Southward bound

After yesterday's fairly dire day when we departed Southend with just
20 passengers which gave us a grand total on board of 49, we headed up
the coast to Southwold and anchored off the river and pier. It is
notoriously exposed to the North Sea swell and more trips from this
pier have been called off than actually made. The ship was rolling
around all night, fortunately not so much that it affected me in my
cabin by the water line, but others in the penthouse seemed to have
suffered.

We upped anchor and made a pass at the pier to check out conditions
then a turn around and in again unfortunately without success, the
offshore wind caught us and we were away. On our third attempt we made
it and despite the rolling and bashing around we managed to take on
261.

Lovely trip south down the East coast past Sizewell Nuclear Power
Station to see the three eyed fish, past Harwich and into the Thames
for the run up to Tower Pier. Lovely clear night and the tide in so
the city was looking fantastic, St. Pauls, the London Eye all showing
up really well as we approached the Tower Bridge.

Not long to get everyone off and we turned and headed back downriver
to Tilbury. All tied up by 22:20 and then we have to take on fuel,
bunkers, so the barge is alongside now and should be finished by half
eleven. Long day, with a 09:00 departure tomorrow light ship to
Southend and then back up to the city. Rotten weather forecast, let's
hope that they have it wrong.

Up and down the Thames
Yesterday was spent alongside at Tilbury Landing Stage, or rather the more grandly named London International Cruise Terminal.  Which it was at one time but now the ravages of time are beginning to show on its old face.  It is actually a floating barge built in 1930 and some 1,130 feet long so quite a structure.  As it floats and is connected to the shore by 5 ramps it moves up and down about 21 feet every tide and so we do not need to adjust our mooring ropes as the tide comes in and out. 
The day was spent catching up with the jobs that can't be done when we have passengers on board, such as touching up the over side paintwork.  We also held our weekly emergency and abandon ship drill, a regulatory requirement on a merchant ship.
It would not be an understatement to say that Tilbury town is not the most glamorous of spots to be tied up, pity as we do spend quite a lot of our time here.  There is the one pub a short walk away the World's End, so called because it was usually the last building that convicts being transported to Australia would see before they set off for the other side of the world.  There is a regular ferry to take passengers over to the South side of the river at Gravesend, site of the once naval training school for merchant seamen that was established on a floating tall ship.
Today was a trip down river to Southend on Sea, which it is when the tide is in, and then onto Margate to drop off and then pick up passengers for a trip round the coast to look at North Foreland light then back here to Tilbury.  We have glamorous company as the tall ship Stavros Niachros is berthed just downriver from us.
A good day with pleasant weather, lets hope that this keeps up for the next few weeks, it does make life and profits so much easier.

London and the Thames

It seems that we have been here for weeks, though in reality it was only two days ago when we first arrived at Tower Pier here in the centre of London.  We didn't manage to do our full schedule yesterday, the call to Clacton on Sea was called off due to the forecast high winds, our passengers were all dropped off at Southend and had the prospect of 6 hours to visit the town.

We went out to anchor and came back in to pick them up.  Southend has the longest pier in the world at slightly over one and a half miles, so long it has a little train that runs the length of it.  Our passengers being a punctual lot were all standing by, a good 45 minutes early and freezing in the cold northerly winds.  The Lifeboat shop at the pier end would have been doing good business anyway.

Today sees us back to Southend and then onto Whitstable on the Kent coast with time ashore for all.  We already have 600 passengers booked from here, so it's going to be a busy day.

Hello Waverley & Goodbye Capt. Andy

I'm back on board the Paddle Steamer Waverley sailing as Chief Officer. Before joining today I have been enjoying the hospitality of Captain Ian Clark and his wife for the last couple of days at his home in Kent.  As well soaking in the glorious summer weather down here we visited Canterbury Cathedral, had a hot tub soak and a ride through the Kent countryside as passenger on the back of Ian's Harley Davidson.

At 5:30 this morning we set off for Portsmouth to join Waverley at the Wightlink ferry terminal in Portsmouth.  Unfortunately the glorious summer weather had become steady rain with a stiff SW breeze behind it.  Once underway and clear of the harbour Captain Andy had somehow managed to wangle a free lift from the coastguard to take him ashore.  Here's the photo as proof of him being hoisted on board.

We then set off for Worthing Pier and despite the choppy seas and moderate swell picked up 200+ passengers for the run down to Dover where we arrived about 20:30.  It took a tad longer to get alongside because of "Yokahama" fenders in the way at the berth and then getting everyone ashore up the one gangway but we were safely tied up and clear by 21:00 about and hour and half late. 

Tomorrow it is round the corner and up to the centre of London, forecast isn't great but we hope that we'll be in the sheltered waters in time before it starts to blow. Goodnight from Dover.

Haul Out Day

After a bumpy night in the Marina due to the strong NW wind, the day
opened with lots of sunshine. Off to the sailmakers to drop off all
the sails and covers to be checked over and washed ready for next year
and then I moved the boat up to the haul out berth.

As I don't have a cradle, and use props to keep the boat upright on
the hard standing, I have to have the mast removed in case it causes
the boat to move about in a high wind. I also think that it is a
sensible maintenance item as it gives me an opportunity to check all
of the rigging and other more inaccessible parts of the mast.

Once the mast is off the boat is moved into the dock to allow the
hoist to drive over the top and place the slings under the hull. The
positions for the slings are marked on the boat so there is no doubt
as to the best place to fit them. Once out the water the hull is
given a pressure wash down to get rid of the inevitable slime that
builds up on the hull. It looks very clean, more so than usual, maybe
all the sailing has polished it up along the way.

When that's done the whole lift with boat moves over to the hard
standing area and the boat is adjusted so that it is upright with a
little stern trim to make the rain water run away. The chocks are
placed all round and wedged off to keep them tight. Once everyone is
happy then weight is taken off the slings and the boat is resting on
the keel and kept upright with the props.

And that's it for another season. Lots of stuff to take off and
wash/dry, including the never once used Cruising Chute. Next year,
eh, less wind next year and more downhill sailing, always next year.

No langoustines or scallops for us

Julie & Lynne for crew. We intended berthing at Tarbert to sample Prentice Seafood's finest so set off down the Largs Channel in a stiff West to North West, with one reef in the main and a handkerchief of the genoa rolled out. Once clear of Little Cumbrae it was clear that the seas and wind direction were against us, making for a long haul up Loch Fyne.  A few minutes of banging into the seas and general agreement that we are not for this so we bore off to starboard and headed up towards Rothesay and the East Kyle.  A great sail up to the Burnt Isles and off west to Black Foreland Bay, opposite Tighnabruaich, for a peaceful night at anchor.

 

Sunday opens with lots of sunshine and a beautiful view towards Loch Riddon, the mountains are turning brown from the hill tops down the slopes; autumn is closing in. A little breeze from the North West and we sailed all the way back to Largs in the freshening wind pushing us along at up to 8 knots.  Past 50 odd Clyde Cruising Club yachts, motoring the other way to meet up at Wreck Bay for their Sail Past muster.  Our other sight was a large pale grey dolphin that came speeding past a couple of times leaving us standing.

 

Arriving at the Largs Channel we're met by 150 Topper dinghies sailing up channel at the start of their race to windward.  Tied up in the marina, we took the opportunity to remove the sails and boom, yes that is the end of our season for 2010.  Earlier than usual but I'm off to the other vessel in my life, dear old Waverley up and down the Thames for three weeks.  I'll keep on blogging though, still out on the water. A fantastic weekend sailing and a great end to the year, distances for the two days was 47' and for this season a total of 950'.

Rounding the first mark

Underway

Colintraive reception

This was the weekend of the Euroyacht Fun Race from Largs to Colintraive.  It was organised as a pursuit race with a staggered start so the slowest boats start first and the fastest last, based on their handicap.  As to the result, well in horse racing terminology Tarawa "also ran".  Saying that we were 7th out of 10 mainly because I mucked up the start and was about 3 minutes late getting across the line. It was a gusty old wind at the start so I had put a reef into the main, which was needed when we were in the Largs Channel, but then once out into the Firth the wind dropped so we lost a bit of time with it in and then shaking it out.  It was a run all the way to Colintraive in the SE'ly and we managed to overtake three other boats on the way, then the whole fleet was overtaken by the last boat to start, a Sun Fast 40 which just left everyone standing and was first over the line and hence won. 

Great reception ashore at the Colintraive Hotel with a buffet and lots of Loch Fyne beer before the prize-giving, for the night we moved round to Wreck Bay and had a quiet night there at anchor in the shelter of Bute.  This morning the 06:00 forecast was SE'ly 5 or 6 increasing 8 so we upped anchor and bashed into it via the Tang Channel at Millport.  The wind was getting up all the way so it justified the early start, we were back alongside at Largs by 11:00.

Thanks to Angus and David from Euroyachts for organising everything and for the great reception, and also to Julie and Lynne for crewing and putting up with me.