Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

[FairTmiddlin]

Might need one of them there Motion Stabilisers for each leg if it gets too rough

 

[Springsong]

I only need one. My parrot might need on though.

[BroadAmbition]

Of course with all this ere new fangled expensive HD stuff with us on the sea trip, any cock ups or foopars will no doubt be now broadcast in super HD quality 1080p or some such like (No idea what I'm on about as per the norm).  So, one of us other than Robin just needs to find out how to switch the camera on and record when the Rascal is on the helm in confined quarters and get our own back!

Griff

[grendel]

let him helm into Ramsgate and we can capture it from the shore, its a nice narrow entrance with only a few metres of depth.

[BroadAmbition]

'Let Him' ??   - there is no 'Let' what with him being the owner and all.

Next time owt looks dodgy, I'll take myself off for a standeasy and engage my cloaking device!

Griff

[grendel]

the other thing about ramsgate is a hard left after you go through the inner entrance - there is a sand bar straight ahead at 0.9m, so not a lot of spare room, despite appearances

[grendel]

like this:-

[LondonRascal]

I am wondering if that is an 'auto route' within the Navronics App Peter? I like how Navronics alerts you to dangers such as this case the narrow channel and water depths in red with the warning triangle.

What the above image does not show is the outer harbour - so you come in then have to enter to your right the inner harbour and marina area. I had a look on Google Maps and the channel seems clear enough, it is a case of getting it bang on centre though!

The below would be a rough idea of my preferred course - keeping well away from wind or current pushing me to the shallows on the starboard side and providing ample time to line up for the dredged channel into the inner harbour.

[Bound2Please]

How Ramsgate harbour has changed since I used to fish from there in the 60's early 70's. All what  is now the outa harbour never existed then.

[grendel]

i would keep closer to the west pier lighthouse side, its shallower near the other arm at low water,

though I think you will be coming in on a dropping tide, with quite a few hours left to drop:-

[JamesLV]

I'm gutted I'm going to miss the Brighton stopover, it's my birthday on Friday and we're out with Ems' parents on Saturday night!

Hope all goes well though lads!

[FairTmiddlin]

4 hours ago, BroadAmbition said:

'Let Him' ??   - there is no 'Let' what with him being the owner and all.

Next time owt looks dodgy, I'll take myself off for a standeasy and engage my cloaking device!

Griff

He Who Navigates into Port pays the fees

Can see a hoard of Yorkshire men (those wit long pockets an T' short arms ) hiding in all parts of the boat

Can you just imagine it customs come on board to Wardrobes full of Men talking in funny languages

 

[BroadAmbition]

Not wrong!    Hopefully there will be local chippys at Yorkshire prices adjacent to the marinas we berth in so we can get our evening nosebags, complete wi mushy peas!

Team Indy - Northern contingent (All Tykes) will be ready in all respects come Thursday morning, down on t trains to Guz.  Yet again we will be outnumbering the Southern contingent, this time four to one although it is rumoured there are two southern passengers accompanying us for the Guz to Weymouth Leg.   Then there is a Norfolkian furriner joining us on the Ramsgate to Brundall leg apparently.    Bring it on, only 2 x sleeps to go.

My MrsG has been over to Tennerife with some of her girly friends, she arrives home tomorrow so I should see her tomorrow after 1800.  Like ships passing in the night once more (Pun intended of course)

Griff

[tonplus]

I used to maintain the lift arm barriers on the port of Ramsgate, they stopped using the port for ferries but still had the occasional survey vessel turn up.  May be they would let you moor up in one of the old ferry docks if it gets too tight in the marina??

 

[grendel]

there was a very good chippy just across the road last time I went - its even named after me:- the  inner harbour is to the left (you can just see the masts).

[grendel]

10 minutes ago, tonplus said:

I used to maintain the lift arm barriers on the port of Ramsgate, they stopped using the port for ferries but still had the occasional survey vessel turn up.  May be they would let you moor up in one of the old ferry docks if it gets too tight in the marina??

 

there is room for the border force seeker inside as google street view shows it on the west pier.

[tonplus]

there is room for the border force seeker inside as google street view shows it on the west pier.

They used to have a horrible porta cabin on the port, such a shame when all the ferry's and the cargo stuff stopped. Last time I was there it was like a ghost town. 2016.


Sent from my Moto C Plus using Tapatalk

[LondonRascal]

 

Day Four:

All good things have to come to an end, and here is the final part of this series which covers Independence's preparation for her passage to Great Yarmouth (well Brundall but that is inland rivers so I will stick with the salty stuff for now) and first up is the we finally get to launch the Williams RIB.

Before we launched it though there was more work to be done onboard and in the water - Dan suited up and prepared to dive under the boat to make a through inspection of her rudders, propellers, hull, antifouling and Anodes but also to get an accurate measurement of her draft.   A couple of issues were found once he had surfaced and the footage had been reviweed (and sorry such footage is on my laptop not saved with me here so I can't share that) but the following was found:

• Anti foul in very good state - very little growth
• Anodes in very poor state and require changing
• Port propeller has two 'chips' taken out of one of the blades
• Draft is 5ft 2"

Damn that is a lot of boat in the water - fine for Breydon and the Yare but will the Marina have enough depth? Well we will just have to see as everything is paid up and planned now. I will however need to get the boat lifted to have the propeller seen to and Anodes. I suspect Good Child's will be a good bet, they seem to allow work to be undertaken on the boat by your own hands and you pay for lift out and in, and hard standing etc - doing that will keep the costs down if they are able to lift a boat her hieght and weight of course.

Charlie had been over to the Marina Reception and got permission for us to moor at another berth in a different part of the Marina to launch the RIB. Launching is perhaps not the correct term, you see it takes a lot of time, care and effort to get said RIB into the water. We duly set sail for this berth, but I had to do this evolution from the inside helm - this caused me a great deal of issue and trepidation, so much so I had to get 'verbal' about this situation I found myself in an muttered "bloody hell" - with communication from all sides though it went very well. 

Once moored at the new berth, time was taken in preparation for the RIB launching,  which is posh talk for figuring out what was what with it, getting some lines to keep the RIB in check as it descended etc. Once that was all done it was time to hook the lifting straps up to the crane and away she went.  I was 'driving the crane' we had Pete and Brain down below to guide it with long lines and Charlie to check clearances and deal with things as the Jib of the crane moved around. It is a tight run thing between the top of the radar arch and crane Jib when one lifts the RIB out of the cradle and all this going on 15 odd feet up in the air with nothing to hold on to. Health & Safety would have a field day with the boat!

Once the RIB was clear of the upper Sundeck I began to move her out and over the port side into 'clear air' and as that happened so our list to port grew and grew - no creaking, straining or anything else to concern us however and before long the RIB was lowered and in the water (it floated too which was a bonus).  Now far from a lovely blue skied, sunny hot day where you can enjoy this to its full it was cold, raining and a nice breeze had developed.  I had not paid enough line out either so Charlie had to have a bit of a 'leap of faith' into the RIB and annoyingly with camera roiling he made it perfectly.  Not even a trip and a slip.

Time to start the engine - on the third attempt it fired into life - well, some of the cylinders did anyway, but after a bit of load and revs they all came to life and it was running perfectly smoothly. Of course this was serious work and it required Charlie to have a _play serious trial of the RIB to ensure it was all working. Let us just say the thing is like a rocket ship - zero to up on the plan in about 30 foot. I reckon I can get from Brundall to Norwich in all of 10 minutes lol.

Fun time over with it was time to get the RIB back up - which went a lot easier and faster - the rain now had got ever heavier and it was taking its toll on everyone - everything was wet, everything you touched was wet, you were wet - but we still needed to get fuel so it was time for the short hop to the fuel pontoon. I had figured out the change over from upper helm to lower and back so this short move was done from the upper helm - and all was behaving itself doing what I wanted when I wanted it to unlike our sea trials. We came alongside and after a short time a young woman was there to fuel her up - how much would it take? Well the lads all had their best guesses - I knew it would not be anything like I am used to when on the Broads.

During the fuelling process Charlie was down below checking the tanks I was up top seeing the litres flow (and cost rise) the thing is it just kept on going and then, all of a sudden the pump clicked off - phew! Under £300.00 I thought, but then Charlie announced with a cheery manner that no, the port side tank was filling up slowly but we would need to put more in on the port side. I put a brave face on and the fuel hose was duly moved over and the fuelling commenced once more. I could not bare to watch the counter on the fuel pump - so rather than simply look away I decided it was time to loose my glasses, and so I duly did by means of hitting my head on the side canopy and somehow dragging the glasses off as I backed away and into the water they went. The lady looked up and cheerfully told me "they were gone" - I acted all cool as if it was just a £1.00 pair of reading glasses that I had lost, but no it was my only pair and now anything much more than 6 feet in front of me was a blur.

Total litres used amount to 359 - and with the 60/40 split that worked out to £360.00 give or take a few pence. We then left the fuel pontoon, turned the boat and headed back to her home berth. I was getting more confident - all was going really well, and then Charlie joined me up on the fly bridge "leave the thrusters alone" and so it was we headed back to the berth and the crew were working like a well oiled machine - calls were coming up from below, Charlie would really this to me and say things like "Port ahead, starboard astern" and then "right all stop now port ahead" she came round and we backed into the berth all was going swimmingly. I then seem to have caught the super smooth throttle control that has barely any detent with my coat sleeve and I really do mean I must have brushed it, because the next thing I hear "woah woah stop" as the boat headed back into the pontoon. Thinking this was a repeat of yesterday where the command unit was doing its thing I just shouted "I have no control" and shut down the engines. It was only after we determined it was my error but it just re--firmed how much I dislike the controls that one can shift between ahead and astern with the lightest touch. There is simply no resistance.

Back alongside the crew finished their jobs, and we called it an early night (and thankful we were after the hours over the previous days we had put in). We headed back to the usual 'Weatherspoon' for our dinner but Pete had wanted to try something else for a tipple after - the Cider House - umpteen stupidly strong ciders were on offer, but thankfully a Cornish Ale was too for Charlie and I while Brian stuck to his Fosters. There was live music too - which usually would be a good thing but they had set the P.A up as if they were playing to an Arena and the volume was simply too loud, that said as the evening wore on the volume seemed to settle (or we got deaf) and despite a bad tooth ache that attacked Charlie, we all had a great evening. Pete especially.

You see Pete is adventurous when it comes to drinks, forget any mass produced rubbish it has to be fine, strong Ale or Cider and goodness knows what percentage his pints were but by the end of the evening he was unable to communicate with us - well he could, it was just we were not able to understand the new language coming from his lips.  Somehow we managed to get back to the Marina, down a flight of uneven, wet stone stairs, onto the pontoon, to the boat and onboard and all without he or anyone else ending up in the drink. Dan was staying onboard tonight - another adventurous one is he, deeply independence and enjoys nothing more than to pay a few hundred pounds and be dropped off in woodland with nothing more than a back pack for 4 or 5 days and be self sufficient - kill your own food, make your own shelter type stuff.

Suffice to say the film of choice that evening was about the US Coast Guard and rescuing ships in storms - proper good it was too, Charlie stayed awake for all of it, Pete on the other hand was now broken.  Once it was done and everyone returned to their cabins, it took Charlie a good ten minutes to get Pete up and in his berth - it did not last long, he got up and I found him lost in the galley having taken a wrong turn and ending up there instead of the heads.

Day Five:

And so it was here, the last morning - time for the last few odd jobs to be done, and the Yorkshire crew prepared to depart for their long drive home. I also was visited by a chap from Esper who are the local agents and installers  for Eberspacher. They were really pulling out all the stops to fit the visit in and if I wanted to go ahead get the heating system installed prior to our departure on the 2nd February. Well I have to say he was very good, but also they are clearly used to people who are not so, how to say "rugged" as the likes of those who have been brought up on hire boats. I wanted a heater - it did not have to be the best, biggest and most fancy but he was shocked "you don't want inline air duct silencers?" he asked, and whenever he came up with an issue about where a duct run may go or an outlet could be placed my attitude was 'well here will be fine' - I could tell Charlie was itching to either help out, direct, or otherwise generally sort the whole situation out. He did so disappearing into the engine room and when the issues popped up with how to run a duct from the engine room under the galley sink to go aft, the chap was unsure how they could drill a hole without casing too much of an issue to the plywood veneer under the sink - I did not mind, Charlie was typically to the point "Well I could do that with my multi-tool if I had it with me" - you got to love him.

Yes, if I had more time, we could get the parts save money on their procurement and then cut holes and pull ducting through ourselves and save costs. But that takes time, time we don't have and my view was 'doing something now is better than nothing' so went ahead - but then being me I could not help myself after the event tweak the install a bit more, so now it is a programmable LCD 7 day timer, a larger D5 heater and fully lagged ducting. They wanted a £2,000 deposit mind because they had no details of me and knew come 2nd Feb we are off - they did not want to pull put the stops, install the system only for me and the bot t sail away never to be seen of again without being paid. They have to date one thing left to do - drill through he side of the hull to mount the skin fitting for the exhaust - so they are on track to have it all in place come out departure.

With that sorted, it was time for everyone to say their goodbyes and head on home - Charlie, Pete and Brian duly left around midday, I stayed on to clear up, hoover, dust, strip beds and the likes so at least the next time I am down just before the rest of the lads arrive, there is less to do and the boat is clean and 'ready to go' as possible.

It seems strange to think all this time has come to an end in Plymouth - it had become a sort of 'second home' getting to know the area, the places to go and shops to visit and so on is coming to an end, and soon it will be the last journey down to the Marina and a whole new adventure to begin. How exciting!

[Guest]

Best of weather, luck and anything else required to team Indy, it is going to be quite an adventure for everyone involved I'm sure.

I may be up at the boat on Monday and so could in theory join Indy on some of the final river section but I will have to check the tides to see if I will be able to keep up as I usually run at 5mph against the Yare ebb, any more feels like straining the old girl

[SwanR]

Enjoying watching the videos and will catch up on number 8 tomorrow. What a fantastic group of people you have had helping you Robin. Good luck to you all for the trip to Norfolk. :)

[Lulu]

Loved the RIB testing. Boys and their toys sprang to mind as I watched this! 

Best wishes to all of team Indy on the next part of this fantastic adventure. Have a great time and looking forward to the next update. 

[Lulu]

Hope you have a first aid kit on board Robin.  That nasty gash you got reminded me of the time when we realised all we had on board was kitchen roll when hubby cut himself in the engine bay

[BroadAmbition]

Well,

What a cracking Captains Blog update eight, brilliant write up too.  Enjoyed both v. much. Some proper funny touches too.  Tks for the thankyou for the lads appreciated and proper humbling.  We only do this coz you are you.  It's good to be in your company too, and of course you are part of 'Our' Lads week group, a 'B.A' owner, in our social circle, sort of 'One of us' if that makes any sorta sense etc.

Anyroadup . . . . .  enough of all that.  Now, roll on Thursday, can't come quick enough

Griff

[LondonRascal]

Blimey, Griff  hope this soft emotional stuff you have come to the Forum with tonight is a passing trend - you're end up like me all soft and mushy - well no, I mean not really, you'd  need to eat more burgers an large breakfasts to get that bad

[vanessan]

Thoroughly enjoyable Captain’s Blog no 8, you are very fortunate to have such good mates Robin. Your write-ups are such that it is almost like being on the boat with you. Looking forward now to the ‘big trip’ report and video. (Have you ever thought about daily or weekly disposable contact lens? Very easy to wear and no worries about losing glasses in the drink!)

Good luck for this coming weekend everyone, fingers crossed for good weather for you. Take care but above all enjoy the experience.