapped the tanks over.  Very soon however it was obvious that something else was going on.  The engine would run for about 15 minutes at around 1800 rpm before dropping down to idle.  Although the engine didn’t cut out we were losing confidence in it.  By throttling back and then opening up again the engine revs would pick up for another 10-15 minutes before fading again.  DIESEL BUG!!!!  I began to realise that the engine was being starved of fuel by the dreaded diesel bug clogging the fuel filters.  We nursed the boat back to Tenby, by which time it was dark, and our eyes were trying to deceive us.  We had never anchored in the dark before and, with a failing engine, our anxiety levels reached new highs.  This wasn’t helped by the fact that the anchorage had become even more crowded since we left.  Anyway, after two attempts at setting the anchor in sufficient space we finally shut the engine down and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

 

The following morning I set about trying to fix the problem.  For those of you who don’t know, diesel ‘bug’ is actually a microbial contamination of diesel fuel.  It grows in the interface between the fuel and any water that may be in the tanks.  The problem is exacerbated by the increased use of biodiesel.  It looks gelatinous and clogs filter elements and can cause damage to diesel injectors if it gets too bad.  Not to worry, I have a set of fuel filters onboard……or so I thought!  Our fuel system has a Racor water-fuel separator with a 10 micron filter element upstream of the engine itself.  I soon discovered that I only had a spare element for the upstream Racor filter but not the engine filter itself.  Where to get a spare when anchored off a seaside resort beach on a Saturday?  I contacted the harbour master at Tenby who put me on to a marine mechanic in the area.  Unfortunately he was out fishing when I rang him so was unable to help us directly.  However, he did suggest speaking to one of the Caldy Island ferry boats that has the same engine as us to see if they had a spare.  Thankfully they did and were willing to sell me it, at cost price, to help us out.  I think that speaks volumes for the way people in the seafaring world will help each other out if they can.  I spent the next hour or so changing the fuel filters, bleeding the system, and running the engine.  It was clear that the Racor element was badly contaminated but the engine filter looked pretty clean so I was confident that no major damage had been done.  The engine appeared to be running smoothly once again and so we sailed back to Milford Marina on a beautiful day, only needing the engine for the final stage through the locks and into our berth.  Needless to say we now carry at least one set of spare filters on the boat at all times and the fuel tanks have been given a thorough dose of Marine-16 diesel bug treatment.

 

Another ‘memorable’ outing for us was an opportunity to take a motor-cruise up the Haven Waterway and under the Cleddau Bridge for lunch at Lawrenny.  At least that was the plan.  Bridget’s mum was with us and, as she is a nervous seafarer, I thought it would be a lovely, gentle introduction to what it’s like ‘sailing’ up the river.  We would be motoring up against the tide but that wouldn’t be a problem as we were on neap tides.  Also, by the time we would be returning there would be a gentle breeze astern that would help us home again.  All was going well.  We left the marina and headed upstream with me chatting and pointing out things of interest.  The Irish Sea Ferries “Blue Star 1” was heading towards us so I gave it plenty of space and once past I looked up and saw a starboard marker buoy off in the distance.  I decided to aim towards that.  Then all of a sudden we came to a dead stop.  At first I thought we had snagged a fishing pot line or something, but then I saw that the depth gauge was reading zero!  We had run aground with a falling tide.  I quickly engaged reverse but we were stuck fast on Wear Spit.  I radioed the coastguard and Port Control to let them know and then set about checking that there were no immediate issues with the boat.  All appeared sound albeit we were starting to lean over.  The tide had another hour and a half to fall before coming back up.  We had no choice other than to sit it out.  We all had lifejackets on and we had plenty of water (just not under the keel!) so we sat on the toerail and willed the tide to turn.  It was a very anxious time.  We had no idea how far over we would go or if we would settle on a rock that might puncture the hull.  If we went fully over we would have taken on water which, although we couldn’t sink (we were already on the seabed), would have inundated the electrics and caused all sorts of issues.  Thankfully the area we had run aground was soft mud and sand and we settled about 45 degrees to port.  We finally refloated about 3 hours later and I quickly reversed us off the spit and headed back to the marina.  We never did get under the bridge and up to Lawrenny but we were relieved to be back alongside with no damage done (other than my embarrassment).  What I learned from that was how easy it is to get distracted and see what you want to see.  The starboard buoy I was aiming for was some way off in the distance and I failed to spot the port buoy much closer to us that marked the end of the spit.  I basically tried to drive right over a Wear Spit at near low tide.  That’s something I won’t do again.

 

The third ‘memorable’ trip I will recount was early last summer.  We decided that we would head for the west coast of Scotland, something we had wanted to do since we bought Wendy Woo.  We planned, checked weather forecasts, spoke to lots of people and decided to go for it.  We also invested in a new tablet and Navionics software to assist us in our navigation and passage planning.  Once again we headed out of the marina for Dale anchorage to position ourselves for getting the tides right for passing through Jack Sound the following day.  The following morning we lifted anchor and headed around St Ann’s Head for Jack Sound and beyond.  The water was quite choppy but we made it through the Sound with no drama, following a fellow Hillyard “Moonstone of Marlow”.  Once safely clear of the Sound we lifted the mainsail and headsail and slowly sailed towards Little Haven.  We planned to anchor there for the evening but, as we still had plenty of the day in front of us, we decided to head further north towards Ramsay Island and Ramsey Sound.  As with Jack Sound, you have to get the tides right to pass through Ramsey Sound without risk so we decided to anchor in Porthlysgi Bay just south of the Sound until the following morning.  This was a lovely protected small bay with only one other boat in there with us.  We anchored successfully.  However, when I checked the charts on Navionics the GPS placed us right above a wreck.  I didn’t say anything to Bridget but I was worried that our anchor would snag and not come back up.  It niggled in the back of my mind all night and had the potential to ruin our plans.  The wind also picked up a bit in the night further conspiring to ensure that I didn’t sleep particularly well.  The following afternoon we finally lifted the anchor again (I had nothing to worry about) and headed through Ramsay Sound and into Porth Melgan just to the north where we spent that night in a slightly rolly anchorage.  Our plan for the following day was to set off for Fishguard before crossing Cardigan Bay heading for North Wales.  However, there was no wind to be had and we didn’t really want to drive everywhere so we decided to head back south through Ramsay Sound and back into Porthlysgi Bay.  All was fine until darkness came.  The sea became more and more rolly with a big swell heading straight into the bay.  It was extremely uncomfortable and we lasted until about 4 in the morning when I decided we couldn’t stay any longer.  We decided to head back to the marina and re-plan.  Because the tides weren’t going to be right to go back through Jack Sound we decided to head out around Skomer and Skokholm Islands.  However, visibility was getting worse, rain was falling and, although there was no wind, the sea was becoming more and more confused.  This is where having the tablet with Navionics at the helm proved a godsend.  Despite not being able to actually see the islands I was able to ‘see’ them on the GPS charts and so we motored for 6 hours to get around the islands and back in through St Ann’s Head.  We felt as though we had been given a thorough beating and we were so relieved to set anchor in Dale once again.  Of course then the sun came out, blue skies all around and a settled sea.  We stayed in Dale until freeflow at the marina where we returned to our berth, very relieved to be back alongside.  Conditions can change so quickly, and once again we were humbled by the sea and its power and grace.  But Wendy Woo proved herself to be far more capable than her crew and, despite being thrown about, nothing got broken.  In fact,  I have broken more wine glasses washing up whilst alongside than we have done when under way.

 

So, those are the journeys of note in the past 3 years.  I will save the story of the ‘big journey’ until a later blog post.  In Part 2 I will talk about repairs and upgrades but in the meantime, thanks for reading and please feel free to comment below.