Index | Reply

Shakedown sail on the weekend of 14th/15th July 2001.

With only two weeks to go before we leave on our round the UK sailing trip, we headed off on a solid weekend of sailing to shake down any problems with ourselves and Debanessa.

Crewing on the sail were the four of us, Maggie, Nicky, Tarryn and myself and Paul, Linda and John. Paul and Linda are both new to sailing, Paul having just completed his Day Skipper Theory course. John is a Coastal Skipper who has sailed on Debanessa with us before, on our not so successful racing season last year.

Debanessa had just returned to the water after having been anti-fouled and having a stripper rope cutter fitted ahead of the propeller. We had also used our newly gained Diesel Mechanics knowledge to service the Volvo MD2030 engine. We had also fitted a NaxText Pro and done a few other bits and pieces to her.

We left Ocean Village at about 20:00 on Friday 13th after a walk through on the boat, and some planning of the weekends route. The original plan of going around Eddystone lighthouse (of Plymouth) was changed after the weather forecast a SW wind on Friday/Saturday turning NE on Sunday. As we wanted to travel SW on Friday/Saturday and NE on Sunday this was not going to be a good way to go. So the plan changed to be a quick trip across the channel to Cherbourg and perhaps a run through the Alderney Race around Guernsey.

First port of call though was Port Hamble, where we filled up with Diesel after overcoming the first problem with Debanessa, the fuel filler cap was seized shut and wood not budge. A few not so gentle taps with a hammer solved that little problem, and a smear of Vaseline will hopefully ensure that it does not crop up again.

The next problem was electrical, the Autohelm and Cigarette Lighter were not getting power. As it was dark, I left the electrical problem to the next day and we continued with a manual helmsperson and without use of the 12V cigarette lighter.

The watch system (18:00-22:00, 22:00-02:00, 02:00-06:00, 06:00-12:00, 12:00-18:00) worked pretty well with Tarryn and Linda on my watch and Nicky, Paul and Rob on Maggie’s. First excitement of the trip, and a suitable warning for the value of staying on board happened on my 02:00-06:00 watch off of Bembridge. We came across a string of about 12 large ferries, cruise liners and other assorted commercial vessels all seemingly at anchor in very exact distances apart. I set course between two, just to have them all suddenly change course and move off to my starboard, as one. Confused, I changed course to starboard and let them pass by on a parallel course, and then 180 degrees to try and pass them astern. They all then stopped and then changed course in unison towards me. By this time I has the VHF turned up, had passed over the helm and was trying to figure out what was going on.

It turned out to be a Man Over Board search being coordinated by Bembridge Lifeboat, and they were all doing a search pattern. I offered our assistance, which they declined but asked us to keep a close watch for the MOB on our routes to Cherbourg.

It apparently made the Saturday papers, someone fell/jumped off the ferry from Cherbourg to Portsmouth and has yet to be found. No lifejacket, at night – your chances are not great.

I bypassed the electrics to the Autohelm and got it working first thing Saturday morning which was a relief as it made the trip across the channel on a SW wind a nice beam reach and allowed us all to relax and catch up with the day to day living on a rocking and rolling boat. The sea was moderate but we still had the normal sea sick problem with everyone feeling a bit queasy and a few getting ill over the side and inside (a little less nice to clean up). My rougher weather Challenge sailing seems to have made me a little less prone to seasickness as I didn’t seem to be as badly affected.

We arrived off Cherbourg at 14:00 on Saturday afternoon, and then made a collective decision not to hang about until the suitable tides for the Alderney Race at 18:00, but to start our homeward journey. The next problem with Debanessa was the pressurised water system which seemed to stop for no apparent reason. We definitely had full tanks when we left (2x 150l tanks, one fore starboard and one aft port). I had experimented with closing one tank (the aft one) so that we would know when we were half way through our water, but apart from that there was no reason for the lack of water to pump. We could not have used 300l in the one day that we had been sailing.

The problem cleared itself later, I suspect that closing the one tank may have been the cause, or that being on Port tack with the Port tank open and the water pressure tank inlet being on the starboard side (high side) meant that it was sucking air. Anyway I will have to test out all the theories, but it seems to be back to its normal noisy self again.

The next problem was with the Autohelm again. It was powered up, but not turning the wheel. I suspect that the cogs are worn and slipping or that the drive cog is not engaging. I have someone coming to look at it this week as it would be a pain having to manually helm all the way around the UK. We did have to manually helm through Saturday night and Sunday.

Coming back on watch at 06:00 on Sunday morning I found that Maggie and her watch had safely brought us through the needles in the nick of time with the tide now running against us up the Western Solent. We anchored at Newtown Creek to let the tide slip us by and also to let us all catch up on sleep and what not. Tarryn and Linda took the dingy (the outboard started after a year of neglect – surprise) across to the beach and picked up shells and a dead crab, which were quickly dumped back into the Solent.

We all got a tan, or slept until about 11:00 when I hoiked up the 32m of muddy chain and Tarryn pointed us homeward. We got back to F15 Ocean Village at 14:00 and after a quick clean and tidy and a debrief, we on our weary way homeward.

All in all, the shakedown was a very valuable weekend. It highlighted some weaknesses in Debanessa and ourselves, which we just have time to put right before we leave on the 27th for Inverness and then through the Caledonian Canal, Irish Sea and South Coast back to Southampton. Twelve days and counting…

Last 5 Visitors

© 1998 - 2009