Portland to Guernsey

After many days of particularly windy weather, it was so nice to see a forecast like this one:

It had to be time to head over to Guernsey. Actually time was the challenge- the tides were all wrong for a daytime passage and not great for an overnight one either. To optimise the tides, we would arrive in St Peter Port after midnight - not ideal as the Little Russel channel is usually plagued with poorly marked pots and the little markers get dragged underwater in the strong streams. So, we decided to make the best of a daylight trip and accept that we would be pushing the tide more than necessary, adding around 45 minutes to the trip and a few litres of fuel. So be it.

We headed off on a beautiful sunny morning at around 6am. This was the view towards the Eastern ship channel exit from Portland harbour, with the blind partially down to shelter the helmsperson's eyes from the sun:

We headed down the side of Portland with plenty of tidal help, avoiding pot markers and consuming an early breakfast underway. Here is the pilothouse view of the (in)famous Bill of Portland:

and now from a little closer and a little blurry perhaps with a zoom lens:

Just not too close.

It had been a nice calm trip to the Bill, once out of the shelter of the land, the remaining Atlantic swell and the wind induced waves made the sea a bit "sloppy" - very typical for the channel crossing. The waves were only around a meter high but in a confused pattern so the stabilisers were in action to keep the crew and doglet happy

The planned route over involved letting the tide take us to the west initially, then back east to a point just off the shipping traffic separation zone to the north of Alderney as we headed more or less south. From our course, you can see that it almost worked. We had to make a couple of fairly big diversions around commercial shipping - the big kinks in the track below until we reached the shipping lanes - the straight bit:

Here is one of the guys that forced us to head too far east initially:

Only a little container feeder ship but still not worth arguing with!

As we approached the separation zone the usual gaggle of ships ploughing along the lanes appeared:

together with several French fishing boats who seem able to ignore the rules of the road and cross the shipping lanes at strange angles, not 90 degrees. No matter, it was a lovely day and the crew and 2nd crew member were enjoying the sun and air whilst the captain  looked on from the pilothouse:

Once clear of the shipping lanes (only one small diversion needed there) we decamped to the flybridge enjoying the lovely weather and giving the plotter up there more to do than it usually has:

As we approached Guernsey, the 2nd crew member was on sharp lookout:

probably trying to see the very tempting beaches. As we closed on the entrance to St Peter Port harbour, we realised that our liner curse was in full flow again, this was anchored off:

Luckily arriving late afternoon meant that the liner passengers were being taken back on board - we passed the pilot boat heading out to the liner as we entered the harbour. Result! We were met by the every friendly Jason, the harbour guy in his dory and as all the walk-ashore pontoons in the outer harbour were busy, we were directed to the one "unconnected" pontoon, known as Swan 5. No swans though. That meant we had to uncover and free the RIB, launch it and then take Izzy a whole 20 metres or so to the connected bits so she could have a run ashore. 

Directly opposite us was a truly enormous Nordhavn, Mermaid Six. Friendly folks on board but we could only briefly chat to them from the RIB as they were heading off the next morning. Actually that worked well for us as we could then move into their spot on the walk ashore pontoon:

The harbour was not terribly busy for the time of year. Maybe because they have jacked up the berthing prices considerably, especially as the facilities are, to be kind, sparse. According to the rather unhappy harbour staff, this was to help cover the huge deficit that the airport and the Island's airline Aurigny run up. A drop in the ocean I would imagine and a drop that causes a significant drop in visitor numbers too perhaps. Apparently many folks are just mooring overnight now, using the lovely island as purely a staging post to France. Quite a waste really.

We had a large yacht as our neighbour:

who also headed ashore in their RIB - a big Caribe with a huge outboard, We felt sorry for the davits that had to lift it, fitted on the stern of the yacht.

The harbour was suitably tranquil that evening:

It felt good to be here again even if we were a little tired. The RIB was left in the water ready for Izzy's early morning pump out trip and we slept rather well. The passage took around 11.5 hours berth to berth, longer than it should as we had to fight the tide more than you would wish to, in order to have a daylight passage. As there is no maintenance news to report, we will end things here.

Chilling (apart from the outboard) in Portland

As the little dog likes trundling around in the RIB, we decided to indulge her. We launched it, fired up the outboard, left it running for a while to check all was well (it hadn't been used since we left Penarth) and then headed off. Izzy was in her normal spot - sitting up front with paws perched on the steering wheel looking very much in charge. We planned to just potter around the marina area as it was very windy so going outside the breakwater would have meant plenty of spray - as it was the wind was making some waves splash against the walkway pontoon and causing spray to be thrown up there.

We headed off and after 50 metres or so, the engine coughed and stopped. It steadfastly refused to restart too, so the oars were quickly unshipped and the captain had the unenviable task of rowing back into the wind towards the boat. Luckily for us, a little fishing boat was returning from checking their Oyster beds and kindly gave us a tow to the pontoon. Grr

The captain had been a good boy and religiously run the carburettor and filter dry after each use - the wonderful ethanol mixed in now just helps the petrol degrade even faster and gum up the fuel system inside the outboard. It looked like this had happened despite always leaving the system empty. To be fair, the fuel we were using on this trip was pretty old. Self-inflicted pain we guess. So, the engine was treated to a carburettor strip down and clean. Here is what they look like stripped down:

An exciting number of little parts, small jets and galleries to clean out. Removing the thing is a bit of a PITA too - one bolt is tucked alongside the cylinders and you need the ubiquitous very slim 10mm socket on three extension rods that has to be threaded under the fuel filter and some cabling to reach it. The carb came off, was stripped down, cleaned and rebuilt, looking a bit like this:

Refitting it was fine until it wasn't. The slim 10mm socket fell off the end of the three extension rods when it was being removed. The socket rolled into the front cover area of the outboard and although you could see it, there was no gap big enough to retrieve it through. We now know how to remove and refit the ignition system on a Yamaha 20. It was not a good day... 

We binned the old fuel "in case", bought some more fresh E5 stuff (the super-unleaded that has less ethanol mixed in), added some fuel stabiliser, flushed out the old stuff from the fuel lines and the outboard then behaved OK. Time will tell if this is a proper fix as we couldn't run it hard for long. 

After all that torture, we decided to spread the misery to the doglet - she had a shower and looked grumpy afterwards as usual:

The captain just looks his usual bemused self. It was such a fun day....

Things picked up a lot for all of us the next day with a walk along the harbourside, across to Chesil beach and plenty of paddling and stone chasing for the doglet. Lovely weather, just windy again but great views to Portland:

Plenty of time to stand in the shallows and train us to throw stones or a ball for her:

Chesil Beach is good for walking, as long as that is not on the steep pile of pebbles itself! Climbing to the top is hard work for old people like us. The Fleet lagoon area is way easier:

Of course, we needed regular coffee breaks and this rather uninspiring industrial unit houses a very good coffee and bakery place:

We did partake a couple of times. OK, maybe more than a couple. What else amused us? Well, we took the bus into Weymouth for a wander around, did the same but then the train to Dorchester and enjoyed the riverside walk there and the lovely old buildings too. This is the Dorset museum:

and the riverside walk:

Alex and Gisele arrived in Weymouth in their HUGE Nordhavn 55 after a bumpy trip across Lyme Bay.  So, we met up briefly as we were intending to depart for Guernsey the following day. We also got to say hello to Mark, the owner of the first Nordhavn 51 built, Awanui. Mark was in the area, anchored up and heading east the next day. He produces some wonderful detailed You Tube videos on his travels that make our little blog look as sad as it is.

Then the dilemma - finally the strong SW winds were abating and changing direction. There was a little weather window that would get us happily across to Guernsey and the tide times were good too - leave and arrive in daylight still taking full advantage of the spring tides so a very quick run. Only Mrs Toddler had a hospital appointment in Southampton a couple of days later, potentially involving not just the grim sounding eyeball injection but some tests that could take up to 4 hours.  We decided to cancel our boat trip, and instead take the bus / train / bus back to Hythe so we could chauffeur her and the crew could sit with her in the hospital. The joys of public transport were upon us. As usual, a bus from Southampton to Hythe had been cancelled so when the next one arrived at the train station it was already full (so nice that they run a single decker to try and mop up two bus loads of passengers). We ended up using a service that wombles around and stops at every molehill en-route. Sitting in the cooking temperatures on the bus was not nice for us or the doglet.

The trip back was equally fun - the train ended up over half an hour late but we did pop in to see Alex and Gisele in Weymouth which made things much nicer especially for Izzy although she had to wait for her treat:

Torture. Gisele was not as hard on the doglet. She had specially purchased some treats and an edible toothbrush which Izzy devoured happily and rapidly.

Back afloat, we used a couple of days to launch the RIB and give the hull a scrub - two weeks of sun in the clear water here had prompted some fouling which got scrubbed off. Nice job. We also tried (and failed) to tire the dog and get her bored with the beaches. Fat chance of that. Our final trip to the nearby Lidl store seemed quite strange after many (free) days here. We like the Portland Marina folks - v friendly and helpful and they didn't even charge us for power.

Maintenance news:

The gear and throttle control on the flybridge had started to misbehave. The little button that you press to take control at that station was not always working on the first press. Recently it had got to the nth press before it worked and n was slowly getting bigger. So, the time had come for some intervention. We ordered up a new little "push to make" switch from the internet. Nothing too technical, just needed to be waterproof and capable of handling the huge 5 volts the control system uses! Here is what they look like as supplied:

and here are the connections underneath ours:

Irritatingly, the new push button switch we'd bought was too long to fit into the device - it would foul one of the bolts running across the control, a replacement needs to be very short indeed. So, undeterred, we fitted the new button onto the appropriate terminals and secured it in the locker under the helm position. If the original button doesn't work, we can reach inside the locker and use the new one. That will keep us going until we source a shorter replacement and it might well stay in place longer term as a backup.