Azores or Bust

Last weekend I, with a couple of friends from the boat club, attended a Jester Symposium at the Royal Harwich Yacht Club. A fabulous location over looking the Orwell. One of the presenters showed a quote about the Jester Challenge. "Finding the weaknesses of boat and skipper" With this and other comments about structural issues I decided to carry out a more critical inspection of Mischief. The deck around the mast has a distinct dip in it and the rig has lost tension. At this point I am fearing the worst which is that the support under the mast step has rotted and compressed. The mast needs to come down and the deck beam removed so that I can excavate the deckhead under the mast. Depending upon what I find I think I'll install oak or teak packing and the re-build. I'll add a new page for this project.

The key to winter sailing is the weather and keeping warm. A couple of weeks ago I had a lovely sail after chipping the ice off the deck and softening the lines enough to allow them to travel through blocks and round cleats. There was a brisk F6 from the west and the temperature didn't get above 0C. The outboard well make a nice ice bucket! An absolute must is to keep warm. I had five layers on; thermals, vest, fleece, jumper, coat and my new super marigolds as recommended by a chap that had sailed to Svalbard. I didn't get too cold but could have been warmer. So improvements were planned. A chap at the club has some Finnish window cleaner (Joka) gloves and my aunt bought me some real wool (Perilla) socks. The gloves are great and with the large size I can get my thinsulate gloves inside them. The socks are wonderful, not only do they keep my feet warm but they don't need changing for up to a week, well that's what their web site says! Back out last weekend...

Between buying Mischief in August 2017 and returning from the Azores in 2020 I am at the half way point in my preparations. It seemed appropriate to try a sail out of the River Medway so I set off for the Red Sands forts. This was hopefully going to be a good practice run for the club race at the end of April. After loading up a bit more kit at the club dock I set off just after high tide. With a southerly F1 to 2, I had a gentle sail to Garrison Point and then set off alongside the deep water channel out into the Thames Estuary. I met a couple of chums from the club who were out fishing. Visibility was about 2 miles and I reached Red Sands forts after 5 hours sailing. The boat was behaving very well and I managed to install my AIS and VHF units on the chart table. On the way back I finished off the wiring and then I came across my chums again. They were going into Queenborough for the evening so I decided to join them. After a fun evening in Queenborough and an excellent breakf...

I have been on a mission to reduce the power consumption and cost of getting Mischief ready for adventures and to this end I had a success. I have made a GPS module that draws 60mA, cost less than £20 and feeds GPS NMEA info in a format that my VHF can read. This module also works on my laptop. My previous GPS feed was a Gamin 72H which draws over 100mA and cost around £100. One attempt at this resulted in a spare GPS module for my AIS unit. I bought a GPS receiver through ebay that cost £2.92 so I wasn't expecting much. It turned out that the GPS receiver didn't have a UART and the USB connector had no power connections. I tried removing the USB plug and pressing the bare wires against the GPS connector on the Matsutec. Within 30 seconds I had a GPS fix. After fitting a TNC connector I now have a back-up GPS unit. The official Matsutec GPS units cost £45!

WOW, she sails like a dream. Gusting force 7 and Mischief didn't miss a beat, I wish I could say the same about the engine! After loading up some more gear I set off from HNYC and moored up overnight on a club mooring then sailed to Stangate Creek on Saturday where I anchored for the first time. After dragging due to a rock caught in the flukes I had a calm night despite the f6 westerly. My chums from HNYC anchored nearby but it was too rough to raft up. The next morning I tried to weigh anchor but it was too shallow so after some towing and shouting I left the anchor on a fender and set off for lunch.  We had a good lunch in Queenborough at the Flying Dutchman, I didn't make it last year but did win blunder of the year award instead :-(. Engine cut out twice as I was approaching the ATL at Queenborough but wind and tide plus a helping hand from the chap on the dock made it look like I knew what I was doing. After lunch I returned to the anchor and retrieved it, it was v...

Had a couple of days on Mischief with mixed results. On Friday I wanted to fit four deck sockets (estimated 2 hours), fit a solar panel (estimated 1 hour) and first wet fit of the self steering (1 hour). After 6 hours I had only managed to fit the deck sockets and lash up a temporary solar panel arrangement. On the Saturday I completed all of the planned jobs, re-instated most of the head lining and worked on a friends boat helping him to replace his companionway runners. Very happy, I just hope the the second battery is taking a charge or I might have ruined it.

I took Mischief out for a sail on Friday. It was misty with a slight Easterly breeze and neap tides so ideal for a first run out. We covered the 8 miles to Queenborough into the wind and she didn't miss a beat. Every tack went well and she headed into the wind nicely. On the way back we sailed down wind and it was very relaxing. The downside of the hull shape is that the helm needs constant attention. The engine was used for a few minutes when leaving the mooring and again when returning. On a less positive note my tender has a leak. It half filled with water on the way out to Mischief and needed constant bailing to get back ashore. After cleaning the hole out, filling the aft chamber with builders foam and sealing the hole with Muliput epoxy putty I am hoping that it will be serviceable again.