My last post was back in June 2023 (!) and for various reasons I just haven’t posted since. This isn’t because there’s been nothing to write about…a lot has happened since then. But for some reason I got behind… and then further behind… and the more time went by the harder it became to pick up again.
A difficult question hung over me – did I need to go back and write a whole bunch of retrospective posts to cover the missed ground in chronological order…or …should I just skip over everything I’d missed in order to get going again? The longer I left it the more material I’d missed, and the more acute this question became. Result… blog paralysis !
But somehow, life has carried on! My journey with Good Report – afloat and ashore – has continued. Work has been done, and adventures have been had. The world hasn’t stopped turning, even if it seems to be on an increasingly erratic orbit.
It’s made me question my very reasons for doing this blog. Why bother re-start ? Maybe its moment has simply passed ? Maybe I should do a TikTok channel ! Or spend the time doing something useful in the workshop instead ? A bit of reflection is a good use of a cold, wet and windy January evening in Devon.
The original reason for starting this blog back in November 2014 ( Why a blog about Good Report? ) – was as a personal scrapbook, just recording my adventures afloat on Good Report, along with all the work I do on her ashore. Whilst I’m delighted (and slightly surprised) if family, friends and/or complete strangers take an interest in it, or follow or comment on it, it’s purpose was not to build a ‘profile’, or chase followers. It was principally for me.
The above still remains true. And I plan further adventures on Good Report, and she still requires lots of ongoing refurbishments/improvements. All of which I do want to capture. If nothing else, it will give me something to read and reminisce over when I get old and senile!
So the blog returns ! I’m not going to go back and capture everything that has happened over the last two and a half years – but I might do some summary posts. (I still haven’t written about my epic Jester Azores Challenge in 2021, which was definitely worth a post or two).
In the meantime I’ve slightly re-organised the structure of the blog so I can find previous posts better (a work in progress), and here’s a picture of Good Report, as a reminder of what she looks like on a good day.
I really struggle to do much on Good Report over the winter months…and then inevitably I have a mad rush of activity in the spring, and I wonder why I didn’t do more, earlier. Its the same every year. You’d have thought I would learn !
This spring I had intended to re-varnish all the brightwork (toe rails, cabin and cockpit sides)…but in the end spent most of my time sanding, scraping, fairing and painting the hull.
The first bit – sanding down the topsides, doing some minor fairing and then putting on another couple of coats – was part of ‘the plan’.
1. Washed and lightly sanded whole topsides, 2. fill/fair seams with Interfill100, 3. sand and prime faired seams, 4. one coat of 50% undercoat:50% gloss mix, 5. one coat of Hempel Gloss. Did all this over around 5 days. One full coat requires approx 1.0L of paint. All paint applied by small roller.
I then started scraping away at some bare patches in the antifouling below the waterline. The patches grew… and grew…and grew – until it felt like there was as much patch as non-patch. At which point I decided to bite the bullet and scrape it all off – a major exercise,
Scraping all the antifouling off took about 2 days and ALOT of scraper blades. Horrible job!
I wore a good mask…but forget to cover my head. I thought the antifouling dust would just brush off…it didn’t !
Having got all the old antifouling off, I gave the hull a really good sand, then a base coat of Underwater Primer, before filling and fairing it to try to get a smoother surface. Alot more sanding, then two more coats of primer.
1. Sanded hull 2. One coat Hempel Underwater Primer 3. filled & faired with Ronseal Wood Filler 4. Sanded 5. Two more coats of primer. This was spread over a further eight days around the Coronation and in between wet days.
Finally I could re-antifoul. I use Hemple Tiger Xtra antifouling and add 200g of copper powder to each tin for a little extra antifouling oomph. Not sure if it makes a difference, but it makes me feel better !
I did an initial coat around the rudder and along the waterline, then two full coats of Hempel Tiger Xtra Antifouling. Annoyingly one full coat requires just a little more than one 2.5L tin of paint.
The final coat, and propeller wax, was done the day before my re-launch in late May.
I have to admit Good Report did look really good after all this hard work. Her bottom is now probably as smooth as its been in the last 25 odd years. The price I paid (apart from lots of sandpaper, scraper blades and paint) was that I did my back in thanks to several weeks of poor-posture working.
Unfortunately because its all under water, no-one will get to admire her lovely smooth bottom. Instead everyone will continue to see all the weathered brightwork and failing varnish that I didn’t do.
But maybe I’ll get an extra 1/10 th of a knot of speed out of her – and we’ll know.
(or “Just as well I didn’t need it in a mid-Atlantic gale – oh…I did!“)
Newton has his 3 laws of motion; Kepler – his 3 laws of planetary motion. I have…
Arnison’s 3 laws of ‘To Do Lists’
Law 1: Everyone has ‘To Do Lists’. They may be of the very basic ‘in my head’ variety; amateurishly scribbled on the backs of envelopes; artistically scribed in ones best moleskin bound notebook (with accompanying sketches); or – the ultimate – captured in a multi-tab spreadsheet with associated gantt chart and cost schedule. Advanced level ‘To Do Listers’ will have multiple lists and sub-lists with unique IDs and colour-coding. But we all have them in some shape or form.
Law 2: They are of infinite potential length. The harder you think, the more ‘to do’ items you can come up with. Since the human brain has finite capacity, we cope with this by focusing on only one thing at a time…and by not thinking too hard. This does bring us into conflict with the popular myth of ‘multi-tasking’ – but that’s for another day.
Law 3: The longer something remains ‘un-ticked-off’, the less likely it actually ever will be. ‘To Do Lists’ get superceded, and ‘un-ticked-off’ items become increasingly at risk of being relegated from the ‘I-really-do-intend-to-do-it’ version of the particular ‘To Do List’, to a ‘realistically-will-probably-now-have-to-wait-until-I-retire’ version. This is slightly better than the ultimate ‘will-do-in-my-next-life’ version…but only just.
So, it is particularly satisfying – even a cause for modest celebration – to be able to report that last weekend I finally ticked off a two year old ‘To Do List’ item – no. 23.1 from my (Spring 2021) Azores Preparation ‘To Do List No.2′.
The item in question was attaching a secondary sail track to Good Report’s mast – specifically for the use of my Storm Trysail. The thinking being that in the very rough and windy conditions in which I might want to hoist my Trysail (ie when a triple-reefed Mainsail was still too much sail), this would avoid the need to first remove all the Mainsail slides from the mast track – a fiddly operation at the best of times. Instead, I could have the Trysail already rigged on its dedicated secondary track, and then – when the moment called – simply hoist the Trysail and drop the Mainsail in a seamless and slick operation.
The Trysail track would be screwed to the mast from just above the boom up to the spreaders, and the ideal time to do the job was when the Good Report was being re-rigged by Hemisphere Rigging as the mast would be down.
So, utilising all my ‘To Do’ list training and experience, I made my measurements, found the only UK chandlery (Classic Marine) who readily supplies ¾” brass sail track, and placed an order for 15’ of the stuff. The order was duly dispatched for ‘Next Day delivery’ a couple of weeks before Good Report’s scheduled re-rig. So far all so good, to plan, and with plenty of time-contingency. Nothing noteworthy here. Time to focus on finishing ‘To Do List No.3’ (internal storage).
The FedEx Nightmare
I have written a 5 page diatribe (in 11 font) about what happened next. I genuinely have. This will have to form a whole chapter of my probably-will-never-be-written future book (see ‘when-I-retire’ ‘To Do List 7’). I don’t have the space to re-produce it here but it may be helpful to know that the relevant chapter will be entitled ‘The FedEx nightmare’ and will have a sub-title (in quotes) of “We just don’t give a f@*% and there’s nothing you can do about it”.
Of all the things involved in preparing for my first single-handed ocean passage…this was the thing that stressed me the most. Not just stress – but despair, frustration….and sheer blood-boiling rage! Writing this two years later I can see I am still carrying some of the emotional scars.
Suffice to say my sail track didn’t arrive the next day. Nor the day after, nor the day after that. Each and every morning I would get an email from FedEx promising delivery by 6pm that day. As the appointed hour approached, I would get another message saying that my delivery had been re-scheduled for the next day. This little ritual would be repeated the next day, the day after and every day – like a scene from Groundhog Day.
What was worse was that I could see from FedEx’s tracking app that my package had made it as far as an unidentified and unlocatable depot in Exeter (just 35 miles away), and each day it got loaded onto the lorry, but was then just returned to the depot.
For ten days I tried to break the deadlock through FedEx’s ‘customer service’ (clearly named with a deep sense of irony). The FedEx website is full of vacuous corporate waffle, without actually having anything useful on it. Its clearly designed to make even the most placid of customers irate.
I eventually succeeded in establishing an email correspondence with Saniya in Customer Relations. Then with Sakshi, followed by Shelley-Anne, Sharmin, Swarma, and Turay. All were courteous and gave the impression of genuinely trying to help. Supervisors were contacted, assurances given, promises made – but all to absolutely no effect. Eventually I got the impression that they were equally defeated and had just given up. I tried making a formal complaint. Ignored.
As Good Report’s re-rig date approached, and my useful delivery window shrank, I became increasingly pre-occupied and stressed by my sail-track’s non-delivery. I was paranoid that FedEx would come, but I’d miss the door-bell and they’d take it away again. I started sticking notices on the front door imploring them not to do so, instructing them to phone my mobile immediately (at any time day or night), and organising my whole day to maximise the amount of time I could be within view/earshot of the front door.
Re-rig day eventually did arrive and I motored Good Report around to the dock in Plymouth Yacht Haven marina, where her mast was removed and the standing rigging replaced (another, another-story). The track still hadn’t arrived but I hadn’t quite given up hope. Hadn’t FedEx promised that it woulddefinitely be delivered by 6pm that evening? I was now micro-planning activities down to the minute, on the off chance. By 4pm Hemisphere had finished their work, but kindly acquiesced to my request to delay re-hoisting the mast until the next morning. If the track arrived in the next hour or so, I still could get a taxi home to collect it, do the necessary hole drilling, get Kate to drive me back out to the boatyard and work through the night to install it by torch light. I paid for a night’s berthing at Yacht Haven…just in case.
A bit later however I got the dreaded “Tracker update” email from FedEx – rescheduling delivery until the next day. All hope was now lost and I resigned myself to not being able to install the Trysail track in time for my forthcoming Jester Challenge to the Azores. Even if it did now arrive, the mast would be back up and I just had too many other things to do, too many other ‘To Do’ Lists to complete.
I continued to get daily Tracker Update and Reschedule emails from FedEx for the next few weeks, until my sail-track finally did actually arrive. Their ‘next day’ delivery had taken 30 days. Not just 30 days of delay, but 30 days of daily delivery promises, 29 of which they failed to meet without any meaningful apology, explanation or even a sign that they understood that their terrible performance might have significant ramifications for their customer.
By then I was mid-Atlantic and on my way to the Azores – and supremely ironically in a F9 gale when I really could have done with using that track.
Instead, it sat in a corner of my workshop at home, consigned to being fitted at some pointin the future. Its purpose and urgency lost. New ‘To Do Lists’ came and went… “Fit Trysail Track” slipped further and further into ‘To Do List’ oblivion.
Until last Friday – when I fitted it. Just like that!
Resurrection!
The catalyst for this sudden action resurrection was my brother, Roly, being in Devon for a few weeks in between being off doing exciting expedition-type things elsewhere. I deemed his presence critical, as installing the track would now mean climbing the mast. I don’t have a good head for heights, but Roly is a ‘climber’ who can hang from a thin string by his teeth whilst completing complex manual tasks with feet and hands. We had a single day when windows in our diaries overlapped…which just added focus.
I referred to my “Fit Trysail Track” ‘sub-To Do List’. This required the careful pre-drilling and counter-sinking of screw holes through the track at 6” spacing; and bringing together a collection of materials (1¼” 8 gauge bronze screws, Sikaflex, masking tape, paper towel, white spirit..) and tools (cordless drills x 2, screwdrivers, sealant gun, stanley knife etc)…plus ladders.
Ladders were key to the delicate method of work that I had planned. I envisaged that I would erect and climb up a double-ladder lashed to the starboard shrouds from Good Report’s deck – whilst Roly would simultaneously hang off a halyard in his climbing gear. Then, in a carefully choreographed dance of coordinated movement, using as many hands as we had available, we would align and seat the track vertically on a carefully masked off 15’ long bed of Sikaflex adhesive and screw it into the wooden mast. What could possibly go wrong?
“I hope you’re not doing what I think you are about to do?” spake Richard, the YHQ yard manager, from somewhere below us as Roly and I were manoeuvring the ladders into position on Good Report‘s deck. Apparently YHQ have an absolute policy of not allowing people to climb masts in the yard – whether by ladder, halyard or levitation. Even if only going half-way up the mast. Quite reasonable and understandable when you stop to think about it, though my initial thoughts were that if we’d waited another hour or two, everyone would have gone home and been none the wiser. Instead, we’d been caught in the act. Amateurs !
I double-checked that the rules were absolutely absolute, and even applied to us. Unfortunately, they were and they did. We were momentarily stumped. But as our brains tried to work through possible ways out/around this unwelcome hurdle, Richard very helpfully followed-up with “you could use our cherry-picker”.
This was a most excellent idea. Why hadn’t I even considered that to start with? Thankfully there was a cherry-picker sized space behind Good Report, still an hour of the working day to go, and Richard didn’t have any more pressing calls on his time. Or maybe he did, but just felt a bit obliged to us having quashed our original plan. Anyway, I didn’t give him time to think about it, but seized on the offer and we jumped into action.
Once Richard had positioned the cherry picker, I climbed into the basket next to him with all my tools and materials in a bucket and he carefully moved us up and out, towards Good Report’s mast. Installation went extremely smoothly – exactly as planned – but it was soooo much easier and quicker doing it from the cherry picker basket than hanging off ladders and halyards.
Richard could raise or lower us to exactly the position I needed for each bit of the operation (align track… drill screw holes and dry fit… mask off… remove track… apply Sikaflex to mast… bed track onto Sikaflex in position… fix with screws… smooth down squidged Sikaflex with finger… remove masking tape… clean track/mast with white spirit… clean me with white spirit). Within an hour I’d got the first (and upper) 10’ length installed and no longer needed Richard and the cherry picker as I could do the remaining (lower) 5’ length just by standing on the boom.
I felt rather guilty that Roly was made rather redundant by the above…and never got to climb the mast or apply his climbing expertise. Skilled labour tragically replaced by machinery – yet again! But he was still vital, because it was the prospect of his essential help that mobilised me in the first place.
I may never need to actually use it now, but at least I can record….
Fit Trysail Track – TICK
…and the number of my remaining ‘To Do List’ items is pleasingly reduced – to infinity minus one.
Since Good Report came out of the water in October I’ve done almost nothing on her. I’m feeling a bit guilty about this as I have a very long ‘to do’ list. But most of it involves external painting and varnishing, which requires the sort of warm dry weather that you just don’t get in Devon over the winter. Other domestic commitments have been prioritised. I’ve also had Covid, and more recently the thing that isn’t Covid – but feels like it is. The stars just haven’t aligned yet really.
So to make myself feel a bit better about it all, I thought I’d look back at some of the woodwork I did a couple of years when I was being super-productive – which I never got around to capturing in this blog.
As I contemplated sailing single handed to the Azores I realised that some important ‘stowage’ improvements were needed below. These were partly just to make living aboard a bit easier….and partly to make Good Report more resilient to rough offshore weather. I kept coming back to the ‘what if’ scenario of a knock-down and thinking about what could/would go flying around the cabin.
1. Saloon Shelves
BEFORE: The 6′ long saloon shelves looked like this, and its where most of the ‘stuff’ (clothes, books, IT kit, food, spares etc) that I access on daily basis gets shoved, with plenty of space for assorted boxes and bags. I once even had a crew member sleeping up there. But its not conducive to good seamanlike stowage – and is asking for chaos in the event of rough weather.
DURING: A lot of careful measurement, design, and template making with bits of cardboard (I find Amazon envelopes to be particularly good for this) on board; then precise cutting and fabrication at home; then back on board for dry-fitting and fine-tuning; then back home for painting & varnishing; before final installation on board.
AFTER: I divided each side into three basic sections, with shelved lockers fore & aft faced in Iroko. On the Port side (above), the middle section became a much needed bookshelf, whilst on the Starboard side the middle section houses food bins. I ran out of time to make locker doors, so installed elasticated netting as a temporary measure to stop contents flying around the cabin in the event of a knock-down. But actually this works so well that I may just leave it.
2. Heads drawer unit
BEFORE – AFTER: I never used this little sink by the Heads (L) so having stripped it out I made this much more useful set of drawers (R). I use it to keep those tools that I need to have quick access to(eg screw-drivers, spanners, sockets, WD40, grease…).
DURING: I again used Iroko for the main facing and side pieces, but I made the drawer sides and backs from an old piece of oak which I recycled and cut down. The beautiful top surface was an old piece of tropical hardwood (species unknown) which my Grandfather had brought back from Trinidad I think, probably around 60 years ago. Having inherited a small stock, I have been storing it for years…just waiting to put it to a worthy use.
3. Galley cutlery drawers
BEFORE – AFTER: This was an exercise in making good use of the awkward little space beneath the cooker…and giving myself a couple of very useful cutlery drawers in the process.
I had to make it as a removeable unit, so that if necessary I can remove the whole thing to access the water foot pump beneath it. It was very fiddly as – inevitably – nothing about the space was square, parallel or even straight !
4. Dog-house shelves
BEFORE/DURING: I made a narrow Iroko shelf underneath the window on either side of the ‘doghouse’, carefully shaped to fit the angle of the coach house sides but without drilling any holes all the way through, to avoid creating any potential water leakage paths.
AFTER: This was the ‘smallest’ (and possible the fiddliest) of the stowage improvements I made — but almost one of the most useful. Just somewhere to put all those ‘bits and pieces’ that need to go somewhere to hand… (Galley side (above) – washing up brushes & liquid, soap, cooker lighter, spare cooker meths, sun-cream, torch, scissors, kitchen roll…); (Nav station side: bino’s, notepad, knife, flares, …).
I get a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction from the whole process of designing and making improvements like these: making good use of small awkward spaces whilst simultaneously solving particular functional problems. I have to say all of the above have proved to be very successful.
On a rather wet and windy day in mid-October Good Report was lifted out of the water for a few months R’n’R ashore at Yacht Haven Quay. This is always rather a tense moment for me. There are so many things that potentially could go wrong, and I’m always a bit worried about the compressive forces on her hull from the crane’s lifting strops. But the YHQ team know her well and are always very careful…and none of the things that could have gone wrong did so. So, in the end it was all ok.
In fact, I had managed to move Good Report from her trot mooring across to YHQ’s pontoon, and then remove her sails and life-raft into the car, all the previous evening when the weather had been much nicer. In hindsight I was very pleased about that.
I kept Good Report in the water all of last winter, partly just because I could; partly because I had no major projects planned; and partly to save some money. Back in May I had dried her out against the YHQ wall and power-washed all of the growth off her hull…so I was rather surprised, not to say a little dismayed at just how much growth there was on her again come October – just 5 months later. Just possibly it explains my frustratingly slow progress back from the Isles of Scilly in September, and why I couldn’t pump out the Heads (I’d had to revert to the Mark 1 Bucket ever since).
I’ve always used Hempel Tiger Extra – a self-polishing erodible antifouling. I stir into each pot a sachet of copper powder (bought cheaply on ebay) to give it a little extra ‘oomph’, and then apply one overall coat, and then a second coat around the rudder/propeller and waterline. The resulting thickness is generally good for the ‘season’ – which is essentially what it says on the tin.
So maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised or disappointed to find that its efficacy after 12-18 months is pretty limited. Its active ingredients have probably been completely exhausted long ago.
So if I want my antifouling to last longer – is it a question of just rolling on more layers ? or are there significantly better products out there ? Answers on a post-card please.
(PS I wonder what antifouling regime the GGR2022 boats have used ? I recollect there was a huge difference in antifouling performance amongst the GGR2018 competitors. Presumably they have cracked it for this event. Worth researching.)
A couple of weeks ago I made another working visit to the Isles of Scilly….which felt a little harder work – and definitely more autumnal – than my last one in May.
We left just before 23:00 hours on Saturday 10th Sept, taking advantage of a strong ebb tide to help us off our trot mooring without too much difficulty, and sweep us rapidly up the Cattewater and through Plymouth Sound.
It was an absolutely beautiful night with a full moon shining through the clouds. Initially it was completely flat calm and windless, and we motored very contentedly (well… as contentedly as is possible when motoring) towards the Lizard, until about 03:45 when sufficient SE’ly breeze had sprung up to hoist sail and dampen some of the rolling that the developing swell was causing us.
The only excitement during the night was when a very large vessel (a warship from its silhouette) tracked back and forward just a mile away from us. I could see its shape and navigation lights very clearly, but it was invisible on my AIS…which was slightly spooky.
More by luck than judgement, we caught the west-flowing ebb tide around the Lizard and so sped around this key headland with wind, wave and tide all behind us, making up to a spectacular 8.4 knots SOG. We paid for this later on however. From around Wolf Rock onwards we had an increasingly strong flood tide against both us and the prevailing SE’ly swell waves. This kicked up a short, steep and lumpy following sea. With a F5 S’ly wind on our beam it was very uncomfortable. Poor Kelpie was quietly sea-sick whilst curled up on the bunk. She was so discrete about it that I didn’t actually notice…until I sat in it ! An hour later, I was being a bit less discrete as I chucked up too, over the side. It wasn’t much fun.
Even worse, the adverse (and very strong) tide peaked as we closed the Islands and absolutely killed our speed which dropped to about 2 knots SOG as I hand steered up St Marys Sound with a following sea making it a rather demanding final stretch.
We arrived around 19:15 on Sunday picking up a Visitors mooring in St Marys Pool. Although our overall 201/2 hour time for the 98NM passage from Plymouth was pretty good for us (a very respectable av. 4.8kn SOG), I was very relieved to get in, and before dark too.
We had a very busy four days on St Marys with lots of productive work meetings and site visits. Good Report was an excellent home/office base, but I actually spent much less time aboard than anticipated, being ashore most of the day and enjoying evenings out with Stephen and Toni (to whom we have recently given one of our cats – Saffie), and at the sailing club.
Stripping down my outboard carburettor in the cockpit, after it had stubbornly refused to start and caused me a long and wet row (against a strong wind) from the quayside back to Good Report’s mooring. I managed to successfully clean out the blocked jet orifice with a sewing needle.
Getting to the Council’s offices at Porthmellon, required a ‘commute’ along Hugh Town beach, which Kelpie loved !
…unless the tide was in – when there was no beach and we had to walk up the main street. Our visit coincided with the highest spring tide of the year (5.98mCD) when high water more than lapped at the buildings along the Hugh Town beach frontage, even without any storm surge. Future impact of rising sea levels ?….hmmm
My visit coincided with the start of construction of the Council’s ‘Adaptive Scillies’ coastal defence scheme which I have been actively supporting. So I got to see the first bits of rock armour being placed, and also met with a bunch of visiting VIPs – including the High Sheriff of Cornwall!
We also motored around to St Agnes in Good Report anchoring in The Cove, for a site visit to look at the proposed works on the western side of the island and also to meet a local Councillor and resident. There were quite a few dead gannets on the western beaches – victims of the Avian Bird Flu which has hit the islands hard – so unfortunately I couldn’t let Kelpie off her lead much.
Assuming likely SW’ly winds, I had hoped to make a leisurely passage back to Plymouth over several days, stopping off at Helford or Falmouth. Frustratingly, the forecast for the weekend and the early part of the following week showed either persistent NE’ly winds…or completely windless conditions. It did look like the winds on Friday would be predominantly N’ly which I felt I could work with…so after much weather watching and prevarication during the day, I made the decision to leave St Marys during Thursday/Friday night.
I took Kelpie for a final walk, then got Good Report ship-shape and ready for sea (including deflating the dinghy in anticipation of some strong-ish winds). I managed to get my head down for about an hour before rising and casting off at midnight, motoring very carefully through the St Marys Pool moorings in the pitch dark
We had a really bad passage back. For the first 12 hours the wind was N’ly F3/F4 but we struggled to make any speed under sail – even with the wind on the beam. So we ended up motoring, but I still had to increase engine revs up to 3000rpm to average 4knots…and that was with tidal assistance! By midday, the wind had strengthened to a consistent N’ly F5 – which should have been a good sailing wind, even close hauled – which we were, once we’d rounded the Lizard… and I turned the engine off. But I just could not get Good Report going.
The choppy (but not rough) sea was certainly a factor. Rather than slicing elegantly through the waves, we punched into them which just took out all our ‘go forward’ momentum, so that we seemed to just go ‘up and down’ rather than forward. Our pace was tortuous – averaging 2 to 3 knots SOG – and it was incredibly frustrating, which in turn I found to be quite emotionally exhausting.
On a positive side – it was sunny, and there was little other traffic, so I could read and sleep (catnaps – alarm every 15 minutes) alot….and did so.
Afternoon… became evening …became night again…. became another morning. In the middle of the night I tried dropping the sails and motoring again for a couple of hours…but if anything that was even slower – had the propellor fallen off ??!
We were rewarded with a fine dawn, and then finally as we approached Rame Head, the wind dropped off, the sea calmed, and we motored back into Plymouth on a fine morning.
The 106NM passage back took us 331/2 hours – at a dismal average of 3.1 knots. I think I might be a really bad sailor.
Postscript: I haven’t yet managed to get Kelpie to ‘go’ on command, despite much encouragement and exhortation. I reckon she lasted about 33 hours before she just couldn’t hold on any longer and she finally pee’d (on deck) and crapped (on some ropes) – for which she received enthusiastic congratulation!
I had booked Good Report to be lifted out of the water mid-August, with the laudable intention of making good use of the ongoing fine weather, to spend a week or two doing much needed external painting, varnishing and deck maintenance in the boat yard.
However at the last minute, Kate and I spontaneously decided to go for a little adventure together instead…and sail to the Channel Islands. This would not just be a first visit there, but also the furthest east I’ve ever taken Good Report – my previous furthest-east-point being Dartmouth !
I just needed a quick trip to the ‘Sea Chest‘ bookshop to buy a pilot book and chart, and then to the supermarket to stock up with fresh food (I still have loads of the surplus tinned and dry food that I took down to the Azores…and then brought back again,12 months ago) – and we were good to go. It’s a rather novel and refreshing experience to be able to leave with such minimal preparation or planning….but also hard to avoid a nagging sense that I might have forgotten something important!
Getting away was not completely plain-sailing however: Firstly the winds were not helpful being easterly – which blows Good Report sideways across her trot mooring towards the shore. It makes getting off our mooring really difficult. Plans A, B and C (which include trying to use the dinghy and outboard to pull Good Report’s bow or stern off the mooring into the wind) all failed. Eventually we conceded that we would just have to move the mooring stringer line to the windward side of the boat and depart up the very narrow lee-ward, shore-side channel and hope we didn’t run aground.
Our relief and sense of smugness at avoiding doing so however was short lived. Half an hour later, we were just motor-sailing past Plymouth Breakwater when the engine’s low pressure alarm started bleeping as we reduced revs. I shut down the engine and we tacked slowly into the nearby Crownhill Bay where we dropped anchor to take stock. The engine’s oil and water levels both looked fine (good) and there didn’t seem to be any issues with the cooling water intake (also good). A quick read of the Troubleshooting section of the engine’s Maintenance Manual suggested that a change of oil and oil filter was probably in order – something to do as soon as we arrived. In the meantime, we re-hoisted sail and finally set a course for Guernsey
The 97.4NM passage to St Peter Port, Guernsey was relatively straight forward, albeit slow – taking 261/2 hours (av. 3.8kn SOG). Overnight the wind fluctuated between F2 and F5 – but always from the east so we were beating into it as we headed SE – sometimes struggling to hold a course, sometimes making good speed. The weather was fine and sea generally calm however and we had a beautiful sunset and sunrise.
In between I had a very busy night crossing the mid-Channel shipping lanes. There were alot of ships about so I was kept on my toes, alternating between closely monitoring my AIS screen and peering out into the darkness to watch lights come and go. Twice I called up converging ships which looked like they were going to come too close for comfort. Credit to both Eli A (a 11403t Liberian registered container ship) and Alsia Swan (a 5717t Malteese registered oil/chemical tanker) – both of whom courteously responded to my VHF calls and then altered course to ensure greater sea-room between us.
By dawn the wind had completely dropped and I fired up the engine, keeping a close eye on the oil pressure and temperature gauges. Kate emerged from the cabin and relieved me for a couple of hours which enabled me to get some much needed sleep.
We continued under engine for the rest of the day through a calm sea, just leaving the main up as a steadying sail. I really don’t like motoring out at sea. Its noisy, smelly, polluting, expensive…and slower than sailing if there is any sort of sea running. It just feels unnatural for a sailing boat. I begrudgingly accept it as a unfortunate necessity when there is no/little wind. On the positive side it does enable you to progress in the direction you actually want to go AND you can charge every device you have !
The Channel Islands are famous/notorious for their strong and treacherous tidal streams. Our initial approach to Guernsey was slowed by the ebb tide so it felt like it took an age to close the island, but as we finally did so we got the benefit of the flood tide and swept along the southern side of the island, finally entering St Peter Port shortly after 18:00.
There is a serious sill between the outer harbour and the marina at St Peter Port. A Harbour Office launch initially directed us to a visitors pontoon to wait until there was sufficient water to enter the marina.
St Peter Port is a really interesting harbour, with lots of different parts. We got a great berth in the centre of the visitors marina (£30/night incl electricity) which is in the heart of the town…albeit were slightly dwarfed by bigger boats around us.
Wherever I lay my laptop (and can get a decent cup of coffee)…is my workplace.
A key reason for coming to Guernsey was to visit friend and fellow-Jester, John Willis – who had done the JAC’21 with me in Pippin. It was so lovely to meet up with John and his wife Angie, and they treated us to a lovely meal out in the very excellent Taj restaurant on the quayside – (which I got the slight impression was John’s second home!). My only regret is that we didn’t take a photo.
Apart from socialising, working, doing an engine oil change, and dog-walking…we did very little in St Peter Port, and were content to leave plenty of things to do/visit next time. Kate did however (of course) find a beach in the town to go swimming from.
After four days in St Peter Port – we decided to up-sticks and find a quiet anchorage for a few days before we had to head home. We took advantage of Guernsey’s VAT-free status to refuel (£1.13/litre), then motored over to the east side of the nearby island of Herm seeking some shelter from the predominantly westerly winds.
Belvoir Bay on Herm was a good sandy anchorage with a lovely little dog-friendly beach. Despite being on the sheltered side of the island, we did suffer a bit from tidal current generated swell at night. Whilst we were there we bumped into Hamish Southby-Tailyour and family on SV Equinox…who just happened to be anchored next to us. We also had a flotilla of some 60 swimmers circumnavigating the island come by – each with their own kayaker escort!
Kate swam from the beach to Good Report a couple of times…with a doggy escort !
….and we walked the 6mile coastal path around the island
At the end of the week we headed home. Initially there was very little wind so we had to motor again, punching into a short sharp sea of small waves which was not very comfortable and a bit slow. Kate and Kelpie retired to their bunks and pretty much stayed there for the rest of the passage.
We motored until about midnight when there was sufficient wind (F4) to sail, close-hauled on a course towards Plymouth. We again crossed the main shipping lanes overnight and if anything it was even busier than the passage over. Several times the ships seemed to come in a group of four in close formation…and there was no way I was going to thread my way through them – even if I had ‘right of way’. I just hove to and let them pass. Another time I changed course to work my way around a pair of fishing vessels that were slowly crossing our path. Just as I thought I could return to my desired course, one of them called me up on the VHF to warn me that they were about to do a complete 180 deg change of course…and I would need to effectively go back the way I’d come. The detour took me an hour and I lost several miles of hard won upwind position. Grrrrr.
Morning dawned over-cast, drizzly with the threat of heavy rain ahead. Kate obligingly roused herself to give me a couple of hours of much needed sleep, and in light winds we slowly continued to Plymouth arriving back on our mooring around 13:30 without drama.
The 98.4NM return passage had taken us just over 24 hours (av. 4.1 kn).
No major adventures for us this year, but a couple of memorable trips so far that are worth recording…in particular as they were the first proper passages for my new crew-member – Kelpie.
Kelpie is a year old ‘Cockerpoo’. She is small, fluffy and very friendly, with distinct Tigger-like tendencies. Some (oh…alright, me) might call her ‘adorable’. She was the runt of her litter, has funny back legs…and has brought us a huge amount of joy and pleasure. But how would she cope with sailing ?
Kelpie comes from known sea-faring stock (her mother is Mika of SV Sula), but she was still to earn her own ‘competent sea-dog’ badge.
Working visit to the Isles of Scilly
In May, I mixed business with pleasure by sailing out to the Isles of Scilly for a week. In my current job (as the Environment Agency’s Coastal Engineer for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly) I have been working very closely with the Council of the Isles of Scilly on a variety of coastal issues, and I need to visit the Islands periodically (I really do !). Flights and accommodation during the summer are very expensive…and are often completely booked out anyway. So providing my own – low carbon, no cost to the tax-payer – transport and accommodation seemed like a justifiable win-win.
We left Plymouth after the start of the Jester Challenge, and I just followed a respectful distance behind the Jesters as they headed west. I rapidly lost track of Arelia and Sandpiper, but shadowed Opole and Louisa (both of whom had AIS Transceivers) well past the Lizard.
As we approached the Scillies our tracks diverged, but interestingly I didn’t feel the slightest pang of envy as the Jesters headed off into the Atlantic. It made me realise that psychological preparation is a very large part of undertaking such a challenge. I had no desire to keep on going because I hadn’t prepared for it mentally.
We had a really good passage from Plymouth to the Isles of Scillies in almost perfect SE’ly F4 winds, fine weather and calm seas, making the 100NM passage in 21 hours (av 4.8kn). There was a lot of traffic across Mounts Bay overnight, so I didn’t get much sleep and getting back into the single-handed sailors routine of 20min catnaps was a bit of a struggle.
After a bit of a nervous start, Kelpie acclimatised really well to being on board and to the motion of the boat. She was very happy in her boat-bed below or in the cockpit, and was brave enough to wander around deck, safely clipped onto the Jackstays with a short leash. Much to my surprise she managed the whole passage without needing ‘puddles’ (better than I could do !)….but lets just say she was very excited to get ashore.
I picked up a visitors mooring in St Mary’s harbour, where I remained for the week (£21/night). I’d brought all my work IT with me, so was very happy working in my floating office in GR’s cabin, but I actually spent a lot of the week in meetings or on site visits ashore. ‘Commuting’ to the Council’s office at Porth Mellon Industrial Estate involved a dinghy ride, then half mile walk along the beach!
Returning on a water-taxi to St Marys from a Community Meeting on St Martyn’s with work colleagues…and Kelpie. Kelpie just came everywhere with me, which was for the most part absolutely fine. The only two things I couldn’t take her to were into this actual meeting (No Dogs allowed into the community hall, so I had to reluctantly tie her up outside the building), and an evening Council Meeting (but Tanya – the Council’s Head of Environment – very kindly dog-sat her whilst I attended!).
At the end of the week, we reluctantly headed home. Stephen – the Council’s Project Director with whom I’ve been closely working – had kindly volunteered to crew for me on the passage back to Plymouth. Its been a long while since I’ve had a (human) crew – I’ve got so used to single-handed sailing. Being able to take over-night watches and actually get a few hours sleep (and not arriving exhausted) was such a luxury !!
We had a very gentle trip back in calm seas and sunshine(98NM in 22 1/2 hrs, av. 4.4kn), but disappointingly ended up having to motor half of it due to a lack of wind. Force 2 is just not enough to get Good Report moving under sail.
It was a joy having Kelpie with me. She loved the Scillies and became very at home on Good Report. She definitely earned her ‘sea-dog’ badge !
I have very few good photographs of Good Report ‘in action’ – because of course I am always on board myself. So I’m always extremely grateful when someone else sends me a good photograph they’ve taken, and I really value such images.
…and this is my new favourite photograph of Good Report – for which I must thank Ewen Southby-Tailyour.
credit: Ewen Southby-Tailyour
It was taken in Plymouth Sound at the start of the Jester Challenge 2022. As the photograph shows it was a sunny, but pretty blustery day. Ewen (as the distinguished creator and – until last year – ‘non-organiser’ of the Jester Challenge, an event of minimal rules or organisation, which nonetheless does in reality require a fair amount of organisational effort!) was the official event starter, from his son’s boat Equinox which was anchored about a mile to the west of the breakwater. I (as the Plymouth branch of the ‘Jester Helm’ triumvirate that has taken over the ‘non-organisation’ of the Jester Challenge from Ewen) was buzzing around in Good Report, taking photos of the entrants as they prepared for the midday starting gun.
I came in close to Equinox, to say ‘hello’ and snatch a couple of pictures as we went past, with both vessels proudly flying our Jester burgees and Ukrainian-solidarity flags. Needless to say this photograph that Ewen took of Good Report was a lot better than the ones I took of Equinox.
The Jester Challenge 2022
Only four intrepid sailors took part in this years Jester Challenge – from Plymouth, UK to Newport, Rhode Island, USA. Numbers for this ultimate challenge are never very high, but the lingering impacts of the Covid pandemic on boat and skipper preparation can not have helped. So it was a great achievement for all four in just getting to the start line.
Giving the Skippers Briefing to the four Jester Challenge 2022 skippers in Good Report’s cabin – a bit of a squeeze, and some looking more relaxed than others! (L-R Bernie Branfield – ‘Louisa‘, Andrzej Kopytko – ‘Opole’, Howard Chivers – ‘Sandpiper’ & John Apps – ‘Arelia’)
As for the Jester event’s last year, we were based at the excellent and friendly Mayflower Marina in Plymouth, and I brought Good Report around too for the start weekend, which is one of the event highlights. Entrants are largely ready by this stage, so can spend the weekend finalising bits and pieces, visiting each-other’s boats and generally relaxing. We had a very good Skippers Dinner at Jolly Jacks restaurant on the Friday night, and then I gave the final Skippers Briefing on the Saturday evening, before the midday start on the Sunday.
As well as managing the Plymouth end of things, I also took on the responsibility of doing the daily Tracking Map for the Jester website. This involved quite a complicated daily process involving collecting latest position information from participants’ emails or personal tracker sites… entering the data into a spreadsheet… running a bespoke programme to create a Google Earth Pro map of the boat tracks… then copying that day’s map file onto a Google MyMap site on the web – which was linked to the Jester Challenge website, so the world could see how the skippers were getting on.
It sounds quite complicated…and it was! However its a great addition to the Jester website, and Howard who created the programme and set up the system (but was participating in this years event so couldn’t actually run it) did a great job in – very patiently – training me up over a couple of Zoom meetings, and I did a couple of trial runs before he set sail over the horizon. As a result I got pretty quick at the daily routine and succeeded (as far as I can tell) in plotting everyone in the right position. No one ended up embarrassingly in mid-Africa at least !
I was really glad to do the tracker map, because it kept me involved with the event and in touch with how the skippers were faring. It was interesting to see their different tactics early on…but about eight days after leaving Plymouth they were hit by a very nasty depression working its way up the east Atlantic. The impacts of this forced both John and Howard to retire and head home (along with several entrants in the OSTAR/TWOSTAR race that set off a week after the Jesters and which were all following a more northerly route). Andrzej ploughed on through it and made it halfway across the Atlantic before damage to his rigging forced him to retire and turn back for repairs in the Azores. Bernie plodded on and also eventually made the Azores, where he too retired as a result of his slow progress. So in the end none of the Jester 2022 fleet made it to Newport, which was very disappointing. On the plus side, they gave it a go, all made safe harbour ok and they will I’m sure have great stories to tell of their adventure.
Jester 2022 final tracker map (Red Line =Great circle route; Green = Sandpiper; Pink = Arelia; Light Blue = Louisa; Dark Blue = Opole)
This is the first year that I have not lifted Good Report ashore at some point over the winter for a few weeks of maintenance. I would like to think being able to do this is (at least in part) testament to the good job I have done in previous years. In reality it is probably as much to do with feeling that I had used up most of my accumulated boat-brownie points last year in taking part in the Jester Azores Challenge.
So Good Report has been quietly sat on her mooring all autumn and winter – pretty much ignored since our return from the Azores last year. Our only excursions have been an evening in August anchored off the Mountbatten Breakwater with Kate for the always brilliant British Fireworks Championship, and a ritual family trip on New Years Day across Plymouth Sound for a cold water swim off Mount Edgcumbe (though Skipper had to reluctantly stay on board in case the anchor dragged).
As a result Good Report’s bottom had accumulated a good growth of algae, with weed and barnacle trim in hard to reach crevices, and at the beginning of May I decided to dry her out alongside the wall at Yacht Haven Quay to clean her hull during low tide.
Getting ready: extra large fenders for supporting GR against the wall and a long ladder for getting on/off the boat; Power washer + long extension leads + all our garden hoses. Welly boots for standing in the mud !
Phase 1 went really well and by at high tide at 8am I had arrived at the boatyard, got Good Report off her mooring, motored over to YHQ’s wall and tied her up alongside . All I had to do now was wait a few hours for the tide to drop.
I used the time to set up and test my Power Washer…and for some reason it kept tripping the YHQ power supply! Complete disaster was averted when YHQ Manager Richard very kindly let me use the yard’s generator driven power washer. We managed to position it, and its accompanying IBC water tank, directly above GR and thankfully its 20m hose was just long enough to reach down to the ground.
Positioning Good Report at exactly the right distance off the wall was difficult…and I didn’t get it quite right. Once she had touched the bed I couldn’t move her sideways, and she settled maybe 0.5m too far out. As a result, as she dried out, she leaned over a bit too much. Her mast came perilously close to the top of the harbour wall, bending her Port cap shroud. I had to unfasten it at the deck to avoid damage.
Crawling into the gap between boat and wall to clean the Port side was a little claustrophobic.
Almost 12 months worth of algae and weed – possibly some of it brought back from the Azores.
YHQ’s power washer was miles more powerful than my device, and very effective at cleaning the antifouling – which was extremely satisfying. But the weed on the topsides paint was harder to remove.
Job done and looking good. I was finished long before the tide came back in. Hopefully last year’s antifouling will last another season !
Yacht 'Good Report' - afloat and ashore 