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MrB

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    Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, BroadAmbition said:

    The Weymouth to Brighton trip although far from flat calm was easily manageable and we made our eta on time.

    The morning of Sunday 4th is where we encountered our first issue totally out of our control.  The admiralty chart and the Reeds almanac both agreed with each other stating ‘Maintained depth 2m’  We knew we would be departing at Low tide and 2m would be sufficient.  The fuelling pontoon / station was further round inside the huge breakwater up by the lock to the inner marina.  We had got ourselves up and ready early as we also knew that topping Indy’s tanks up would be more than a five minute job.  I thought it prudent to call the HM on the vhf enquiring as to the depth as we could plainly see the mud shoaling very close to the marked channel.  The HM informed us that we would have to wait till about 1000 if we wanted to move round for fuel or alternatively 0900 if we wished to proceed to sea.  Brighton Marina it turns out do not maintain a dredged channel depth to 2m at all as stated.

    Nowt for it then, after an early ‘Call the Hands’ we all trooped off to Wetherspoons for a full English as one does for the princely sum of £3:50 plus as much coffee as one desired.  Then bimbled round to the local supermarket for supplies with all of us forgetting it was Sunday morning and nowt was open, apart from a petrol station so we made do with what they had to offer.

    We slipped Indy’s mooring lines at around 1000 and made our way round to the fuelling station only to find a large rag-n-stick alongside waiting for water depth to increase.  This was another delay. I had to hop off onto the pontoon and kindly inform them that we needed fuel and could they wait elsewhere? Non to happily they moved off and sat in mid channel.  Fuelling Indy took an age.  By the time we had completed, slipped, secured the upper deck for sea obtained permission to proceed etc it was approaching 1200.  We were well behind schedule now.

    Once clear of Brighton it was throttles down, I was doing my calculations with regards to eta at Ramsgate, we would now be arriving in the dark with low water approaching, not good.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if I was familiar with the pilotage into Ramsgate harbour but to my knowledge I had only been there once before and that was 26 years ago.  Still we would just have to deal with it in due course.

    It was after passing Beachy head that the sea state really picked up.  The wave height steadily increased to around 8ft i would guess, not so much of an issue but it was a short swell with sharp peaks that was making itsen felt, it was getting uncomfortable and more violent by the minute.  No option but to reduce speed to deal with it.  The film footage / photo’s you saw taken by Nigel and Grendel, we were only making around 9/10kts SOG at best, though probably more through the water.  I knew that this was putting our eta at Ramsgate even further behind with the real possibility that we would now arrive at smack on Low water but there was no way we could make any better progress in the sea state we were dealing with.  As we pushed on and altered course as one does, the direction of the sea changed from being directly on the bow to more on the Stbd bow.  So as well as the bow / anchor forging into the peaks and dumping green water on the foc’sle it increased the roll as a result, Joy and glee, we were as badly burnt as scolded.  In the snow/rain storms visibility kept reducing significantly too.

    My crew fazed? – not a bit of it.  I knew they would be fine with this otherwise I wouldn’t have picked them for this kind of trip in the first place.  I always knew that this sort of situation was likely to happen at this time of year.  It was getting hard work keeping on ones feet and my regular engine room rounds were somewhat challenging.  The fwd bilge pump indicator kept sticking on with the threat of burning out the motor.  The blasted float switch kept getting thrown vertical and stopped there even though the bilge was only slightly wet.  It was probably never designed to be vertical!  Added to that some clown of a boat builder had mounted the float switch lower down than the pump. So if there was enough water to lift the switch, the pump was still sitting dry.  I put a weight on the float switch – that cured that issue of saving the pump running dry but meant if we did have a water ingress the pump could not now operate. This meant of course regular checking of the fwd bilge, just another issue to deal with then.  Going fwd with the amount of pitching we were experiencing and lifting deck plates was an adventure. 

    I was keeping a crafty eye on our resident crabfat too as this sort of passage in this sea state was an unknown to him and would he deal with it ok? Mentally he would lap it up and would not stop or give in, but would his stomach rise to the challenge? No worries about our submariner or the Wizard.  Robin however was a different entity and went into shut down mode.  It was understandable as he would never have been in this situation before or experienced anything like this.  The best place for him was aft in the master cabin.  I kept popping in reassuring him that his boat was fine, the crew were looking after Indy and she would in turn look after us. The crew were dealing with the situation in hand.

    Indy was fine too.  She was handling the sea state and shrugging off even the now more regular rogue waves that she pounded through.  Nothing was coming loose (Well it did actually, the fwd berthing rope that was tied onto the cleats – Howard dealt with that one) or was breaking, the water tight integrity was to the good.  The engineering department was purring along just as it should do.  The crew however were now under no illusions that they were not on a Sunday afternoon cruise down the Yare, far from it.  Our crabfat was doing just fine so we had four of us operating normally.  Upper deck rounds – Well that is to say venturing onto the sun deck (Sun deck? – should have been named monsoon deck) and fly bridge was not for the faint hearted but it had to be done.

    Robin came up for a word, could we alter our destination to Dover and get out of this sea state?

     

     

     

    Griff

     

     

    Good write-up, looking forward to the next installment. 

    • Thanks 1

    Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    6 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

    Please, Mr B, there is positively no need for continuing in this vain, especially that last sentence. Personally I welcome your input, in general, but that sour unpleasantness was uncalled for. 

     

    How unpleasant. I was just setting the record straight as everything on here is a little one sided and viewed through rose tinted glasses. 

    Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    10 hours ago, psychicsurveyor said:

    I get why stabilizers are not on Robins list,  when used,  Indy will be on the Broads with a few fair weather trips to sea.  For his planned use they are a waste of money.

    Robin was never advised to retro-fit stabs to his boat (£70k), he was advised to hold out and buy one that had them as they make it a much better boat! That was from people who have owned them or been on them unlike Robin. He knows better though.  As you say, the only time that boat will see the sea again is when he sells it so it's all irrelevant.

    • Sad 1

    Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    1 minute ago, JennyMorgan said:

    To be honest I think that you have insulted both Robin and Griff but there we go, time for my hot chocolate and cosy up to the wife. Tommorow is another day, hope to hear from you then.

    How have i insulted Robin and Griff? I find Griff a great guy, very funny on the videos and a very able sailor.....I look forward to his posts on the trip . I also like Robins blogs? Geez, hard audience here! 

    Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, psychicsurveyor said:

    Or it would give the doom mongers something else to pick at .

    In my eyes no. He (Griff) read the weather for the day and made an informed judgement on his ability, the boats and the crews. A write-up would be very informative on a cruise up that side of the coast in winter in a Trader. I have no doubt they had fun, it would be nice just to hear about it.

     

    Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    3 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

    In my days as an instructor it was offshore yacht master, not that that matters. 

     

    You shock me as an YM offshore instructor but that's your call. I have absolutely no doubts in Griffs ability, his take on the trip would be nice as that's all i wanted to hear, he and his crew did a great job and the write-up would be epic. It looked like a difficult trip and a write-up from the crew that actually did it would be fantastic. 

    Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, grendel said:

    But he did listen to the advice given by a very able seaman, who was skippering the boat for him, who he had chosen for his knowledge of the waters and experience. and crew who had in the past visited and sailed the various parts of the route he was taking. Trust me when you sail with Griff, the first thing you get every day is the safety briefing, apart from being the owner, Robins main task on the trip was the blog. His crew was chosen to leave him that opportunity.

    I have worked on maintenance of Broad Ambition with most of the members he had on the crew, second best is not an option.

    He was lucky to have Griff on-board....imagine if he didn't?  It was an easy enough** trip for him and the other RN guy but at the cost of the rest of the crew either being ill or leaving the trip!!   ** Griff and the other RN guy can deal with these conditions, they are used to it but the rest of the crew?   I'm going to leave this one here now as i'm flogging a dead horse, ocean going and caravan club springs to mind.

    Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, Polly said:

    Oh dear! Robin had a highly competent skipper on this project, with North Sea Patrol experience. It was carefully planned, and yes the sea threw a wobbly which pushed the limits, but they were going to get through because his skipper and some crew were equal to the task. The boat had been prepped and tested  competently too.

    Geezz, the boat didn't get a full shake down, it hadn't been used in ages and didn't have full sea trials nor did it have a survey! His head went totally (massive anxiety attack) (( I do not hold that against him, i know how it feels)) and half the crew were sea sick, even seasoned sailors and you're telling me this was a well executed trip? Lots of rose tinted glasses on here and maybe that's good for a blog. I hope he and his girlfriend get to love the boat again after a harrowing experience. 

    All this was pre-Dover and the only reason i have posted here was to get the best (read hardest) part of the trip from the crew that actually did it!!!  

    Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    9 minutes ago, Wyndham said:

    I'll have a cup, NATO standard.

    I'm not sure you realise the irony in your post.

    You said...."Robin chose to ignore that which is cool"....so why bother mentioning it?

    You then said (again)..."Robin chose to ignore that which is cool"...so why bother saying it?

    There is no proof that any of his decisions led to his anxiety attack.

    AFAIK he was never in charge and wasn't lucky with his crew.

    FWIW I had you down as one of the few not the many.

    My point was he chose to ignore every bit of advice he was given from very able seamen that are commercially endorsed and now we see the results. Argue it if you must but safety is worth more than a bloggers blog. 

    Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    23 minutes ago, Wyndham said:

     

    "As far as YBW is concerned, I've read all that.  They treated you awfully at first and TBH (for most of them, not all) it seems like more of a willy waving contest over there."

    Not at all "willy waving". Many of the people who gave advice on that thread  know the Traders downfalls, it rolls heavily and is a better boat with stabs. Robin chose to ignore that which is cool, it's his boat.He said he likes it to roll. Many of the people who questioned his choice to set sail in such bad weather with a "new boat to him" have YM offshore endorsements but that's ok too, as he was in charge. However, that led to him having a anxiety attack (yes it is that) where his body shut down and he could no longer be in charge. He was lucky he had a crew that could handle the conditions HE put them in !!  I guess it will be a good blog though. Cup of tea anyone?

     

    Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    23 minutes ago, deebee29 said:

    We’ve just noticed the link in the above post 

    Please note the link in this post has been removed as it contravenes forum guidelines

    Cross-forum links 

    Due to a long-standing arrangement between forums, links to other Norfolk Broads forums will be automatically moderated by the forum software. Any links via URL-shortening services which ultimately resolve to such a site will also be removed.

     

    Fair enough, but YBW isn't a Norfolk Broads forum, far from it. Your rules so all cool.  

    • Like 1

    Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

    What the YBW doesn't know of course, is the relationship between Robin, Griff, Broad Ambition and all their friends.

    Griff has described himself as the skipper and I think that is fair in the circumstances. Was it a delivery? Yes in theory, but the owner was also on board. I think the way they inter-acted, as to who was responsible for what, was most reasonable.

    We do know the details of the setup, Robin has told us all. We or I, just would like to hear about the last part of the trip (Dover onward)  when Robin wasn't on board from someone who was. Please don't think anyone is being disrespectful as that definitely not the case.

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1

    Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    3 minutes ago, Ricardo said:

    The way this is being played out on the YBW by some is that Griff is a delivery skipper and Robin is merely the owner who just happened to be onboard .

    For what my thoughts are worth ( which is usually less than  absolutely nothing ) I would be choosing to steer well clear of it other than to put the record straight on the situation .

    That isn't the case, we know Doug wasn't a delivery skipper and that it was a bunch of friends moving a boat. It's just nice to hear about trips like this from the people that actually did it and not second hand. That was also not a dig at Robin, i enjoy reading and watching his blogs.

    • Like 2

    Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    10 hours ago, Ricardo said:

    I didn't think the bit about Doug ( brundall navy) was interesting more disrespectful , that said I didn't read all 25 pages .

    That said your right Peter you have to trust your boat and its systems come to think of it .

    Me quoting Doug on the other forum was in no way mocking him or trying to be disrespectful, I used the snippet to show a "First hand" description of the bad conditions from someone who was on the boat and a very experienced sailor. 

     

    • Like 4
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