East Coast Diary

[Guest]

Very happy to hear you guys had a fun weekend and only sorry that we weren’t there as planned.

Binky (aka “that *!*!*!* shipâ€) *should* be back in next week so will hopefully catch up again soon. Difficult to believe that it’s now nearly three months since we were last at Shotley

Phil and Carron

[pks1702]

I am sure your sunshine was warmer

I am sure it won't be long until you are back onboard.

[pks1702]

I meant to also mention that for the first time in a while I had a wander round towards Fairline in Ipswich and noted they have now opened up the pathway right around to the lock and made quite a nice feature of a couple of the old cranes. The moorings at this end which are relatively new (I know two forumites sampled them last year) look very nice, there is a bench now so you can have a sit down while watching the fun in the lock.

New Ablution Block is the Blue building on the right - birds eye view!!

[Guest]

Hi Perry

T

The lock keepers, latest entertainment ,to get you to hold station in lock using engines only

[Antares_9]

He gets a bit bored at times Merylin, I know.

[pks1702]

Looks like you passed the test OK Merlyn

Your teak looks superb a labour of love I know from personal experience

[pks1702]

Arrived at the boat 2045 on Friday night to find the wind gusting 30 knots.... decided to wait until Saturday AM to see what it did.

Saturday was much better at 15-18knots or so but NE so a bit cool. With David needing to survey a job we decided for a dash up to Ipswich so he could do his survey and we would get a more sheltered weekend

We had a most enjoyable evening in Ipswich and headed back down the river just before lunch. It really warmed the heart to see the Orwell alive with boats, it would be great if we could have a summer which allowed more of this. Saw Merlyn & Lorraine as we exited Ipswich.

On getting back to our berth much as I did not feel like it I had to fit some new batteries. The 150ah triple set on Kiki have done well over the years and at 8 years old were towards the end of their life. David through his business East Coast Heating & Electronics had brought to my attention Victron Gel Batteries which are top end kit. Having known ours were coming to the end of their life I asked if when he ordered some he could get me three. I fitted these this afternoon with David watching over my shoulder and all went to plan.

The beauty of these is that they are maintenance free VRLA GEL: design life 12 years

Kiki's Lead Acid batteries weighed a tonne and while the Victron are no lightweights they are slightly more compact. The thought of not having to crawl in the Lazerette to do my battery maintenance with distilled water is quite a pleasant thought

Fingers crossed the weather is kind where we are taking part in a Flotilla for QDJ up the Orwell.

[pks1702]

OK so picking this up from where I left off.... the QDJ Flotilla.

Arrived at Shotley on Friday evening to find the wind increasing the forecast for Saturday night was even stronger although it was supposed to ease slightly by early afternoon Sunday.

It was touch and go on Sunday but all involved decided we needed to do our bit so some 20 odd boats locked out in a strong North Easterly (No mean feat in itself) and mustered off the posts until all were out and proceeded up river.

As usual despite the Orwell/Stour confluence being 'sloppy' it soon flattened out up river. All boats were dressed and some were even playing patriotic music

We cruised down to Royal Harwich which was the turn point, I am not sure which one of our yacht club had arranged this but RHYC did not seem impressed that we had to go through their dingy race twice mind you if you will race in the navigation what can you expect By the time we got back into the lock from a very lumpy Harwich harbour (Strong NE wind against ebbing spring tide) the sun had come out for us.

Sadly my camera died (now resurrected) so I got very few shots however Carron did I have 'pinched' a few to give you a flavour of the day. Binkys prop is giving a bit of grief so given the weather Phil & Carron 'blagged' a lift on Kingfisher which was probably the most sensible move of the day.

Kingfisher with Royal company

And on Kiki

The weather was grim before the sun though

It was raining so hard we just left the fenders stowed on the decks as it was a 'chug' up the river.

In the evening we had a 1950's street party upstairs in The Shipwreck complete with Skiffle Band and period dress

On Monday evening Shotley joined in the Beacon lighting

A generally wet and cold weekend but the best made of it.

[pks1702]

Whoops should have updated this over the last weeks......

So this weekend it was Ipswich Maritime Festival this event seems to be growing in stature year on year. We had a couple of berths booked (which was just as well as all marina's in the Wet Dock were full and turning people away)

http://www.waterfrontaction.co.uk/Marit ... fault.html

Programme of events - http://www.ipswichevents.co.uk/Maritime ... ammev1.pdf

The whole town in and around the waterfront seemed to have been taken over by the festival, a great atmosphere.

The weather was as we all know was glorious and this had people flocking in their hordes.

As the programme shows there was a mass of stuff going on with all sorts of mock battles and gunfire

The Wet Dock was very sheltered from what little breeze there was goodness knows what temperatures got to but there appeared many tenders on the water in an effort to keep cool. As ever there was the odd loony, we heard a crash a guy and his son in a RIB were weaving around at too high speed (in the dock) hit a wall and flipped the RIB over. Fortunately they had the sense to be wearing Life Jackets which deployed and a kill cord which stopped the engine. David bless him was out in his tender in seconds and with the help of Merlyn who was wandering along the waterside they managed to turn the RIB over.

The Old Gaffers were meeting at Ipswich as part of a weeks cruise and were absolutely crammed in to the normal visitors moorings at Haven. Plenty of wood, tar and cloth in evidence so best to keep the Swan Vesta's under wraps

http://www.oldgaffersassociation.org/ea ... allery.htm

Around 2100 in the evening there was a mock battle across the wet dock with plenty of Musket fire and a firework display which was excellent. To get a better view we took to the tenders and moored in the wet dock and old mud weight I have on board as an 'angel' for anchoring and some extra string allowed us to anchor for grandstand views.

Crew Of Kingfisher Just Chilling

A find for lunch

Fun for all

Old (relatively)

New

Military Presence

Gaffers

Finding a front row seat for the Fireworks

I have some footage of the Fireworks which I will post later.

[mbird]

Looks like a great weekend Perry! I can only imagine how hot it was. It was dead calm at Reedham, (which always has a breeze!) and really very humid on Saturday.

Maybe a daft question, but the Union Flag hanging from the Custom House in a couple of your shots has a diagonal cross missing (the cross of St Patrick?). I assume this is historical but does any one know why?

[Antares_9]

I may be wrong Mark but I believe it's a Georgian flag, so from before the union of 1801.

[mbird]

You are right David. I have just found something on google. Apparently that flag was the original Union flag from 1606 when James VI of Scotland also took the throne of England (becoming James I). The Cross of St Patrick was added 01/01/1801 when Ireland became part of Britain. Another bit of useless info I've learned today

[pks1702]

It was a great weekend Mark, the weather clearly helped.

Fireworks

[pks1702]

A very odd weekend weather wise and one which the forecasters got totally wrong (even the normally reliable Simon Keeling)

7 's were forecast on Saturday so we had no thoughts of going anywhere much Saturday. Just before arrival at 20.30 on Friday we got a call from the crew of Binky inviting us down for a drink. By almost 2100 we had unloaded and wandered down to Binky to find the crew of Kingfisher ensconced with much hilarity. It soon became apparent that the festivities had kicked off at 1630 and we arrived nearing full time! Carron bless her furnished us with drinks and an enjoyable couple of hours ensued, I think some though having done 'extra time' were feeling it a bit on Saturday.

With the forecast of poor weather Saturday fitting a third bilge pump had a calling. Kiki has one forward one in the engine room but nothing in the lazerette. Non of this would be an issue normally but the bulkheads between each section are getting on for 12" high so any ingress has to be pretty bad before the water spills to the next bulhead. After a chat with David he confirmed a third bilge pump in the lazerette was the best bet.

We put a shallow pump at the lowest point of the bilge and connected reinforced hose pipe which was routed through the bilge to point around 6" above the water line and in line with the bottom gas outlet so it matched. I then had a bottom clencher after drilling a pilot hole of using a hole saw which as it broke though some wag shouted 2crikey that is below the water line" drilling holes in your ship never seems right!

Bilge Pump fiited

Yikes a hole in the side!

One way Valve

Skin fitting and hose in situ

David had 'knocked' me up a wiring harness what a job it was fitted with a blade fuse holder that indicated a fuse failure, boot lace end pieces (no wiring in bare wires) heat shrink sleeves over the crimps and even heat shrink name denoting what the wiring related to

Sunday had again been forecast poor so we headed across to Harwich and had lunch at The Pier. Harwich is a place we all transit past but if you have a spare couple of hours it is worth a visit.

I can thoroughly recommend the Pier which has a restaurant and bistro.

View from the table

Lightship LV18 is now a floating exhibition including its connections.

http://www.feuerschiffseite.de/SCHIFFE/ ... lv18gb.htm

http://www.broadcasting-fleet.com/mebo3.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/essex/pirate/lv18.shtml

She was the star of a film about the pirates too.

Now returned to her original paint job but with some reminders.

Getting back to Shotley there was all sorts getting under our feet!

[jillR]

lovely

[mbird]

Did you moor the boats at Halfpenny peir Perry? We have thought about seeing what that is like more than once.

[pks1702]

No problem mooring there but it can get a bit bouncy in a w-sw anything much.

Details here http://online.hhait.net/library/files/2 ... 10D467.PDF

[mbird]

Thanks Perry. I have seen the section about it in the ECP, but not ventured over there yet. We are hoping to get another week saltside in September, so if Wells isn't possible then maybe back down your way and visiting Harwich would be an option.

[pks1702]

If you do Mark The Pier is worth a stop.

Sunday Lunch was very good but top end as we wanted a confirmed booking this was our best option.

The Bistro looked good but does not take bookings but worth a look.

http://www.milsomhotels.com/thepier/

http://www.milsomhotels.com/pdf/Menu_Pd ... roMenu.pdf

[pks1702]

We had been promising ourselves a trip to the Broads to catch up with Ian & Liz (Palmtree) who had not just edged to the 'darkside' (Motor Boat) but positively jumped in with a twin engined boat to be fair she has two nice sized engines eminently suitable for the Broads in a super package of wide beam and open cockpit, we had a great day catching up on their lovely ship.

We met at Potter Heigham and had a nice 'chug' to South Walsham Broad where Liz had kindly produced a lovely lunch as we Mud-weighted in the Broad. It was a super day weather wise and all to soon we were returned to Potter and Ian & Liz headed back to Ranworth on Sailor V (ce la vie - get it)

In the evening we had a great meal at The Crown Catfield see here: http://www.thenorfolkbroads.net/phpBB3/ ... wn#p145679

It must be Pimms O' Clock!

Being Crew is Tiring

Flappy Thing

Dog Tired

I will keep unnder wraps for know the wash at a certain point from Sailor V ..... but the skipper was taking avoiding action

[Palmtree]

Love the photographs they captured the day and we even had good weather.

Ian

[Guest]

david is dreaming of open water pushing the throttle down & making lots of wash with a vroooooom from the exhaust

Jonny

[pks1702]

It was a relatively fleeting visit to our ship this weekend.

We endured our normal 3 plus hour journey in pouring rain arriving around 21.30, got drenched just taking the screen covers off

The rain continued all night but the forecast was bang on and by 0730 a line of clear Blue sky marched over to us revealing a beautiful autumn day.

We had to leave early on Sunday so as it was David's birthday we had a run to Ipswich and dinner at the Salthouse. The run up the river was beautiful with Blue sky's and the trees starting to put on their autumn colours, the day warmed up quite nicely too. We enjoyed a very cordial dinner with The Salthouse up to its usual standard.

Sunday revealed a different day with thick fog, any thoughts of it being localised were soon dispelled when we called up Ipswich Port Control for a lock out "are you sure" was basically his reply.

With a Plotter and Radar overlay plus sounder the journey back to Shotley was useful practice particularly with LW being about the time we would be back at Shotley. It really was a Pea Souper we could not see the lock from the posts. When we called up for a lock in we were told "ok I will just sluice the lock and open the gates and give you the Green; err can you see the lights" we couldn't so he shouted us back to tell us the gates were open. The trip up the channel basically entailed looking at the sounder and correcting to port or starboard dependent on the sounder reading until the lock was visible about 50 yds out.

Fortunately I have a fishfinder sounder which gives you bottom contours which were very useful.

As a cautionary tale while talking about plotters and soundings there is an interesting tale on ECS see page 22

http://www.eastcoastsailing.co.uk/ECS03-low.pdf

[mbird]

Sunday started of with a lovely mist at on the river Brundall, but then burned off for a gloriously sunny day. Seems like you hung on to the fog all day down there Perry.

[pks1702]

We left Ipswich just before 0800 and were locked in for just after 0930 so about what is to be expected if you insist on leaving at that sort of time

By the time we left Shotley at 10.00 (had to be away early on Sunday) as at this time of year often is the sun was starting to win and burn off the fog; the Container ships at Felixstowe were just becoming visible