Jeanette and Chris

BRADWELL MARINA, ESSEX.

We sailed from Hoo Ness 10.30am High Tide, after making sure that as much as possible was secure, for what would be a rough passage, across the Thames Estuary. The destination was Bradwell on sea, where we would visit our first Cetic Shrine, St. Peters in the Wall.

We motored down the River Medway, passing Sheerness, across the Thames Estuary. We saw the Essex coat in the distance, I couldn’t work out why Chris wasn’t sailing straight across. He mentioned that we could see Bradwell, I panicked thinking he had forgotten that was the destination of our first celtic shrine. It was then that he explained the little matter of the Maplin Sands, and Fowlness, directing my gaze to the sea charts, where I noted the huge stretch of sand that lies in front of the Essex coast, where sailors fear getting stranded at low tide.

The crossing into the River Crouch was choppy, and at times I felt really rough, but I had a very distressed dog to contend with who howled most of the way over to Bradwell. Even when we reached the calmer waters of the River Crouch, he remained looking miserable, and a shaking wreck of a dog.

Yesterday evening we arrived in Bradwell Marina, at 6.15pm, after eight hours sailing.

Some years ago, a couple we spent some time with holidaying on the canals, shared with Chris and I,that when they first started going out together, her Father suggested that they should go sailing.  His reasoning being that, a couple that can sail together stay together. I smiled, at this Chris and I had just taken to narrow boating and although narrow boats do not have the same challenges as sailing on the sea, we had had our fair share of arguments and tensions as we learnt. And indeed, I had decided at one point that I would never cruise the boat again, after he had raised his voice to me in a lock after a manouvere had gone wrong. This was in front of a crowd of people, on a summers day, watching the boats going through the lock. I vowed that in future I would work the lock, while he cruised the boat. ( This was decided, at the same moment, I resisted the temptation of hitting the Captain over the head with a windlass. ( The instrument with which that you open the sluices on the lock with.)

I agree that sailing can certainly challenge ones relationship with your partner. Examples from this week are;

1. When you have packed something somewhere where you think is just perfect, to find that the item has been moved.

2. A  carpenter husband, who can never remember where he put his tools.

3. A captain that shouts at you because you’ve inadvertently let a rope drop into the sea.

4. A Captain who shouts at the dog because it’s scared out of his wits. ( The only thing that stops you throwing him overboard…….is that he has all the sailing skills.)

And finally as I write this, I am in a great deal of pain, because I have pulled a muscle in my back, while I was grappling with a duvet cover, in a confined space.

Question: Why does the Captain, Mr. Territorial Army Action Man, need a duvet when sailing…….wouldn’t a sleeping bag suffice????

Whether motoring or sailing, I prefer calmer waters, while Chris enjoys the stimulation and exhilaration of choppy waters. We can’t choose how our sailing will be calm,or choppy, turbulent seas that sends you into the boat tying possessions down, stowing them away, so they won’t get broken or wet. Sailing is so like may aspects of  life, things can be calm and we think we are in control, then suddenly turbulence can occur, sickness, bereavement, the breakdown of a marriage, a period of redundancy.

Yet what ever the situation God is always always with us. 

I conclude this blog, with a prayer, that reminds us of this.

Sea Tides.

Let the lovetide swelling

 Surround me and my dwelling.

Let the power of the mighty sea

Flowin, Lord and strengthen me.

Tide of Christ covering my shore

That I may live for evermore.

Whatever the tide

The Lord at mt side,

In the storm or in calm

to keep me from harm,

In good or in il

He’s with me still.

Amen.

(David Adam.)l

NELSONS EYE.

Well blow me down………talk about baptism of fire. I ended my last blog by asking ‘What this going to sea lark was.’ Well, I was strapped into my life jacket. Then the captain and the vicar started making sure that everything in the boat, was securely put into place. I watched with some amusement. Then, the engine was started, what a bloomin roar, then there was some movement. I thought to myself ‘Don’t panic Nelson this is familiar you’ve been on a narrow boat before, lots of noise, but after that calm, gentle with the promise of a walk along the tow path. So to calm myself I sat low in the cock pit, once I was used to the sway, I thought I would like to check out the tow path. It was then I realized there was no towpath it was miles to the shore. I decided to protest a little, I howled.

Attempts were made to calm me down. But I’m afraid I shook, put my head down in misery and panted. The captain suggested I have a drink of water. I wanted to shout.

‘THIS PANTING HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIRST, THIS IS PURE TERROR.’

This was when my new gait kicked in, body down legs out, flat at the side. This is the walk I use when I’m on those dreadful pontoons.

This was to get worse, once we started motoring to the Essex Coast, the sea got choppy, waves were going over the wheelhouse, I  decided to take a look over the vicars shoulder, who was holding me a trying to comfort me in my howling which had become a shrieking scream. It was then I realized, the height of the waves………and even worse…….no land…….where had the land gone……no land…..Oh, will we ever see land again.  I shiver, scream, shiver scream. The vicar picks me up, and tries to console me.

The conversation goes like this.

Jeanette. This is going to get better, they’ll be beach walks.

Nelson: I want to go home.

Jeanette. We will be walking along the same beach, that Gavin Maxwell walked with Mij.

Nelson: I want to go home.    

Jeanette: We will walk beside Loch Ness, seeing if we can spot the monster.

Nelson: MONSTER, MONSTER……….YOU ARE THE MONSTER. Fancy thinking I would enjoy this………(more howling.)

I was quiet after a while trying some meditation, (I’ve heard about this from the vicar….I thought this was a good chance to try it.) Then I heard her say, the pure audacity of it…… ‘I haven’t enjoyed today, I feel like I’ve been babysitting a fretful child.’ If I’d been a Rockweiler, I’d have bitten her arm of and fed it to the fish…….but I did all I could do and that was howl some more.

We motored into Bradwell Marina, the Captain and the Vicar and I went to the Marina Bar, where we all indulged ourselves with a beer. ( I don’t drink much, the vicar dips her finger into the froth, I love the froth.) They ordered a meal, my stomach had by now settled…….I sat with the most appealing look, ‘ After all you’ve  put me through you could spare a chip.’ Did they heck. They worry about my  diet……but put me through hell…..and call it a pilgrimage.

PILGRIM………IN PROGRESS. ( And loving every minute of it.)

Yes, many of you on Facebook guessed that I was the fourth voice in the blog. I would like to tell you a little of my story, of how I came to be owned by the Captain and the Vicar.

Eight years ago I was taken by my new owner, to Ramsgate dry dock by my new owner, who had big ideas to refit me, so he spent thousands of pounds, on a new engine, new cooker, other new gadgets. He would rub his hands with glee as he would look at me and dream, dreams.

Then he didn’t appear for a little while, when he did he looked gaunt and ill, from conversations I heard, I came to discover he was terminally ill. Sadly he died, and his two sons, who inherited me had no interest in sailing.

So I sat in dry dock for eight years, prospective buyers came and went, many arranged to look me over and disappeared. I would watch other boats, come into the boatyard to be decorated or be refitted and I would watch them go into the crane and back into the sea. I would watch the Ramgate ferry come and go twice daily. But ebbtide, ebbflow, I remained in dry dock.

Then twenty months ago a couple came into the dry dock, I knew he was an experienced sailor. He was also a craftsman, he would rub his hands along my metal hull. He would wander inside, looking at my woodwork, sometimes alone, sometimes with his wife. He would spend ages talking her around, saying I was a boat with a lot of potential. The wife, I gathered by this time was fed up with projects, they has renovated an old seventies narrowboat, and their latest project had been the renovation of a sixteenth century town house in Margate. She would say things like, ‘Enough is enough’.

However eventually she relented, she had just applied for a sabbatical, and the plan was to sail (on me) around Britain. I was delighted, yes, yes, I was glad these were my new owners. But there were many set backs along the way, being let down by the engineer who was supposed to fit my engine, family bereavement, boatyard politics.

But then the Captain called some friends into help, Jim, an ex Seaman, came and worked on my electrics, John came and painted me. I felt that I was coming alive again.

So when on Friday 31^th May I was finally lifted into the water, with a new mast, I could not believe it. I thought my destiny was to sit and rot, and here I was being lifted into the sea.

Jim who had fitted my electrics in, was the person that heard me coming to life. He had heard the straining of the mast as it was fitted. Because Jim, had put so much work into me, The Captain let him motor me round to Hoo Ness, as I was going over the waves, he again said ‘ She’s coming alive.’ I was indeed, as the waves were coming at  me, I would ride them. The waves that made Jim and the vicar seasick, was exhilarating me. (Yippee, Yippee)

I am now in Bradwell Marina, after another rough crossing, if you are wandering why the captain hasn’t written a blog yet, its because he is continuing to work on me. Now the new challenge……..is, will the dog Nelson, take to this sailing lark. I could hear him yesterday, howling and screaming. ( I was having a whale of a time.) I do hope, that he lives up to his name……the name of that great Admiral…….who I believe in his time was seasick as well.   

Skipper’s log.  What a journey!!!!!!!!!!!  This began 20 months ago when I saw a boat online which looked very capable of going places in open sea and also with lovely lines and with a very reasonable price.   Amazingly Jeanette agreed to have a look at the real boat in Ramsgate boatpark.  She looked sad, the boat that is, named Vixen.  Her decks were heavily pitted with rust but her hull was sound. I knew what to look for as we owned a narrow boat for 9 years and they can rust underwater from inside and out.  Sadly, the owner had died and his sons had kept the boat and I later learnt that that the wooden mast was beyond repair, left on the ground to rot.  No engine, but one had been paid for and waiting in the factory.  We decided over tea in Ship Shape to make an offer.  75% of the asking price.  I negotiated over the internet and after I told the owner our plans he accepted and was please to hear our intention to sail around the UK.  His Father wanted to sail across the Atlantic but fell ill and this seemed a fitting tribute to his memory.

On the day of payment and exchange the new engine was delivered to a local engineer, one decision we would later regret.  It was the same engineer company I had found in the boat’s paperwork and they seemed the appropriate choice having done business before.

I shall recall some of the work over the past 20 months as we go along but to the near present.  The last two weeks have been crazy.  I often advise student to make a dummy deadline to meet, then you have time to edit and perfect your work.  I did not have the luxury of this as work and other commitment conspired to reduce the time.  One solution would be to get someone to do the work for us but this can be costly and has proved risky.  I thought of John McIllmurray who describes himself as a handyman.  I know him and he is very conscientious so I decided to ask him to finish the painting of the boat.  He did 2 weeks work in one and the boat looks amazing.

Other large tasks need to be finished.

·         Welding new stainless Steel to take the 16m mast I had bought from Galway last year, no small job.

·         Lifting the mast and fitting some new rigging.  What a saga. £££

·         Fitting fuel lines.

·         Connect exhaust.

·         Electrics.

·         Engine panel and wiring loom.

·         Wooden panelling around engine to refit

·         Finish commissioning the engine.

·         Bolt inspection panel to lifting keel.  Essential to prevent water entering boat.

·         Skin fittings and toilet hoses.

·         Depth Gauge to wire up.

·         Getting the boat in the water!!!!!!! ££££

·         Move Boat to Hoo Ness!!!!!!!!

·         Tidy the boat

·         Fit New name: Pilgrim

Jobs which will need to wait.

·         Cleaning fresh water tank and bolting down hatch which previous owner had removed to inspect.

·         New cooker to fit, came with boat.

·         Gas bottle to fit and pipes.

·         Deck hatches to coach roof.

·         Polycarbonate to wheel house to replace 4mm glass!!!

·         DSC Radio, use handheld VHF for the first few days