Eastbourne, large Nordhavns and the Xmas thing

As the crew's back was still pesky, a trip to Hythe took two days but was pretty pain free. Progress indeed. The captain then headed over to Eastbourne to join Alex and Gisele on their (we may have said this before) HUGE Nordhavn 55. To use an old song line "the weather outside is frightful" but all was good inside as you can see from the picture:

Alex and the captain had a few fun jobs to do - overhauling the old Jabsco bilge pump and sorting out a very slow to empty grey water tank. The first one went well. The second was one of those "fix one thing, find another" jobs.  A slightly leaky anti-siphon fitting was easy to fix. A new electric pump was fitted with a new joiner hose to replace one that was pretty bent about. Then the manual pump was a bit leaky and possibly having joker valve issues so stripping it down and resealing it in situ  was amusing. For all the wrong reasons. Suffice to say that it eventually came out totally, to be sorted on a bench instead. The tank senders were seriously grubby and jammed so they came out and got cleaned up too. For some inexplicable reason, a fuse popped and had to be replaced as well. The job wasn't finished so will be returned to another day.

Xmas was back afloat, but we were invited to a Czech dinner on the 24th as last year. It started strangely, Moxie, their fox red labrador, managed to bash her tail against all the doors, walls and furniture causing the tip to bleed. The continually wagging tail then sprayed the blood around rather dramatically over the walls, furniture etc. She looks so peaceful here, with her new Xmas present from us,  but earlier on it was quite a drama:

The Czech tradition of seeing the first star, then hunting for the golden pig was observed and once Nikki found the important animal:

a rather excellent dinner followed on. Happy times.

Xmas day was quiet - we felt the need to open some Camel Valley rose fizz to celebrate it though:

and although Patrick didn't get any, he still managed to look slightly the worse for wear:

It must just be an age thing for the poor guy.

Between Xmas and New Year we had an Aussie invasion. Ross ( he starred in here a few years ago on his last visit) and his fiancee Lucy came to stay. Only it was not the easiest trip for them. Train strikes over Xmas messed up the train they had booked to London and the weather then decided to add to their amusement. We collected two drowned rats from Cardiff station and thawed them out on the boat, helping their inner warmth with more Camel Valley stuff. It did finally dry up a little so Ross could venture onto the flybridge:

suitably attired in our wet weather gear. Lucy seemed to take to life afloat rather quickly and very well:

and was most interested in some of the strange beers that are on offer in the UK. Watermelon IPA was a hit:

and just for the record, Lucy is lovely, not at all an evil genius.

The IPA was not good for poor Ross though, who is a bit gluten intolerant now. Luckily we'd picked up lots of tips from Gisele on what to buy and so he didn't starve. It might have been a close run thing when he stayed with his grandma though as her man kept telling folks that Ross was "vegan free". No idea what that would let him eat. A walk around Penarth (in heavy showers of course) then a trip to Castell Coch to get some "culture and heritage" (and also to get out of the rain) occupied a day:

before we dropped them off at the station again for their trip up to Glasgow:

The boat felt very empty after they left, although the gin cupboard was better stocked thanks to a couple of nice bottles they brought. So much for the Xmas period.

Coolant, backs, paddleboards and another little trip

Upon our return to the boat, the captain wandered into the engine room and discovered a little pool of coolant in a place where it should not be. So, this post starts with boring maintenance stuff. For normal human beings, there is other info later on so skim read the next bit. For folks who like the captain to be involved in anguish, press on.

Naturally the errant coolant could not be from a leaking spare coolant container, life does not work like that. It was traced to the top of one of the hoses that lead from the main engine thermostat housing to the calorifier. A quick fix would be to just turn off the two isolating valves fitted before the hose and leave it but that would mean no domestic hot water is produced when running the engine. Something to do if we were in the middle of a sea trip but....

So, the first challenge is getting to the top of the hose that was causing the trouble. It is very close to the gearbox oil cooler hose fitting so that had to be removed first of all. You can see where the two hose clips had been fitted in the factory and the hose had a small split underneath these, just below the hosetail it was pushed onto:

You can also see how the cheapo hose clips had cut into the hose, were probably overtight and a trace of the infuriating black sealant goo that some idiot in the factory had applied when installing the hose. Grr. We've moaned before about the liberal use of sealant in areas where it has no right to be. This made removing the hose from the hosetail a real challenge. After a few bad words and some violence, it surrendered:

You can see the oil cooler connection (and the pad catching any drips from it!) that had to be removed first. 

Luckily there was enough free hose to allow the damaged part to be cut off and then for it to be refitted. The angle of the oil cooler elbow that you can see in the picture above was changed to allow easier access in future and the whole thing rebuilt:

Such excitement. Now, for folks with a more normal set of interests here is an update on the goings on, or lack of them.

The crew, she of the poorly back, had a fruitful appointment with a consultant spinal surgeon who told her that there was nothing wrong with her scan and that if his spine looked like that when he was her age, he would be very happy. Kind of a compliment and gentle put down in one accurate but not too carefully worded comment. So, she headed to an expert physio lady who gave her exercises and some homework. The homework was probably unlike any that had been set before - to take the boat out for a run. Seems that lifting those big fenders is good exercise.

Being an obedient type (well, for certain people), the crew then decided that we needed to burn up and down the bay a few times on a lovely still, blue skied but chilly day. The usual confusing track resulted:

and we made plenty of hot water with no coolant leaks this time. However, the repositioned oil cooler hose looked as though it might have a weep where it attaches to the fitting on the cooler so that will need redoing. The old "fix one problem, cause another" game.

To add to the annoyance, the wing engine exhaust elbow which had some suspect dark marks underneath it before, decided to show that it was unhappy - a little pinhole must have opened up as a tiny black stain appeared.. Time to renew it. The current elbow is a stainless steel version that replaced the original cast one in early 2014. We were not too impressed that the more expensive factory supplied stainless offering had lasted only a little longer than the cast iron original.

It hasn't been swapped out yet for the spare that we carry as we will wait until we have another new one shipped over from the USA. Just in case the identical elbow on our genset decides to fail too - replacing that during the winter is way more important than fixing the wing engine. This time we have gone for stainless again but a pattern part from a supplier that many Nordhavn owners have recommended. They produce good quality castings at way lower prices that the original equipment part. Have a look at HDL Marine website - they also seem to ship much more quickly too. Wrestling the exhaust hose off and getting to the one hidden bolt will be fun for another day.

Xmas seems to be setting in and despite the freezing temperature around 40 stand up paddleboarders braved the weather and dressed up for a Santa paddle event to raise money for the lifeboats. Impressive sight:

and they all paddled past us in various outfits and with various levels of stability on their boards:

You can just see the inshore lifeboat that accompanied them on their travels so it looked pretty safe.

The marina runs a "best illuminated boat" competition at Xmas time., As professional bah humbug types we didn't take part. You would expect nothing else from us of course.

Cornwall and claws

Way earlier on this year we foolishly told Norman and Julie that if they wanted to head to the USA and Canada during November, we would move into their house and look after the dogs for them, At the time there were two labs and the newish Jack Russell pup Stanley to tend to and amuse. Sadly, Roxy the "mum" labrador had to be put to sleep so we were due to become surrogate minders for Indie and Stan only. As if having a hyperactive young Jack Russell could ever be described as "only".

The small challenge was the crew's back which was still not happy sitting for longer periods. Basically, 25 minutes was plenty. That makes the drive from Penarth to Wadebridge in Cornwall a lengthy one. First of all you chop it up into 25 minute segments, then you add another "boundary condition" - no more than about 90 minutes driving in a day. So, the drive that normally takes about three and a half hours took 3 days.

The delightful first stop was a Travelodge in Weston-super-Mare. It was cheap. The shower curtain had been mounted so high that there was a huge gap between it and the shower tray. The floor was duly flooded after showering. Oh, and the soap dispenser thing was broken  - amazing how the cleaner had topped up the soap knowing that it would not come out! This meant that getting clean was harder than it should be. Not an auspicious start.

Things looked up when we made it to Wadebridge though. Stan was in a favourite position on the back of the sofa looking almost angelic and most cute:

Looks can deceive of course. He is massively cute and has a lovely nature - he also is totally obsessed with chasing tennis balls. Indie on the other hand is equally lovely, older and has the usual labrador obsessions (cuddles, sleeping and food, just not in that order):

Norman and Julie duly headed off to the excesses of the USA / Canada and we settled down to some serious dog sitting, or dog laying for the crew with her dodgy back. All was well until Stan's ball obsession caused some trouble. He was manically chasing a ball in the garden, came back inside and left a trail of bloody paw prints across the (luckily tiled) kitchen / diner area. 

With great help from some neighbours who were dog owners and medically trained, we borrowed a boot, collar of shame and cleaned up his claw area which was the source of the blood. Nothing to stitch, just blood round the claw itself. So, despite a wriggling strong little Stanley we managed to dress it and then administer the borrowed boot too so he didn't remove the dressing:

Stan played the wounded soldier / hard done by pup thing so well but was really good each time we re-dressed it. He did manage to trash the borrowed collar which he needed from time to time to protect the boot from his tongue and teeth though:

Despite the protection, he managed to wear out the ends of two borrowed boots so we had to replace those and the collar for the kind neighbours. The most important bit was that he recovered and was once again an unguided ball obsessed missile.

Indie had been enjoying time away from the house without him but the weather just deteriorated to daily gales and heavy showers. No more beach time:

For the non boating folks, a "very high" sea state means waves of 9 to 14 metres high. Enough said. The accompanying rain kind of restricted the hounds to more local walks and the woods: 

Back in  the house, Indie decided that she could join the horizontal crew for cuddles by jumping up on top of her when Stan's play fights got a little over-enthusiastic and then cuddling into the spare space on the sofa. We can assure you that 32 kilos of labrador makes quite an impact, one that is not forgotten quickly. However, Indie looked very happy with the whole arrangement:

Walks along the Camel Trail during gaps in the deluges were amusing. To have a little bit of a boaty theme in this post, the captain admired a little fishing vessel that had been gently parked on a drying slipway. On the first day, they didn't quite get it right and the boat was leaning over at about 30 degrees. After the next tide it was better and on day 4 they finally cracked it:

After just over two weeks of canine fun (and a bit of stress), the travellers returned and Stan wanted to show them who was boss:

By then, we had figured that out anyway. The trip back to Penarth was lengthy thanks to the pesky back trouble and a bit foggy too. The worst bit of being afloat again was the layer of green goo that was covering the decks of the boat. All that rain, no sun, bad juju. A little scrubbing and washing off job is in the captain's future it seems. 

Back afloat and (briefly) underway again

The return from Toddlerville to the boat took way longer than usual. Several stops during the journey to allow the crew to walk and lie down on the back seat to rest and move her pesky back elongated the process. We even had an overnight stop too,  to break things up.

The good news was that this time her back was OK when we returned to the boat and unloaded the car.. It felt good to be back on the water and the weather was kind (well, for the first week anyway). The captain was back on duty as chief cook, provisioner and cleaner but did manage a few little jobs and walks alongside his daily task list.

The poor neglected boat had not been run since our arrival in Penarth and since the crew was not supposed to be lifting fenders and managing mooring lines, Simon joined us for a brief run around the bay:

He was responsible for these tracks and any oddities in them, being back in the pilothouse helm seat and looking very much at home there. We think that a Nordhavn is in his future. He thinks that our Nordhavn is in is future for £50K. We think he is a bit deluded. 

Apart from the excitement of the bay run, we had a very very quiet time. The odd osteopath trip for the crew, the regular walk to the food shops for the captain. Resting the crew's back and some careful exercises as per the healthcare professionals instructions seem to deliver progress albeit at a glacial pace. 

Maintenance news:

The genset was due a coolant change so it was properly pampered this time. Coolant drained, then it had a run to flush it with dishwasher detergent added,  then drained and refilled with fresh coolant. The flushing mix came out pretty cleanly really, considering that it had not been done during its entire life. A satisfying job though, knowing that the closed cooling system is nice and clean. 

The RIB had a run around the bay area and the pre-winter oil change too. A sad time of year really, doing all the "laying-up" stuff.

Penarthing again, just briefly

Just in case he had caught anything like covid on his travels (other viruses are still available too it seems) , the captain left Eastbourne by train (they were running again that day) and then bus to Hythe. Pausing at the front door only long enough to collect some car keys, he headed off alone to Penarth. The plan was to stay there until any possible incubation period had passed and then return to Toddlerville.

What does a captain alone do? Well, some cleaning and tidying, some laundry, some cooking and some walks. Sooo exciting! He went big too - the first walk around the bay and into the city since our arrival. Normally this is a regular wander but thanks to the crew's bad back, we had been stuck in the area close to the boat.

What did he find? Well, the wooden walkway at Mermaid Quay which is the big Cardiff Bay tourist attraction area was still out of use. All the boards were ripped up early last year and nothing more had been done. Impressive move Cardiff city council, a real eyesore in a popular tourist area for the entire summer. Just up from Mermaid Quay, this rather dead little guy was laying on the pavement:

next to this mess outside a building that was awaiting renovation:

and you can see how close the mess is to the Millennium centre (copper coloured building), the centrepiece of the Mermaid Quay area:

Truly impressive Cardiff council. Walking around the city centre was good though and things started to feel more normal, hoping that the crew will be fit to do this kind of thing soon too.

Once the captain was pretty sure that he was nasty virus free, he returned to Toddlerville when both of us enjoyed (??) a hygienist visit and getting our covid booster and flu jabs.

Maintenance news:

One of the engine room extractor fans was removed a while ago and mentioned in an earlier post. The rather nice Chris, a stainless steel fabricator, was asked to make up a new mounting bracket for a replacement. Well, he did, so it meant that the captain had to fit it. Easily typed but a pig to do. The fan lives in a little locker high up in the engine room. You have to sit on a "shelf" outside the locker then persuade your head and shoulders to go inside, the doors are only just wide enough. Then with nicely constrained movements thanks to the small space inside, you hold up the heavy bracket to the ceiling and screw it in place. Oh, all the time your back is over a tall lip that the doors close onto as well. So comfortable.

Yes, it was a wonderful job. Once in, connecting up the already extended 240v power feed was the easy bit. At least it is done now and working, here is the view upwards showing the new fan in position:

One of the winter jobs ticked off the list. Just one.

Ijmuiden to Eastbourne by BIG Nordhavn

As we had a civilised late morning departure planned, the day started as a low stress one. Quick engine room check (all was well) and then firing up the instruments ready for the off: Alex had completed the on-line information demanded by the UK customs folks now and so we were good to go:

The one small challenge was that there was nowhere / nobody to "stamp" the passport of the British crewmember to say he had left the EU and that his 90 day allowance to stay there was no longer being used up. Thanks Brexit for making life so simple. No idea how that gets rectified.

This view was looking aft, our farewell to the Netherlands showing the rather industrial area around Ijmuiden:

and all was well on the good ship Lady Grey, even if some of the crew looked rather dodgy:

The forecast was amazingly good for the time of year in the North Sea. A bit bumpier to begin with as the wind had been from the NW and we would be heading broadly in that direction but then it was to calm down and not pick up and turn SW until early afternoon the following day, by when we should be in Eastbourne all being well.

The bumpier start of the trip cut our speed a little:

and caused Gisele  to feel less than well. Some sun and flattening seas helped her to look much perkier later on, sitting in the pilothouse and watching the many ships heading into and out of the myriad of shipping lanes in the area:

We didn't have too many that forced us to alter course to avoid them, amazing really. Alex called a couple and they even altered course by a few degrees to save us a huge detour. Most kind indeed. There are plenty of shipping lanes to avoid around here:

a pretty busy picture and of course we either have to avoid the lanes or cross them at right angles. Makes planning this trip a bit harder than drawing a straight line to the Dover area

The wind settled down  and the wave pattern followed, by evening it was incredibly calm and we were treated to quite an impressive sunset:

as we headed down the North Sea towards the Thames estuary area:

The night-time view in Lady Grey's pilothouse is a lot like the one we have on board:

and with Alex we set up a watch routine - 4 on, 4 hours off. As it was so calm, sleeping in the forecabin (guest cabin) was fine.

There are plenty of wind farms around the many shipping lanes and the radar shows them up well (the green blobs are "non threatening" targets. After cruising Scotland it felt strange to be so far offshore but in under 40 metres of water - often more like 20:

Our route from Marinetraffic has a big "gap" in the middle of it which their system fills with a simple straight line. In reality, we headed further west from Ijmuiden before turning south west and running parallel to one of the main shipping lanes. You can see how the ground stations picked up our signal off the Thames Estuary and our "jink" around another traffic separation zone:

The last part of the trip, along the English south coast and to Eastbourne was pretty quiet. Dover had the usual manic number of ferries heading in and out to avoid but apart from hearing the Border Force ships busy rescuing migrants who had headed over from France in the flimsy little dinghies there was no more excitement. The Border Force guys must just love that job each day that the sea calms down. They were collecting the migrants and then offloading them onto a navy ship and the government figures reported 856 migrants were landed that day. Wild, wild world we live in.

You can see the rest of our route here - a simple inshore run towards Eastbourne, passing the rather ugly Dungeness power station. You do get great views of the famous white cliffs beforehand though:

Alex called Sovereign Harbour Marina as we neared Eastbourne and sped up a bit to catch the timed lock-in. We know all about that game from the Cardiff barrage restrictions! Here is how the lock approach looks just after high water:

And now, tied up to the floating pontoon inside the lock and waiting to enter the marina:

Whilst waiting Alex and Gisele were proud when some onlookers asked where we had come from and was the boat new. Gisele told them no, she is a 2008 boat. Alex reminded her that Lady Grey was built in 2006.

We berthed in a very tight spot with pontoons on either side of us and only enough clearance to have fenders over on the starboard side. A cosy spot for the winter to ride out any strong winds. The afternoon was spent doing a few maintenance bits - one was the stern thruster oil top up (the captain needed arms that were about 10 cm longer to do this easily). Sadly they are of a fixed length so it involved some contortions laying underneath the steering gear. A truly horrible smell from the pilothouse aircon outlet was tended to and we investigated why the grey water tank pump out was painfully slow.

After the successful passage and afternoon of maintenance things, we felt that we deserved a celebration:

then dinner out before returning to a very smart looking boat to catch up on sleep:

The trip took just under 30 hours. The boat behaved well apart from some initial fun when the Satellite compass decided to lose our ship's heading in the rougher stuff and that upset the autopilot. We changed the feed to the autopilot and it all behaved properly after that. The HUGE John Deere engine didn't miss a beat and was pretty abstemious with fuel too. 7.2 knots or so being just under 17 lph. Good for a boat weighing 52 Tons plus fuel, water, RIB, personal effects etc etc.

All in all most enjoyable and it was good to be back out to sea again - well, for the captain. The crew continued her recovery in Toddlerville. 

Going foreign on a BIG Nordhavn

Despite the crew being out of commission, the captain managed a boat trip. No, not on our little Nordhavn around the bay. Instead it was a most exciting time - it involved the first flight and foreign trip since covid stopped such things. Alex and Gisele (the BIG Nordhavn 55 owners) had their boat in Hoorn, Netherlands for the summer and wanted to bring it back to Eastbourne for the winter period. Alex wanted some crew so the captain headed over to help whilst the crew was being pampered by the Toddlers instead of him..... 

Thanks to train strikes, getting to Southampton airport from Hythe involved two bus journeys and it felt so strange to see this kind of sign again:.

especially as whilst working, flying was almost a weekly event. By the way, the captain was happy not to be on the very delayed Belfast City flight shown above. KLM were pretty much on time to Amsterdam with their little Embraer jet:

Alex's son is a captain for KLM Cityhopper on that fleet and had looked up the name of the Captain flying SOU to AMS. He reported it as "Frank Blok, a weird but friendly guy". We would have preferred "competent and safe" but so be it.....

The original plan of taking the train from the airport into Amsterdam and then on to Hoorn was messed up as the airport train station was closed that weekend and there was bus chaos instead. So, Alex collected his new crew member by car instead - although there was quite a delay after landing. You always seem to taxi for ages there but we had to stop and wait - Captain Blok told us that a Eurowings plane had taken a wrong turn, was stuck across the taxiway and needed a tug to get pushed out of the way. Travel seemed fated that weekend.

Once on board, Alex made drinks and you can gauge how big the saloon is on their boat from how far away he appears:

The next morning we left a sunny Hoorn and headed to Ijmuiden. The pilothouse look a lot like our offering, just bigger. The same Furuno navigation kit meant a very easy learning curve for his new crew member:

Unlike our seating area and pilot berth, the 55 has the seating but then a full blown Captain's cabin and heads in the pilothouse area:

Big. The route towards Amsterdam looks strange to start with. The big loop round is to avoid an area that is infested with weed which has claimed many boats during the summer and also, sadly, the life of one guy who tried to go over the side of his boat to free the propellers of weed and didn't make it back alive. The charts do not show the weeded area as a no go zone of course, you need local knowledge:

Heading towards the canal through Amsterdam you can see the profusion of AIS targets - ie other vessels:

Just before the first lock, we saw this cute little lighthouse. It has to be added to our collection:

The wait for the first lock was brief  and then we were let loose on the canal that runs right through the city. Busy with ferries crossing all over the place but amazingly none that caused us any trouble. The gods of canal travel were with us it seemed. This picture was for Mrs Toddler - memories of her mother sending her / us on shopping expeditions in Groningen to the Albert Heijn store. Their big distribution depot this time:

 

Approaching the last lock before the sea, the lock keepers gaily told Alex that the Kleine Sluis that is normally for pleasure craft was not in use. 15 minutes of holding off in increasing winds were no fun for the skipper. Eventually, for no obvious reason,  they then decided that the little lock was in use and we could go into it.  Then it was a short run up to the Seaport marina which looks way nicer here than in real life:

There was nobody on duty so Alex found an empty  spot which was very tricky to berth on - the wind just wanted to carry him off any of the vacant berths. The pontoons were filthy and the power connections looked decidedly dodgy. A real shame as the location is perfect, probably how they can get away with the state of the place and still have a few visitors.

We had a bit of checking to do - the stern thruster stopped working just before we got alongside the pontoon. Luckily it had just overheated whilst working hard, forcing the boat into the wind. So after allowing it to cool, it happily worked again. Getting any work from his new crew was harder - Alex had to feed him. 

A civilised departure time was fixed for the next morning to work with the tides around the Dover area and a beautiful evening moon was enjoyed despite the surroundings:

So far, so good on the delivery trip.