Friday 19 July 2013

Top gear retrospective

When we were preparing to leave, we piled in everything that we thought might be nice to have on an extended sea voyage. By the time we were done only a small space remained, just enough for crawling into our bunk. Slowly we refined what what we would take. Excepting tools, ideally, each item would ideally have more than one function, be used daily or ward off unpleasant situations. So what gear stood the test of time? Here is a short selection of our favourites:

1 Garden sprayer
We took our garden sprayer initially for cleaning the boat away from marinas and as extra water storage. Since then, it has turned out to be a highly effective dish washer and on-board shower facility at anchor. Filled with warm water from a solar shower (which despite its name provides more of a trickle than a satisfying shower), the sprayer gives good water pressure for either showering or cleaning dishes and saves water in both processes.

2 Trugs
Those flexible plastic buckets that come in various sizes and colours. You hardly see a cruising boat without them and with good reason. Trugs are the long-term cruisers' washing machine but are also useful for transporting things, gutting fish, bathing babies or chilling beer for a pontoon party.

3 Microfibre cloths and towels
Very absorbent and quick drying, microfibre cloths are ideally suited to the marine environment. We have one dedicated specs wiping microfibre cloth (a supermarket glass-cleaning cloth which has cut down enormously on the number of specs wipes consumed) as well as dish towels, body towels and deck-drying cloths made from synthetic microfibre material.

4 Roll-top dry bags
Even on a dry boat it's very difficult to avoid dank fabrics. This is where a selection of dry bags in a variety of colours and sizes comes in handy. Everything made from fabric goes into one: bed clothes, towels, clothes, shoes, even spare cloths and rags. No more musty smells and should you take a wave through an open hatch all the gear is protected.

5 Pressure cooker
We were already pressure cooker fans before we set off and have become even more so after using ours nearly every day. Other than a kettle, this might be the only pot you need to take. It's extremely versatile: not only does it make fantastic soups, stews and risottos, but you can also make bread and cake (steamed rather than baked) or prepare meat and two veg all at once, by layering them over the steamer insert. For boiling pasta or frying, just use the pot without pressurising. The beauty of the pressure cooker is that it saves fuel, water (only half a cup of water to steam a whole pot of potatoes, for example) and cooking time. Not only that, but everything is safely contained in a closed pot - even if it flies through the cabin, dinner is saved. It's worth investing in a good quality one. Just make sure it's the right size for your crew: 2.5L for one, 3.5L for two or three, 5L for four or more.

6 Thermos flasks - liquid, food and mugs
Another essential in the galley is the thermos flask. Hot drinks are vital under way, especially at night and in bad weather, but it can be disruptive for off-watch crew (and wasteful on fuel) to make individual mugs on demand. Much easier to prepare a flask in advance so that one's beverage of choice is available in plenty, even at times when it's too rough to make some more. We have three flasks on board, one for tea, one for coffee (not a good idea to make tea in a coffee flask!) and one for food. Tea is brewed directly in the flask, coffee transferred from the unbreakable stainless steel cafetiere. Food flasks can be used for food preparation as well; they make great porridge, for example. Add boiling water to a mix of oats, milk powder, sugar and raisins, stir well and leave for an hour, with an optional stir sometime in between - a hassle-free way to prepare porridge and much easier to clean up afterwards. We also picked some double-walled stainless steel cups with carabiner clip handles. The drinks stay hot a lot longer in them, but they are cool to the touch. After use, they can be clipped to the lifelines.

7 Umbrella
This was possibly the biggest surprise. We took the umbrella for its usual rain-sheltering function, but most of the time we have used it as a privacy screen over our companionway in marinas and to sail our dinghy downwind. Since we don't bother with an outboard this can really cut down on paddling effort.

8 Mosquito net
Even at anchor, mosquitoes or midges can be a problem; in the marina they can be unbearable. Nothing is worse than being woken up by that high-pitched whine at your ear hole, followed by a strong itch, or imagined itch. Our mosquito net can be draped over the companionway or, if it is warm and we want to have the forward hatch open, directly over the bunk, for trouble-free snoozing safe from all insect menace.

9 Solar lantern
Free energy is always welcome on board. A solar-powered lantern makes a handy back-up cabin light, torch or reading lamp and can even be pressed into service as a spare anchor light. Make sure you buy one that has the capacity to last the night.

10 E-book readers
Last but not least, the e-ink e-book reader is almost a miracle for book-loving small boat cruisers. Previously, we had space for maybe 20 books for leisure reading. Often, particularly when stormbound for several days, we ran dangerously low on reading material. When we swapped with other cruisers we often acquired books of dubious quality. Now, with an e-book reader each, we have hundreds of books on board and we can buy new ones almost wherever we are, unless we are too far offshore. As many cruisers now have e-book readers book swaps have become rarer, but non-copyrighted electronic material is also eminently swappable. We charge our readers through a 12V plug and the battery life is impressive - up to several weeks of pretty heavy use on a single charge. We've encountered a lot of resistance to the e-book concept among reading traditionalists, but this is without exception from those who haven't tried it and there are plenty of enthusiastic converts among former sceptics.

Sunday 7 July 2013

Hammerin' home

Lancaster Bomber overhead
From Scarborough we made for Whitby for a last chance to see our friends there before they move to Denmark. The short passage was uneventful but for two flyovers by a Lancaster bomber, escorted by Spitfire and Hurricane, bound home from the Armed Forces Day celebrations at Scarborough. We managed to get into Whitby at low water and waited three hours at the yacht club pontoon for the bridge in front of the marina to open. We were not the only ones. At 1730 there was a mad dash of 20 boats rushing through. Dan whisked us away and very nice it was to stay in a comfy house for the night.

The forecast for the next day was promising: SW4-5 - pretty ideal since we were headed NW and looking forward to a nice offshore breeze, with smooth seas. Alas it was not to be. As soon as we got out of the shelter of the bay, it became obvious that we were dealing with a westerly force 6-7. Down to the no. 3 jib and double-reefed main and Fettler began to overtake one over-canvassed boat after after the next. She was in her element, just eating it up. It could have been an enjoyable, even exhilarating bash, but then we heard a Pan Pan on the VHF. A minute later, it was a Mayday. Fifteen minutes later, a 26ft fishing boat had sunk about 4 miles from us, overwhelmed by waves 2-3 miles offshore in an offshore wind. Three guys were in the water, but luckily all were saved by a nearby fishing boat and then transferred into the Redcar lifeboat. However, we felt terrible hearing this and it cast a pall over the entire 60-mile passage to Blyth.

Blyth was pretty much an ideal overnight stopover. A very easy harbour to get into day or night with a fantastic yacht club 'house' on an old light ship, complete with cosy bar serving real ale where we received a warm welcome from the club members. We were reluctant to press on the next morning, but with only 100 miles to go, we were keen to get home and the forecast was good for the next day and a half after which there would be stronger southwesterly winds. Crucially, the wind was forecast to go southerly during the night, potentially saving us the usual long beat up the Forth estuary.

Well, the grib files just aren't as reliable in these latitudes. The wind and conditions were so changeable that we couldn't leave the boat to steer herself on the wind vane and there was still too much of a northerly chop for the autohelm to cope with. Jim was pretty much hand steering for 20 hours. There would be good sailing with a SW Force 5 for 20 minutes, then no wind, then Force 5 again but with the wind having veered 20 degrees, then no wind again, etc. The tides hardly ever seemed to be in our favour either - at least we got a bit of help from the current when we had to tack laboriously past the beautiful but navigationally hazardous Farne Islands.

Coldingham Bay
Looking over to St Abb's 
As we approached the border the wind began to head us for Denmark and we were both getting very tired. We decided to head inshore and anchor in Coldingham Bay, just before St Abb's Head, to get some sleep and await the promised southerly wind. We dropped the anchor at 10pm in beautiful evening sunshine and got a delicious three hours' snooze before hauling anchor at 0130 and gingerly making our way out of the bay past a lot of pot buoys. Jim stood at the bow with our mega Maglite torch to avoid any entanglements. It got light pretty quickly (not that it had actually been completely dark at any point - that's the beauty of sailing in Scotland in June and July) and we had a lovely sail with the southerly Force 4 which had arrived on time. As we got into the Firth of Forth proper the water smoothed out totally - a welcome relief after the North Sea chop. It was great to pick out all the familiar landmarks - Bass Rock, of course, Berwick Law and later on the Bridges in the distance.

Passing Bass Rock at 6am

Gannets on Bass Rock 
Of course, it couldn't be as easy as all that and just as we arrived at Inchkeith Island, a mere 5 miles from the harbour, the wind turned southwesterly, gusted up to Force 6 and the heavens opened. We pulled into Granton in the pouring rain at 1015 on a Tuesday morning and tied up to the near empty pontoon, two years and two days after taking our leave. There was nobody about. Slightly anti-climactic, you might think, but we were just glad to be in and to have a chance to collect ourselves somewhat before meeting anybody. Then, 10 minutes later, Chief Engineer Fowler arrived and gradually more Corinthians began to appear. Showers, a full cooked breakfast including haggis and black pudding and an afternoon nap later, we felt ready to celebrate.

Now it's all a bit of a mad rush, getting the flat back in order, unpacking and organising life back on land. We are enjoying the home comforts - hot and cold running water, a shower to ourselves, a washing machine on demand, a dish washer (!), so much space, so many clothes and shoes to choose from - but there are definitely more hassles and complications on land than on the sea. For us, with so much experience packed into the two years behind us, it seems a long while since we sailed away. For those who continued with normal daily life in the meantime, it's a surprise to learn that we've actually been away a whole two years.