East Coast Diary

[thirdmate]

Hi,

Spotted you and Kingfisher on your way upriver 12.00 Sat. looking good in the sunshine.

We were off to test the new furling chute. had a great sail and a very expensive pint at the Pier Hotel before dashing back to neptune to watch the rugby.

Fantastic weather, almost spring !!!!!

[thirdmate]

I love this site for checking who is where.

Waste hours of my life

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/#

Sad Andy

[pks1702]

Sorry we did not see you Andy.

Hope the Chute went well you will have needed it on Saturday as there was virtually no wind.

[pks1702]

Another fruitful weekend.

Kiki was lifted on Thursday for a splash slap and dash.

Thanks to David being down last week we have one of the best seats in the house; it is very distracting given there is always something happening in the lock coupled with folks stopping for a chat.

From the Cockpit

Other Way

Seascape' from Brundall Bay (previously of Broom where we met them) recognised Kiki and wandered round for a chat. Another sea going boat fed up with Broads 'bridge issues' now resides in Shotley having relocated a week ago. We also caught up with Phil & Carron on Saturday and had a very enjoyable evening.

During last year David and I acquired a Galvanic Isolater but rather than fit them both we decided to conduct a controlled experiment. David fitted his I left mine off so two boats using MG Duff Anodes mooring next to each other in the same marina; we looked forward to the results.............. The results were quite significant. Kiki's anodes were in significantly poorer condition with the Shaft anode completely gone, Kingfisher on the other hand had fared much better with anodes which can probably remain in place.

Kiki Anodes

Kingfisher Anodes

Last year we had our hull polished and finished with A Glaze Ceramic Sealer it has been excellent. Apart from rinsing the hull with water we have not touched it for a year and it still looks good. A very quick run over with some 3M Restorer/Wax and she is already looking as good as last year; that Sealer is certainly good stuff.

[Guest]

Perry Kiki is looking lush as always every time i see her in a pic i think man i bet she can shift

Jonny

[senator]

How is the anode wear going Perry, did you get to the bottom of it?

[pks1702]

Kiki is no ocean greyhound Jonny it has an SD hull so mid teens is a comfortable speed but we can generally keep going at this speed even when it cuts up a bit; flat out with a clean behind she might just make 20 knots. She is 7.5 tonnes loaded though so this does not help.

Ian - The Anodes on both Kingfisher and Kiki had worn pretty quickly (as do those on other craft in the marina) so the reason for conducting an 'experiment' was to see if a Galvanic Isolator would work. As indicated above the Anodes on Kingfisher with the Isolater fitted have fared much better than those on Kiki which has not got hers fitted; we will remedy that now the experiment is completed.

[pks1702]

One of our Yacht Club members who is on the Harwich Harbour Authority Leisure Committee was telling us about the changes at Felixstowe and the size of the new Maersk Container ships

The first phase of the £250 million extension will open in a few months.

Maersk has signed a contract to buy 10 Triple-E ships which will be the biggest container ships afloat. They carry 18,000 standard boxes. They have an option to buy another 20.

Felixstowe will be able to cope with these ships which are 30% bigger than the current 14,000 box super ships.

Only three ports in Europe will be able to handle the Triple E's - Rotterdam, Bremerhaven and Felixstowe.

These ships are similar to the Emma Maersk which calls regularly but will be wider - 23 rows across.

The Triple E's will have low Co2 emissions and half of most vessels.

Rod can probably confirm this but they reckon that from the bridge they will not be able to see anything under a kilometre in front of the vessel...... clearly wise not to get under its feet.

[pks1702]

They will be hell of a beast to handle in the confines of the Thames I would have thought Rod; Felixstowe will be a doddle in comparison.

Will you need to do ant simulation work to get used to the windage of these huge things or is this 'all in a days work'

[pks1702]

It was a tongue in cheek comment

When I saw the announcement I looked from our mooring across to Felixstowe counted the number of containers high on the current large Maersk ships and then looked where 10 high would go

Thanks for the background on the training - Dubai is getting a bit warm now anyway Rod so you don't want to be going there

[Guest]

This arrived at Felixstowe late Saturday evening and dwarfed the other ships moored up.

Phil and Carron

[pks1702]

Hi Phil

Circa 400 metres long...............Pretty sure it is this one http://www.emma-maersk.info/

It has had its problems though

[Guest]

looks like one of the men on the job forgot the rule of no smoking

jonny

[pks1702]

With SWMBO having had yet another operation potentially being bounced about was not really an option so the weekend was a trip up to Ipswich in company with Kingfisher and Shotley new resident Binky.

No need to say how good the weather was...... but it is only two years ago we had snow at Easter so a very welcome change. Ipswich was pretty busy but as ever we were 'snugly' fitted in with Phil & Carron creating a new berth!

On the basis a picture is worth a thousand words.................. p&s camera so apologies for the quality.

In the words of Harry Enfield "you don't want to be doing that"

Fresh from Fairline Ipswich

Orwell real estate

Keeping an eye on things

Binky 'snug'

Phil deflowers his ship

A great Sunday Lunch at the Salt House

Had a really interesting chat over a glass of wine with Michael Emmett who we saw at the Heybridge Sea Festival two years ago. He is now based at Ipswich where work for restoring 'traditional' boats is more abundant than Maldon. If you are into traditional Gaff Rigged vessels there is nothing he doesn't know about sailing and building these.

Black Rose

http://www.traditionalcharter.co.uk/blackrose.html

Traditional East Coast welcome for a new resident .... day trippers gaze in awe

[Guest]

What fun. A huge thank you to crew of Kiki and Kingfisher for making our first trip out so special.

Phil and Carron

[pks1702]

Can you order weather like that every time

Hope you enjoy the rest of your break.

[Guest]

Weather as ordered, finally stopped blowing a hooley. Turbo shot so Shotley for Binky.

[Antares_9]

Turbo up the spout???? do you have a manual for the D Tronic Phil? I have a 800+ page PDF if you need it, I'll bung it on a drive and bring it Saturday if so.

[Hockham Admiral]

Hey Perry. Shame about the NE'ly winds for this weekend. If you see one of our launches going out I will give you a wave before I have to cling on for dear life

Rod

Rod, Hi

I guess it'll be the same when we go across Breydon heading for Acle at 16.00 on Sat afternoon!

An old sailing hand is coming with me but his lady-friend hasn't been on The Broads before............

[pks1702]

Yes Rod especially for you.... glad you appreciated it

You crossed our minds over the weekend as the N- NE wind was a constant 25-30 knots and we know what a horrible wind direction it is; hope all went OK.

[pks1702]

Plenty of sunshine this weekend but the N-NE wind was a constant feature with the mean around 25 knots and odd gusts up to 40 knots if you could get out of the wind it was pleasant but in it on the coast a bit chilly.

No chance of a trip out this weekend so after a 'family' visit on Friday it was time to fit the Galvanic Isolator to Kiki given the significant difference to the Galvanic action on Kiki v's Kingfisher; in hindsight the 'test' was rather too conclusive. As ever sincere thanks to David for his lead in this; I make a good spanner monkey though

Consumer Unit

Unit 'broken' off BUS bar

Shrunk Sleeved Connections

Nicely Housed in Flexible Protective Sleeving

In Situ

Finished

Griff Rhys Jones classic yacht Undina has been in the shed for some refurbishment and now complete. Even as a Mobo'er I can appreciate the lines of this craft.

You may remember it being featured in this:

With the wind continuing to blow and always liking where possible to view a new port before making an approach from the sea we had a trip up to Orford to have a look on Sunday. With more East in the wind it was blowing a hooley and consequently nothing was moving but it is well worth a visit being pretty quaint but encompassing a lot of history and a castle; further up stream is Aldeburgh. The entrance has not been fully charted this year yet and wind directions, tides and weather has got to be very settled for a visit but it is something on our 'to do' list.

Orford 'Big Sky'

Blowing!

[Guest]

Hi,

I have read your article with both Interest and a bit of Jealousy, I didnt get chance to go down to "Tango" over the holiday and seeing your photos reminds me of what I am missing, Sunny Weather, River, etc etc.

It is reports like yours that give so much pleasure to read, not all things going wrong, but a good trip instead, please continue to share with us, at my age 69 its nice to live adventures through others as well

[pks1702]

Ore Entrance

http://www.eastcoastrivers.com/2011/05/ ... -bulletin/

[pks1702]

Hi Biggles

Thanks for the kind comments it is no more than a bit of rambling an an odd photo or two but glad you enjoyed them.

[senator]

Confined to house rebuilding over the long weekend but did get out Easter, Only to Southwold but it did blow up and make it bumpy for the return Monday afternoon, Big irchwoo's took great pleasure in telling us how they didn't notice a thing.

Have to say I have never looked at a port from land first, think it would spoil the excitement of entering for the first time.