Spring Chicken 5

 

The morning has a Swallows & Amazons quality to it. Voices are raised in excitement as boats put off. There are hand waves and laughter. The waters are still. The scene is lit by an ethereal silvered sunlight.

Filtered by a thick sea fog, which devours Ramsgate's rooftops and dallies amongst its quays. A North Sea haar. Born of the meeting of warming spring days and winter cold seas.

The Sunday race fleet, of the Royal Temple Yacht Club, cast off. In the hope that the visibilty will clear and a breeze fill in.

They are in luck on the former, but not the latter. Drifting, with the tide, from the moment that the starting gun fires. Unable to complete their course. But happy enough, as they congregate convivially back on the pontoons, to have spent a morning afloat. Shooting, at least, the verbal breeze.

Tomorrow is forecast to bring more wind and a fair, afternoon, tide south. Stargazer lies ready.

Spring Chicken 4

 

The departing Storm Noah spins the roulette wheel, of wind directions. It settles in the north. Giving us a three tack beat out of the anchorage and into the London River. A dawn cloudburst is quickly dispelled by a wan sun, peering from steely skies.

Our choice of destinations is made. The Orwell lies to the north. In the eye of the wind. Inaccesible.

Stargazer sails east, toward the North Foreland. The day brightening as we go. The breeze up and down between sixteen and twenty knots, as the last remaining black clouds rumble off. Huffing and puffing, like scolded schoolchildren.

Leaving ideal sailing conditions, for Stargazer's shakedown cruise. Spray flying. Reaching fast, sails bellied, wind-song playing in the rigging. 

The new autopilot is a revelation. Its nine axis motion sensor enabling it to make small, timely, corrections, like an experienced helmsman. Where its predecessor, guided by only a fluxgate compass, was wont to saw at the tiller, with the heavy hand of a novice.

Romping up from the Foreland comes a big sister Rassy 42. Joyful waves are exchanged, as we flash past one another. Rejoicing to be at sea, this fine spring day.

It is a dead run, down from the Foreland. Over the blue waters of the Channel. I roll the jib, now blanketed by the main, and begin to rig lines and fenders.

Despite the reduced rig, Stargazer sweeps past the lighthouse, making seven knots over the ground. Urged on by wind and tide. I begin to peel layers of jackets, fleeces and balaclavas (yes, plural!), as the sun strengthens.

By the time Stargazer slips into her favoured berth, I am down to my Guernsey sweater and cargo trousers. Enjoying, what feels like, a perfect summer's Saturday afternoon in Ramsgate.

Spring Chicken 3

 

An arc of iridescent colour, chalked on a blackboard sky, announces that Storm Noah is moving on.

Stargazer puts to sea next morning. Beating down river, in eighteen to twenty one knots of south easterly breeze. Which builds, as we clear the wooded shores. Whistling over the salt marshes, at the river mouth. Laden with a chorus of birdsong.

Stargazer anchors in a sheltered bend, of Sharfleet Creek. Poised to catch the morning tide, out into the Thames Estuary. The wind is forecast to back overnight. Perhaps by as much as ninety degrees. Noah's parting shot. Our choice of destination will depend on where it has settled, when we weigh.

Spring Chicken 2

 

Chimeral spring : Season of hail stones and showers. Sharp as the thistles which sprout in the hedgerows. Cleansing the air. Leaving colours vital and vivid. 

A moment later, soft sunshine caresses downy delicate apple blossoms into bloom. Beguiling the tight clenched green buds, in Goatham's orchard, to free butterfly petals from their grip.

Clouds scud and scurry swiftly across the sky. Herded and harassed by jostling pressure systems. Swirling unseen and capricious. Conjuring up their weather spells.

Out on the Nor Marsh, a high prowed fisher, which will never again put to sea, is consumed by the sedge. Providing shelter for weary marsh birds, returning from their long winter sojourns.

Now the summer birds take to wing. Roger departing, aboard his Westerly Fulmar 'Catinou,' for a berth in Ramsgate harbour. 

Simon too is eschewing Chatham's Dock Basin Number One. He transferring his Beneteau Oceanis 36CC 'Pyramid,' to a river mooring off Hoo.

The break up, of our 'F' pontoon band of sailing ‘brothers,’ begun when Daryl and Shirley left for the Mediterranean, last year, aboard their Bavaria 42 'Dream Catcher,' is complete. With ‘Zanzibar’ and ‘Pa Se Droom’ having decamped, to St Katherine’s Dock, last autumn.

Spring : the season of fresh starts, new life.

The wind ruffled waters call to Stargazer and I, to be on our way. Once Storm Noah and it’s aftermath has passed.

Picture Credits

Westerly Fulmar 'Eriskay' courtesy of Forth Cruising Clubs Association (fyca.org.uk)

Beneteau Oceanis 36CC brochure picture courtesy of Beneteau archive (Beneteau.fr)

Spring Chicken

 

Stargazer, fresh as a new-hatched spring chicken, alights on her berth. Aglow at the prospect of the season's start.

The rain-soaked gloom, of March, is lanced by a shaft of April sunshine, as the yard crew manoeuvre Stargazer within the waiting crane's reach.

Up she rises, in the slings. A quick coat of antifouling is applied, to the bare patches, where the cradle pads supported her hull. Before Stargazer is returned to her element.

My first day's work is to restore order below. Where the contents of the cockpit locker and 'stow cabin’ have been stacked over the winter. To enable easy access for mechanical maintenance and installation work. 

By evening, Stargazer's familiar snug saloon has reemerged from the shambles.

Only to vanish once more, the next day, as I ferry two trolley loads of provisions aboard. And attempt to solve the annual Rubics Cube stowage puzzle.

The following day dawns windless . Ideal conditions in which to bend on the sails.

 With Easter upon us, I find myself like Heracles, fighting the many headed Lernaean Hydra, in my battle with ever emerging job lists: No sooner do I strike a line through one, than two others seem to spring up in its place. 

The prospect of Stargazer's shakedown trip proves to be my figurative Iolaus, with burning sword. My spur to slowly but inexorably vanquish the lists. 

My mind begins to turn to tides and forecasts. To planning an equinoctial East Coast circuit.

A prelude to summer in La Belle France.

The Mysterious Island

 

The vernal equinox passes. Clocks bound forward, into British Summer Time, like spring hares. Lengthening days banish memories of dark winter nights.

 Around Dockyard Basin Number One, daffodils skip and dance, to the rhythm of the breeze.

Out on the river, boats return to their moorings. Against a backdrop of trees, yet to don their summer-green finery.

"I have no name," declares Captain Nemo. Fixing "his penetrating gaze upon. . . . .Cyrus Harding. . . .  as though he were about to annihilate him." (In 'The Mysterious Island,' by Jules Verne).

A fate shared by Stargazer. A mounting indignation shared by me.

Replacement names and decals (see 'To Be Or Not To Be.....?' post) were quickly sourced. From the ever efficient Mark at Funky Monkey graphics and Willie at Transworld Yachts. Both friends since Stargazer's original South Coast launch, in 2010.

But genie Gwen (see What's in a Name? post), who is to reapply them, vanishes in a smoke cloud of excuses and 'prior commitments.'

I negotiate, wait, cajole, wait, re-negotiate, wait and wait. Shorebound. Watching as breaks in the wintery weather become more frequent. Opportunities slipping by. The sailing season beckoning.

I attempt to reconcile myself to a relaunch, with Stargazer cast as Nemo. The boat with no name. My indignation rises, from slow simmer to a steaming boil, that this should be our fate . I sight Gwen, at work on another boat. . . . .

Birds sing and the sun beams benevolently, as Stargazer's dignity is restored. Nemo no more. Ready for relaunch. Ready to discover a Mysterious Island of our own.

"To be, or not to be....."

 

Spring suffuses the February air, as the yard crew clamber aboard Stargazer. Securing the crane slings for her annual lift out.

Taylor awakens the slumbering crane. Snorting and belching black diesel fumes, it utters a gravelly growl, as if clearing its throat. The growl deepens to a roar. The strops quiver, sweating beads of moisture. Stargazer rises skyward.

 I can see that last year's repair, to the saildrive gaiter, has held. And that the Shogun 033 antifouling has served us well. After a year afloat, fouling is confined to a thin film of slime.

The crane's gruff tone softens, to a gentle purr, as it swings Stargazer ashore and tenderly lays her in a cradle.

Throughout March the refit is beset by "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune :" Unseasonably low temperatures, high winds and high rainfall. Simon completes the engine service. Rich installs a regulator for the water pump (which, although 'equivalent' to the old one turns out to draw fifty percent more current). Polish and fresh antifouling are applied, between showers. Gwen strips Stargazer's names and Hallberg-Rassy decals. This in readiness to overlay the faded gel coat stripes with vinyl, during a suitable weather window.

Stargazer sits forlorn. Shivering in the yard. Shorn of her identity. March ticks by. Launch date approaches. Without sight of the single still, dry day, above ten degrees, which Gwen requires to work her magic. If we persevere with the stripe work, Stargazer's relaunch risks delay."To be, or not to be, that is the question." 

With ten days to go, until launch day, the decision is made. The cosmetic work is "not to be." A timely start to our shakedown cruise, and the summer afloat which it presages, trumps all. 

Thus began this year's ritual 'prelaunch-panic.' In 2021 it was obtaining rudder bearings. In 2022 it was the sourcing of a boom plug. For 2023 it is to be finding exact replacements for Stargazer's names and decals. In order to exactly cover the shadow marks, left by their precipitately peeled predecessors.

With apologies to William Shakespeare for abuse of Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1