Sailing Aphrodite: Saltash

Showing posts with label Saltash. Show all posts

Shakedown Sail

Thursday 11^th September 2025

0000 hrs
Lat: 50° 24.33' N Long: 004° 12.32' W
The Mooring

0700 hrs
Spent the night onboard as the J24 World Championships were being hosted by Saltash Sailing Club and Plym Yacht Club and everybody was invited to a 'Cornish Evening'. A social with pasties and cream teas, I did have a chuckle to see the pasties were made in Devon and the cream teas were served in both the Cornish and Devonian style, they also had a very, very loud band.

While I've not sailed Aphrodite over the summer she is staying on the mooring so I can sail over the winter. However, I have been down on the boat several times checking her and working on some improvements, but today was going to be the first time I'd take her off the mooring and raise the sails.

1245 hrs
After a morning of sunshine and showers, the forecast was spot on, hoisted the main with two reefs in and slipped the mooring.

Delighted to say that leaving the mooring was a lot easier than I had envisaged. Took off the port bow line, past it in front of the forestay and attached it to the karabina. Repeated the process with the aft lines, slipped the aft lines then walked forward and slipped the remaining bow line and the boat drifted away from the mooring buoys.

John was on the wheel in case it went horribly wrong.

I left John on the wheel as he had not helmed on a boat with a wheel before and set about unfurling part of the genoa as we headed down river close hauled before turning off the engine and settling down to the task of looking after the sails.

As we passed the Lynher river to our starboard we were hit with a 30 knot gust! Turned smartly round and headed back up river under the Tamar Bridges, where we lost all wind, before heading towards Cargreen.

With just over three metres of water under the keel, don't you love big spring tides, we turned south again just off Devonport Naval Base and got in a right muddle. Hammered by 35 then 0 knots with speeds through the water ranging from 0 to 7.5 knots!

On seeing that we were doing zero knots, both SOG and STW, I started the engine to get through a tack. Thirty seconds later the engine sounded a high temperature alarm and I went into 'Don't panic' mode.

We sailed up the river discussing the option to sail onto the mooring. We did attempt it, but did not quite manage the maneuver and I sadly lost an old and faithful boathook. Time for Plan B and I gingerly turned the engine on just as we were hit with a 20 knot gust, crossed my fingers and took the wheel. Thankfully, no temperature alarms this time and came alongside the mooring at ½ knot. John sprung onto the foredeck and picked up the lines.

1515 hrs
Back on the mooring.

While a short shakedown I was delighted to see that getting on and off the mooring was not as terrifying as it had become in my head. Given the amount of time the boat has been on the mooring and the visible slime on the hull she moved at about six knots through the water at times! A couple of small issues were found, I had not rigged the reefing lines at the end of the boom correctly and there was on sail slide not in the slot. Both are easily fixed.

While I need to investigate the engine temperature alarm I am sure it was something partially over the raw water intake, we did have some cooling water exit the exhaust.

After sorting out the sails and tidying up I noticed that the club bar was open and a celebratory drink was in order.

All times are UT.

The Log

	Distance NM	Underway	Avg SOG knots	Max SOG knots	Night Hours
Day:	7.30	2h 30m	2.92	7.00	00h 00m
Year:	12.60	3h 36m	3.96	7.00	00h 00m

Crew: Sandy Garrity (Skipper), John McMurdo

Sunrise: 0542 hrs Meridian Passage: 1159 hrs Sunset: 1931 hrs

The Shipping Forecast
The shipping forecast issued by the Met Office, on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, at 00:15 (UTC+1) on Thu 11 Sep 2025 for the period 01:00 (UTC+1) on Thu 11 Sep 2025 to 01:00 (UTC+1) on Fri 12 Sep 2025.

There are gales warnings in:
Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire, Forties, Shannon, Malin, Hebrides, Bailey, Fair Isle and Faeroes.

The general synopsis at 1800:
Low Malin 987 expected Faeroes 975 by 1800 Thursday

Sea Areas:
Dover, Wight, Portland, Plymouth

Forecast:
West or southwest 5 to 7. Moderate or rough, occasionally very rough in west Plymouth. Showers, thundery at times. Good, occasionally poor.

© Met Office Synoptic Chart 11/09/2025

Updated: 14/09/2025

Mooring Work

Sunday 16^th March 2025

0000 hrs

Lat: 50° 24.33' N Long: 004° 12.32' W
The Mooring

1200 hrs

On a bright sunny Sunday morning I popped down to the boatyard as some packages had arrived! The largest was a new set of mooring strops from Jimmy Green's in Beer. The smallest was a pack of four drawing board clips, my solution to charts flying off the chart table in a seaway.

Given the number of boats that had come off their moorings over the winter, it has been quite a windy one, I decided to move up from 18mm to 20mm strops. The quality of the work from Jimmy Green is outstanding.

Arrived at the sailing club and did my new exercise routine, pumped up the dinghy, and fetched the outboard motor from the shed more exercising, starting it for the first time in eighteen months. Actually, it started after a few pulls which secretly I was quite pleased about.

The visit was timed to coincide with low water springs in order to change the mooring strops. With the tide ebbing I started with the down river strops as they were slack. The first issue was undoing the shackles and much to my surprise it was not as difficult as I anticipated, due to the greasing the threads.

Being careful not to drop the pin or shackle into the water I removed the old strop and replaced it with the new one then worked my way back to the boat and tied onto the new strop. With both new strops on I nipped up the shackle and locked it with a zip tie.

An addition to the strops this year is adding some pipe lagging made of closed cell foam in order that they float and to discourage the growth of aquatic life, mussels in particular and a protective plastic tubing to stop chafing.

Back onboard it was time to adjust the length of strop - I had ordered them a metre shorter, but still think they are too long. With the foredeck all set it was time for coffee and wait for the tide to turn.

Sat in the cockpit with coffee in hand I watched the tide move up river. A line of foam and bubbles moving up stream with larger ripples behind that line.

With the upriver strops loose it was time to change them. Same process, but with a much stronger tide running under the dinghy. Still not 100% happy with the length of the strops, but will adjust them over the next few weeks.

1700 hrs

Time to close the boat up and get back to shore, deflate the dinghy exercise and head home.

There had been quite a few boats returning from a sail, what was really nice to see. I still need to get the sails bent on before I let go the lines.

All times are UTC.

New Mooring at Saltash

Thursday 6^th July 2024

After way too long Aphrodite is back on the water! A busy few days at the yard, Ian the GRP man has done a fantastic job on the P bracket, but kept us waiting right up to the wire. Leaving Donald very little time to sort out propellers and get the engine running before launch.

Mark offered to assist with taking the boat down to the mooring, having left the cars in at Tamar River Sailing Club and Saltash Sailing Club, we being members of the clubs that look at each other across the Tamar, we jumped in the dinghy and went up the river at low water to take a good look at the channel. Only after setting off did we realise that we had planned a pub meal, but had no means of transport. Thankfully, a pub was further up river and we were able to arrive by boat on a very high tide. The ride up was like going up a jungle river with the trees touching the water. I must do that trip again.

0815 hrs
Duncan arrived and we set about reconnecting the exhaust pipework. That done filled a bucket full of water and turned the engine.She chugged and coughed, but did not fire up. No fuel getting to where is should be. After what seemed like ages she sparked into life and I could breath again.

0850 hrs
Shaw and Tom arrived with the tractor and boat lifter we were on our way to the slip. I walked slowly behind, having spent so long ashore it was hard to believe that we were going back in the water.

0910 hrs
Down on the slip I climbed on board and checked that all the through hulls were not leaking started the engine and let things settle - then a heart stopping moment as the engine died, a quick restart and a few extra revs had her going again. Clearly she had forgotten how to behave at tick over, or was very cold.

Mark tied the dinghy to the transom and the yard team pulled the bow round the end of the pontoon and off we went following the posts marking the route closely and after an hour arrived at the mouth of the Lynher to join the Tamar.

On entering the Tamar the wind was a southerly F4 gusting F5 and a 'bit lively', I was sure the last forecast I had seen said to expect to see a F3. We headed up to Mike's boat to drop his kit off when he had a lightbulb moment and suggested that we go alongside the Tamar River Sailing Club pontoon as he would not need to come back to his boat.

Kit dropped we untied and had the easiest pontoon departure ever, the wind blew us off, and headed over to the Cornish side to look at the mooring.

I had inspected the mooring the week before, but it was unsafe to do any work on it in the dinghy. Lines were both tangled and covered in mussels. Thankfully the lines on the north buoy were usable, but that would mean that when picking up the buoys the bow would need to be pointing north.

With wind over tide and the wind being the strongest force we had to use the south buoy to attach first and given the conditions that was not going to happen.

Plan B was to come alongside at Saltash, but with two boats already on the pontoon that was not possible, so we had a Top Gun 'buzz the tower' moment, racing past the pontoon giving everybody at the club a laugh.

Plan C was to return to TRSC and tie up to their pontoon while we waited for the tide to turn and the wind to drop - we headed back to the Devon side of the river.

On tieing up I spotted a somebody who had his boat near mine at Treluggan and greetings were exchange, Aphrodite was tied up alongside, Mark and I adjourned to the local pub, where I drunk strong tea and had lunch and we worked out a Baldric like cunning plan.

After lunch while waiting for the tide there was a knock on the hull and I spotted Tim grinning from ear to ear, welcomed him onboard and caught up with the gossip.

1415 hrs
We left the pontoon with a cunning plan to get the boat on the mooring. The wind had dropped to 15 kts and the sea flattened. I gave the helm to Mark and he motored the bow up to the south buoy as I hung over the bow with rope in hand ready to thread it through a shackle and get the boat attached. On the second attempt we were on.

The mooring had not been used for about three years and the lines were covered in mussels! Given the weight of mussels the lines had sunk and had tangled themselves up with each other forming a horrible mess. After a lot of heaving, cutting, knotting, grunting and a few choice swear words Aphrodite was attached to four lines and we had a mass of line, floats and mussels on the deck, but she looked happy to be back on the water.

The view from the cockpit

1545 hrs
After a well earnt cup of tea we sort of tided up, filled the dinghy and headed back for shore.

My next task is to sort out all the minor defects that we spotted with the engine after it had not been used for 18 months, a diesel leak at the primary filter, the water pump is leaking from the back, the water speed wheel is not turning and one section of the exhaust hose replacing with a longer length as the P bracket housing is much bigger. That should keep me out of mischief for a while.

It was good to see the boat back on the water.

All times are UTC.

	Underway	Distance	Avg SOG	Max SOG	Night Hours
Day:	2h 15m	8.10	3.55	5.00	0h 00m
Year:	2h 15m	8.10	3.55	5.00	0h 00m

Crew: Sandy Garrity (skipper), Mark Rodgers

Sunrise: 0413 hrs Sunset: 2031 hrs

Weather: The shipping forecast issued by the Met Office, on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, at 00:15 (UTC+1) on Thu 6 Jul 2023 for the period 01:00 (UTC+1) on Thu 6 Jul 2023 to 01:00 (UTC+1) on Fri 7 Jul 2023 .

Plymouth

Southwest 3 to 5, backing south 4 to 6 later. Slight or moderate. Mainly fair. Good.