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.

Not all Penarth this time.....

The Welsh weather was amazingly good to us. In fact it was often too sunny for the captain to polish the hull. So far only the transom and starboard side have been treated to some winter protection. The port side means working from the RIB and single handed that is trickier. Yes, the crew still has a grumbling back restricting her fun. If you can call polishing fun that is.

There were some great days, and some dramatic skies too. Spot the Nordhavn game again:

The crew was having regular osteopath visits and had been confined to 15 minute walks so the captain occasionally broke free to do exciting things like visit Tesco or walk up the big hill into Penarth. One walk was the first time he crossed the barrage locks since arriving 4 weeks earlier - unheard of before! In the bay, plenty of duckweed had accumulated near the trip boat pontoon - rare to see here:

It was a hint that Cardiff had enjoyed a way sunnier and warmer summer than we did. The little excursion was one of "ugly boats". This monstrosity does trips across the bay and is based in Penarth marina:

A few years ago there had been all sorts of fun when the upper seats were added without getting the MCA certification for stability. I never quite understand why you would want to sit outside on the boat anyway as the engine exhaust is SOOOOO noisy. We can always tell when she returns to Penarth and is turning around.

Loitering near the barrage locks that take you out to sea, this "craft" arrived:

A most strange concoction too. The captain continued the ugly boat fest by heading to Hythe, seeing the toddlers and spending a day at the Southampton Boat Show. Sadly no Nordhavn on display there, just one nice Fleming to admire (although their fuel bills would terrify us). There was one aluminium (no polishing!) Dutch built trawler yacht style thing but the interior fitout was more B and Q kitchen fitter than boatbuilder quality and finish. Shame. However, despite that the captain enjoyed his "day out".