So much for more frequent updates..... The summer on the south coast of England this year has been very poor and early Autumn was no better. This plus the usual demands of family life meant we didn't manage to get out on "Artemis of Wareham" again after returning from Lymington

So much for more regular updates..... The weather has been so poor over the last few months - or at least when we have been free between University visits with our daughter and all that goes with families generally - that we have not been out on the boat since returning from Lymington. Unfortunately not a lot to say therefore. "Artemis of Wareham" is now high and dry in the yard at Ridge Wharf, Wareham. Her underside looks pretty good which suggests the copper coating is working - I must try and find out what it is. In the meantime we have ticked off a few boxes 1. Greenham Regis replaced the VHF aerial on the mizzen mast.It was waterlogged all the way down. Brilliant reception now. I have bought a new Standard Horizon radio that is also an AIS receiver and so far I am impressed. 2. Tried to sort the depth sounder with a "new" sounder from e-bay but that doesn't seem to work either whereas a test sender from Greenham's worked fine. More to be done here. 3. The pilothouse is virtually done, new 240v sockets, heating air in & outatkes installed

So much for more regular updates..... The weather has been so poor over the last few months - or at least when we have been free between University visits with our daughter and all that goes with families generally - that we have not been out on the boat since returning from Lymington. Unfortunately not a lot to say therefore. "Artemis of Wareham" is now high and dry in the yard at Ridge Wharf, Wareham. Her underside looks pretty good which suggests the copper coating is working - I must try and find out what it is. In the meantime we have ticked off a few boxes 1. Greenham Regis replaced the VHF aerial on the mizzen mast.It was waterlogged all the way down. Brilliant reception now. I have bought a new Standard Horizon radio that is also an AIS receiver and so far I am impressed. 2. Tried to sort the depth sounder with a "new" sounder from e-bay but that doesn't seem to work either whereas a test sender from Greenham's worked fine. More to be done here. 3. The pilothouse is virtually done, new 240v sockets, heating air in & outatkes installed 1. A significant leak into the forecabin

In August we managed to get a week on board - my wife, daughter and I. Our son was on a remote Welsh island counting, weighing and ringing fledging Manx Shearwaters. We went back to the Solent but this time pottered a bit more. The weather was mostly dry but very windy. We went to Yarmouth first:

There was a heck of a tide ebbing as we came alongside and a F4+ westerly wind which made the manoeuvre difficult. Having had 2 engines for 10 years I am finding the one now very limiting and she has serious prop walk as well. (I may succumb to the whine of a bow thruster this winter!)The photo shows us alongside at Hayle's Yard. It is a lovely spot and we love Yarmouth so we had a great couple of days. We then moved on to Newtown Creek. Blowing up again this time edging to F6 as you can see from the boats straining at the leash.

Thankfully we were able to take up one of the visitor buoys so didn't have to worry about cable lengths in the spring ebb. Newtown used to be a bustling port and the major town on the island but it was ransacked by the French and never recovered. The silting up associated with so many south coast inlets has finally determined its future as a nature reserve and popular resting place for Solent boaters. The next day we went along the coast to Cowes for a lunchtime sojourn before moving back westwards to Lymington. A Thursday evening arrival allowed us to enjoy a lovelly evening in The Haven before a front came through. I had made an appointment with Greenham Regis, the marine electronics engineers to investigate the numerous problems we were having with the instruments: the main VHF aerial cable has water damage so that from Lymington Solent Coastguard describe the strength of signal as "weak but readable" whereas using the emergency aerial it was "loud and clear", the anemometer display gets stuck on 92deg and 144deg even though the wind vane rotates freely at the top of the main mast, the depth readout had been intermittent at best and then gave up completely and the log showed us doing 15kts even though we were pottering along at 7kts. I am pleased to say that the Garmin 551S GPS that I bought 2nd hand on ebay and installed is working beautifully and with the Blue Chart chip is a really clever piece of kit. On the Sunday we had to catch the tide at Hurst Point and then make our way with the tide but against a strong F5 to F6 westerly. That meant a good, but short, reach from the Lymington starter latform up to Hurst so we set all sails but knowing that it was the day of the Cowes Torquay Cowes and Cowes Poole Cowes powerboat races and that they were using the North Channel past Hurst and that it would be a dead beat across Poole Bay we dropped the sails at Hurst (sorry, purists but we had to get to the mouth of the River Frome by 1600 to get enough water to go up river and as it was we went aground briefly in the mouth).

As we were coming through the North Channel adjacent to Hurst Spit the latter race was well advanced and the boats were using the North Channel to exit Christchurch Bay and get into the Solent for the final run back to Cowes. These two came past us on either side...

We anchored for lunch in South Deep, Poole Harbour and then made our way home. We had enjoyed our first proper week on board and learned a lot about our new boat. The two "bad bits" were the leaking forecabin and the problem of not having anywhere to sit securely when sailing when on the aft deck. Our reach to Hurst Castle had put Artemis well into a heal and it highlighted that neither helm nor crew had adequate seating or indeed anything to brace against. Heading into the lumpy sea of Poole Bay follwoing days of strong westerlies meant movements could be quite violent and so again the lack of anything secure to sit on / brace oneself against was a severe limitation to enjoying the outside helm. This is a bit of a conundrum because one of the things I liked about the older NC33's vs the modern boats is the fully open aft deck. What we learned is that is great on a mooring / at anchor but a problem when at sea. We are going to have to see what we can do to solve the latter without losing the former. We love our new galley, saloon and pilothouse, we love the space we have in the various cabins, we love her sea kindliness. One final note. We have at last decided on a new name.... our NC33 is now registered officially as "ARTEMIS OF WAREHAM".... it's a long story but we're happy with it. Call Sign 2FZM6 MMSI 235095538 I promise not to wait 4 months for the next update.

In August we managed to get a week on board - my wife, daughter and I

So, apart from working on the boat, have we actually used her much? Well to be honest not as much as we would like for various reasons mostly associated with children. At the end of July I sailed her with a friend from Poole to Lymington so that we could watch the J Class yachts race. The family drove to Lymington for the weekend and we had a lovely weekend.

They were stunning. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, the air was heavy with low cloud and the water hugely churned up by the spectator boats.

Anyway, we had a good day, lunch just off Newtown Creek, then the J Class and then a run ashore in Lymington. David (crew Dartmouth to Weymouth) and his wife came along as well. My wife drove home on the Sunday and I sailed the boat home with the children as crew. What wind there was, on the nose, so we motored without even tha sails up I am afraid.

I need to be a bit more diligent with this blogging thing, sorry. Well it's the end of the first week in September and unless we are very lucky there will be few opportunities this year to go out on the boat, but we will see. We have made some progress though, for example the galley and saloon are all but finished now. David stripped out the old galley completely and installed a new one. The only things

missing now are the drawer fronts.

This is a work in progress shot of the new seat in the pilothouse. It is finished now and works well so I must upload some new photos.

These photos show the much brighter interior after painting the tired plywood. It really was like the black hole of Calcutta before. Loads more jobs to do and loads more done so I will take more photos next time I am at the boat.

The real work begins

Right, the boat is home and we have about 5 weeks to complete some key refurbishment jobs before exams are over and the family can start to relax. The first task was to commission a stainless steel man to fabricate a boarding ladder and to raise the height of the aft guard rail. The former is vital, her sides are high and access from a dinghy let alone from the sea after swimming needs a long and strong ladder. The work on the rails is a matter of safety. As they stand at the moment they are just at knee height so that if thrown against them by a sudden movement of the boat, instead of keeping you on board they are liable to do the opposite and actually have the effect of tripping you up.

It is an odd design feature bearing in mind ours is Hull 518 and a lot were built in the same way after ours. I have no reason to suppose that the Finns are particularly small in stature (Nauticats are Finnish boats)and have heard of no reported incidents arising from this design feature! However the surveyor drew attention to it quite rightly and the insurers have asked for it to be altered. We are going to add 6 inches in height and then lead a cable at half height to go some way to filling what is then a big gap. We will also add a rail to take the liferaft cradle. Fortunately I came across some lovely examples of Keith's work on a Nelson 34 that used to be based at Ridge Wharf. Having met Keith on board a couple of times we have agreed on an excellent design for the ladder which means it can be used for either side gangway

and stored over the stern. We are talking about adding a bowsprit but that might have to await time and money. We have also booked a carpenter to start work inboard. Dave did most of the work on MonArk taking her from workboat to comfortable cruiser. Most of the jobs on the new boat are simpler because they are discrete. He should be able to start and finish each job before moving on to the next and most are carpentry rather than plumbing or electrical engineering.

Sorry about the grotty photo, the cameraphone must have too many fingerprints on the lens. This is part of the wheelhouse and comprises a rather unpleasant thin spongy material stuck to plywood and framed in teak. The first job is to strip out the old spongy headlining, lay some extra cables, insulate, put back a new ply layer that will be grooved and painted and finish again with new teak. The second job is to turn this seat into an "L" shape and in so doing create a single bunk that will run down the side of the wheelhouse.

The bunk part will be interchangeable with a step in the space immediately beneath the wheelhouse door. More modern 33's do this as a matter of standard design - not always with detailing to our taste but we like the principle.

Our task is more complicated because the old engine hatches are wider and are underneath where the bunk will be but we have a solution with the bunk hinging upwards. If time allows we will move on to the galley and aft heads - watch this space!

Home at last!

We got there eventually - our home port that is!

We left our berth at Weymouth at exactly 11.30 BST, Bella's first time at the helm of the new boat whilst I brought in the fenders etc. Not enough wind again for the sails initially but about 1/2 hr out we were out of the lee enough for the north westerly to reach us. Only about 10kts over the deck so about 15 over the water but enough to fill the genoa and with the mizzen enough to improve the motion. Our CTS (course to steer) was 99 and the COG (course over the ground) was averaging about 92 - the tidal set was more than a match for our leeway from the wind. Cloud cover was about 35% and mostly high and thin but in the distance we could see occasional low, heavy rain showers.

We headed for the inshore route around St Aldhem's head with a view to arriving at 13.30 BST but I failed to take account of the range firing. It is not normally a factor for us because we tend to travel at weekends or in the summer when the range is closed. We got as far as Durdle Door, about .75nm off shore when we were intercepted by the range patrol boat. He told us they had just reduced the restricted area to 1.5nm off shore so we headed slightly east of south on 75 for about 1nm.

At 12.50 BST we were able to head east again on 110 for the next 50 mins. At 13.40 St Aldhelm's head bore 15 degrees at a range of about 3nm and we turned further north onto 53 degrees with the tide still pushing us east and heading for Durlston Head. Thus far the tide had improved our SOG by about 2kts.

We could see a big squall following us but always heading in land slightly more quickly than it was heading east. The low cloud and rain could be seen obscuring the view of the shore - working its way from Lulworth to about half way between St. Aldhem's and Anvil Point. As we turned round Durlston head it seemed to get lost behind the land, the sun came out and stayed out for the rest of the journey home.

Staying just to the east of Peverill Ledge buoy and then close to Old Harry we still got a boost from an increasing westerly wind so that over the deck the wind rose to about 25kts on a broad reach. This meant the approach to and passage down the Swash Channel were much more fun and we only luffed up just outside the entrance to get the genoa down because it would have flogged unhappily as we turned towards the west to pass the chain ferry. We passed through the entrance at about 15.25 BST just 5 minutes short of 4 hrs from harbour mouth to harbour mouth - 30nm or so, just about 8kts avge - logging 6kts but plus 2kts of tide.

The familiar run through the harbour is of course similar for both Crosswinds and MonArk because of the harbour speed limits - about 1hr from mouth to mooring. Bella helmed part of the way to let me tidy the sails and put out the fenders. At Ridge our mooring is full of boats passing from launching crane to their swinging moorings in Poole Harbour so we have a temporary berth alongside the yard office's catwalk.

A great day for me, first voyage for Bella and all in all a very pleasing journey for Crosswinds.

Now we MUST get that name sorted so that I can get on with registrations etc.

Looking lonely in Weymouth

Crosswinds is on the far side, courtesy of Weymouth outer harbour webcam.

From Dartmouth to Weymouth - second attempt a week later

Crosswinds moored at the quay in Weymouth

All in all the contrast with last week's aborted journey couldn't be starker. I collected David at just after 11pm. We reached Noss on Dart Marina at 0100 and squeezed ourselves and various bits of "stuff" into the dinghy for a single trip. Crosswinds was cold. Rather than do jobs straightaway, David and I tried to sleep. Up again at 0400, coffee, hot cross buns and jobs in preparation. Many of the jobs were associated with battening down things that aren't supposed to be mobile but managed it the previous week. At one time, last week, David was juggling my laptop in his left hand, the wheel in his right and trying to retain his balance on one foot whilst I was holding the sliding door from the wheelhouse that shouldn't have come off its runners. This time I put the laptop on one of those non-slip lattice mats and it proved to work very well. I velcroed various other objects.

At 0525 we started to try and cast off. Unfortunately the tide was so strong and it had dragged us over the line between the two mooring buoys. We tried everything that we could including climbing down to the water's edge and trying to grapple it with a boat hook. In the end I had to take the risk and edge slowly forward with the wheel hard over and slowly we edged clear.

The next 40nms or so were pretty uneventful. We couldn't sail on this leg because the wind was dead astern - almost a true westerly - and its speed over the deck didn't even disturb the ensign let alone fill a sail. There was a slight swell coming from our Starboard quarter passing under us and coming out at the port bow. This created a small corkscrew effect but not enough to turn us green.
We were a bit too close to the Bill (2.79nms) 6 hrs later but bang on time. The race bubbled up a bit around us but we edged further out to sea as we passed and at 5nms we turned North East towards the East Shambles buoy.
As we edged round the East Shambles it became clear just how much our own speed through the water in the same direction as the wind had reduced the apparent wind speed. Now our Nor' Nor' Westerly course turned our forward motion into an advantage increasing the speed of the wind over the surface of the sail and making the sails profile much better than they would on wind alone.

This reach showed the strong stabilising effect of wind on sails.

Throughout the journey the autopilot has functioned well in the long term ie it followed the course to steer but it did so to an accompaniment of far too much yaw.

(David looking steely at the helm as we crept out of the mouth of the Dart, wary of a repeat of last week's swell.)

Just east of Weymouth harbour pier we luffed up and dropped the sails.

Coming alongside in the outer harbour basin went perfectly, David jumped ashore and after I had called home asking for a lift we spent a final hour tidying our lines and sorting out below decks.

I am hoping to do the final leg to Ridge, Wareham this coming Wednesday.

...... back to Dartmouth

Well that's it really. It was clear that the ENE wind F5 gusting to F6 over night had set up these waves. The Devon coast being at the wrong end of Lyme Bay for such a wind and though the wind had eased to F3 to F4 the waves hadn't and were at odds with the flooding tide. The wind was due to ease further in the afternoon but I didn't think it likely the sea would flatten much and we were on a tight schedule to do the whole journey to Wareham. Even if we cut the journey short at Portland or Weymouth it would still mean 6 hours and it was unlikely to improve much unless in the lee of "The Bill". Making an executive decision, I took the helm back and turned the boat to reverse her course, doing a bit of surfing as we did so.

Creeping back into the river mouth the sea calmed and we were back in the idyllic and tranquil setting that belied completely the soaking we had just received. After a brief stop at the ferry pontoon we returned to our "trot" mooring up river opposite the Noss Marina.

To finish with another literary allusion - we licked our wounds and prepared to fight another day.

Dartmouth to..... oh dear!

The best laid plans......may have lost the battle but not the war.... not a retreat, just an advance in the opposite direction and other literary allusions can not change the facts - we bottled it, within sight of the Mewstone, let alone the Day Mark. To be fair though, it was 'orrible.

We tiptoed past Dartmouth as she cooked breakfast, sauntered home from early Communion, started listening to Steve Wright's "Sunday Love Songs". Opposite the Castle Hotel, favourite haunt of Midshipmen and their girlfriends, Bella took a webcam picture and posted it on my facebook page. Given such an idyllic start we were ill-prepared for the next bit. The first portent was the size of the swell as we rounded "One Gun Point" to starboard. I was thinking, "is this just the funnelling effect of the river mouth in an easterly, or what". It was an "or what"! Once clear of the shelter of Froward point to port the swell turned to waves, not breaking waves in fact very few white caps which is why Bella's photo on my Facebook page looks so benign, just deep troughs with high peaks.

I am no Atlantic sailor and have only done the channel a few times so I know my limitations and this was hammering right on that particular door. We rapidly left the outside helm position and transferred to the pilothouse where David took over. I crawled around on deck battening down the few things that were loose for our casual jaunt in the sun across Lyme Bay. I got soaked all that way aft. I then went to the starboard pilothouse door meaning to shut it whilst I finished off on deck. I peered in to see Dave at the helm, feet planted firmly on the pilothouse sole (that's the floor) well over a meter apart, when he wasn't being thrown sharply to one side or the other, looking just the sort of helm you want in these conditions. Unfortunately, not knowing my own strength, somehow I lifted the door off its runners. I sat back on the deck, back to the rail, with the flaming door braced in my hands wondering what to do with it whilst bloody great waves broke over the bow showering me with water. As I said earlier, I know my limitations and I knew in David Cuff I had the right man to re-hang a sliding door in a seaway. I took the helm again and David did his "F Cuff & Sons" professional trick of re-hanging a sliding door.

I should add a bit of detail and again emphasise that my ocean going sailing has been limited but the waves were about 10 to 12 feet from peak to trough and very short wavelength between the peaks. As a result the bow of our sterling Finnish moggie was digging deep into every other wave. Dave called out "is it always like this?", fair question, on the whole, and not matching the image I had conjured up for him. I had said that between a few jobs and a bit of helming he should bring a good book to idle away the sunshine hours on the aft deck in his deck chair - honestly! We had already got a pair of the collapsible chairs out on the deck and I had even been helming from one whilst going down river. (got to break off now - my son has cooked fajitas)

Dartmouth to Wareham

Going across the mouth of the Dart with Start Point in the distance

Passing the Royal Castle Hotel, Dartmouth (courtesy of their webcam)

Leaving our mooring, 30 minutes late, Naval College on our starboard bows

The River Dart just after dawn

Created with flickr slideshow.

The route

This is the route, about 75nms from river mouth to harbour mouth so actually about 50% further than Poole to Cherbourg.