Instow trip

The following morning Vince decided to do some cleaning, few people can carry off the "boots and shorts" look as well as he can.



We then decided on a walk around Appledore.





Which Lilly found a little boring.



In the evening the crews of Alana and Chausey joined friends at the Boathouse in Instow for dinner. Afterwhich we watchted a great sunset.



Followed by a lovely moonrise back at the boats.



All of this really capped off a great day.

Great account Allan. I notice you said that you did not manage to beat Sheila and Vince to the bar? Don't worry, mate. Few do. ;D

Is Julian available to give tuition on drying out against a wall?

Seriously, looks like great fun. We were on maintenance all weekend. Louise has been up the mast, and we've all but done the engine adn fitted the new autopilot.

I was desperate to have a go at drying out against a wall. I'm very nervous now. Must catch up and find out what happened.

Friday morning was beautiful - not much good for sailing but fab if you are a sun worshipper like me! I noted the temperature at 0600 as being 15 degrees already! I hope you all noticed the motor sailing cone on Allan's picture, but just for good measure here is Allan motor sailing at 07.23, and please note the cone!

It was quite a boring trip, so Allan passed some time by doing some fishing, whilst we occupied ourselves by jellyfish spotting just around Watermouth/Ilfracombe

(Picture taken at 12.59)

By 13.17 our little flotilla had come together again, as we approached the headland at Morte Point

We were all aware of the overfalls marked by the Mort Stone green buoy, but even so I think we were all surprised by them


Julian was the only sensible skipper who went by the rules and kept the buoy to port, whilst the rest of us "cut the corner" and went to starboard of the buoy - not very comfortable!

By 16.15 we were making our approach to the estuary of the rivers Taw & Torridge, passing over Bideford Bar. Considering the water was so flat and calm, the waves over the bar were quite impressive, the photo doesn't do it justice!

Saturday was a beautiful day, and we spent some time marvelling at sight of the river at low tide

Wow! What a weekend! The one piece of tuition I can give about drying out against a wall is DON'T DO IT!!!!!!

Seriously though, it was a huge learning curve, and having gone through the mill on the first attempt I now feel confident to do it again whenever the need arises. It was only that first low tide on the Friday night that was a disaster, although the following morning's low would almost certainly have followed suit had Vince not woken me up. After being up at 4am on the Friday morning for a 5am start, sailing single handed for 12 hours without an autohelm, and getting no sleep at all on Friday night due to supervising the drying out and 'wetting up again' I was totally exhausted and had simply flaked out.

So what went wrong? It seemed so perfect to begin with. Allan was so right about the gentlemen at the NDYC and with their help and advice Katy was left perfectly set up as we went over to enjoy their outstanding hospitality in their clubhouse on the other side of the river.

Katy's mooring lines were slack enough so she could drop with the tide. We had an elaborate system which basically meant that the halyard ran to the quay with two buckets of water on the end which would rise and fall with the tide. The idea being that they would provide a constant pull from the top of the mast towards the quay in order to persuade Katy to lean that way rather than out into oblivion. And, courtesy of Duncan, we had a piece of marine ply hanging from the stanchions with a whole row of fenders neatly packed behind so that Katy could lean against the ladder in a ladylike manner.

Perfect. At that time there was a couple of hours before Katy would start to ground, so plenty of time for a drink over the river. Katy is really well prepared. What could go wrong?

On our return the first thing I noticed as we approached along the top of the quay was that Katy's mast was leaning outwards. Panic! We rushed to the top of the ladder and peered down. The mooring lines were just a foot or so too short and Katy was starting to hang on them, thus leaning her outwards - and she was drying out fast. Scrabbling down the ladder we discovered to our dismay that there was a tyre attached to the ladder which had been so far below the waterline that it was invisible when we left. Judging by the rusty chain and shackle it was attached by it must have originally been to fend off Noah's Ark, and as Katy dropped it had pushed the board and fenders into a tangle as it passed. Katy was drying out fast. The extra width of the tyre against the tangle of board and fenders was also stopped Katy from leaning in the right direction even when the warps were slacked. We had to untangle the fenders....

...but it was too late. Katy majestically fell onto Manana accompanied by the horrible screeching of rubbing fenders.

In short, what went wrong was that we weren't there. The fins should have politely excused themselves and left the bilge keelers to enjoy the hospitality at NDYC while we supervised Katy drying out. Then we would have spotted the tyre and have been able to arrange the tyre, board and fenders as Katy lowered and while she was still floating.

...and that really sums up my entire take on drying out against a wall. Katy needed 'feeding' past that tyre on both the incoming and outgoing tides, which meant that while the bilge keelers where having a lovely time us fins couldn't fully relax or get a complete night's sleep for the whole weekend.

Having said that, I am glad I have had the experience. If I lean against a wall again I know exactly what to look out for - but I'm with Duncan on that one. I think wall leaning should be left as a last option. We would have been better off anchoring in the channel. Or would we have lost sleep worrying about whether the anchor was dragging or not?

Anyone got a bilge keeler for sale?

When I poked my head out on the morning of our departure the fog was quite thick. I couldn't see any of the boats moored in the river, and some of the bilge keelers were close enough for me to have been casually imagining throwing hand grenades at over the weekend. (Can't think why ;D ). Ah well, it was time to put the kettle on anyway. As our departure time drew closer the fog got gradually thinner and suddenly the sun lit up a single boat on the other side of the river like a spotlight. It was really quite beautiful, and the photo does not do it justice in the slightest.

The wind picked up once we had turned the corner around Ilfracombe way and I had a wonderful sail the rest of the way back, which made up for having to motor almost all of the way to Appledore.

Julian.

Great to hear the full story of what had actually happened Julian. And also glad gto hear that it has not put you off!

After the experiences of the weekend, I would say there were two things that made Julian's problems much greater than expected.
1. The tyre, which was below the water at high water and above the boat at low water.
2. Unlike a lot of boats, Katy goes nose down when the water goes away.
The tyre made it difficult to set the boat up for drying as the tide ebbed.
The standard practice of using a halyard to hold the boat in the right position does not work when the mast wants to drop forward. Moving as much weight aft and trying to hold the bow up with ropes to the offside cleats may have helped, but there is always a risk of damage to the cleats.
I think we all learned a lot about drying over the weekend and I think we all agree that in retrospect it would have been better for Katy to have been on the RNLI buoy as arranged with NYDC.
Still life is a learning experience!
Allan