Spring boat blog…..mostly.

Well here we are !

Blog time : it’s spring 2024 although often a very overcast grey and wet one. As with previous years work on the Pathfinder project I gave myself a date to start work and this year it was an event rather than a mere number on the calendar – the notable event was to be the blooming of the first Daffodil in our garden. Well, that happened a couple of weeks ago (in blog time) and although the day was grey, damp and cool I spent the day attending to the first job – which was to heave the boat up the yard and roll it back under the shelter but only after first clearing the build shelter of the other work that’s been going on under there.  I should say that it was a very physical day because the boat is actually quite heavy, it’s trailer seems to have high ground resistance and the yard itself slopes in every direction with lumps, bumps and tree roots to get around. The job started with a simple 2:1 tackle, went to a 5 : 1 and ended with me using the chocking trick and the leverage of of puling and pushing on the drawbar.

The cheerful miscreant Daffodil – soon there will be hundreds as I planted another couple of hundred bulbs in the autumn.

WABI news.

I for one have had a difficult winter which is mainly why I didn’t get on with the two jobs I had planned and which could have been done outside : firstly I didn’t get the stainless steel and fabric to make the sprayhood based shelter for the boat and I completely forgot to get the balloon wheels , tyres and their mudguards for the trailer – in the same vein it still doesn’t have a proper locking mechanism. The main reasons for both is that I had a few weeks just attending to the black mold problem in the house (sanded off, vinegar washed and then plain washed) and then both of us acquired nasty chest infections which my partner’s GP thought could be RSV (Respiratory syncittial virus) which in babies and children certainly. tends to peak in December. Whatever it was I was knocked out by it.

Most of you will know that I also took the end of the main construction side of the project and take an expensive sideways step by buying the recumbent trike – that’s also been getting a lot of my time and attention while I get used to riding it and setting it up for road riding. My small ‘funny’ this month is that my neighbor told us about the cycle shop Certini but added that we shouldn’t go there to buy a cycle because there would be too much choice to make a swift decision. As it is I completely confused the assistant by asking for a stern light although one day I might employ the more boat based lighting system of having a bright light or strobe on a short mast just behind the riders seat. I am trying to get most jobs done and most expenditure out of the way before I swap my attention back to boat jobs and thus boat spending.

Jobs on the boat right now are mainly about emptying the hull of all loose gear, washing the whole thing out and then stowing everything for a road trip and I hope sea trials. I did spend a morning messing with the engine until I had to go and read the damned instruction……finally got it started so in a way that’s part of the sea trials done in a big bucket in our back yard.

Waiting for a weather window.

Right now, the boat is almost ready for the road and just needs tying down and a few bits n pieces to be chucked in the car to my carefully prepared checklist (checklist – as if), but I am waiting for a weather window of longer daylight, light winds and no rain and easy tides. When I was prompted into frenzied heaving by my errant Daff there was, at that time, a promised weather window about a week ahead…..now in fact (now in as I write). Right now the valley is full of clag and in fact it’s been raining with moderate winds all day, in fact , earlier on, the BBC weather channel issued a warning for wind, lots of rain and surface flooding.

It’s a bit frustrating because I really want to get on with the launch, hopefully row, motor, sail and anchor the boat and even spend night out so I also get to camp aboard and make a proper meal. I am sure that I would come back with a whole list of jobs to do as well as my ‘set-aside’ jobs written up inside the shed door. Plan A I think is to drive the easy distance into the city and do the launch at the QAB marina slipway – mainly because there are a couple of chandleries and the riggers there. However, iv’e never liked it down there and am leaning towards plan B (from outer space) which is the much longer drive down to Mylor (Falmouth) which I prefer as a boat base, and would mean having immediate access into the Fal and Truro rivers and the potential of doing an overnight in my favorite spot in the west country (Ruan Creek)

In Ruan creek – low tide

Boat – commissioning and development

My idea for going west is partially because I like Mylor and Falmouth far more than I do Plymouth and say Torpoint – where we launched the first time around. I happen to think that driving a longer distance would be a good challenge in itself. potentially set me up for a proving voyage back towards Plymouth and also prepare us a bit more for the long drive down to the eastern Solent for my planned cruise round the Thames estuary later in the year…..yes I know the eastern Solent isn’t in the Thames, at least not the last time I looked, but somewhere like Emsworth would be a good launch point and kicking off place for the passage around the awful south east coast and thus to Ramsgate and the Thames…..without a long road trip and definitely without Londinium and/or the M25.

The boat is still heading towards being a sail/row expedition boat and my idea of quick sailing trials and then back with a jobs list, also includes edging forward with my plans to fully develop the boat along expedition lines. In my terms of reference that means conversion from sloop to yawl, fitting an electrical system and building the sprayhood cum sailing and camping shelter already planned.