Sods Law

A week last Saturday saw us depart Goole, Ocean Lock, bound for Hull, for the start of our Autumn holiday. Luckily for us, we are no longer tied to school holidays, and it made sense to go when the tides worked better for us, and before the clocks changed. 

We made Hull in very good time on a very large spring tide, passing the yacht still aground at Whitton Island. Upon arrival at Hull Marina, we discovered our pressure water pump had packed in. So 'sods law' meant an expensive visit to the chandlery for a replacement pump.  After a bit of fault finding, we realized it was the pressure switch which had gone faulty on the old pump, so this can be taken home, repaired and kept as a spare. 

After yet another early start the following Monday morning, we departed Hull bound for Torksey with good help from the spring tide yet again. The stranded yacht at Whitton was freed the previous day, with the assistance of Humber Rescue and two other vessels. Once in the River Trent, we played 'dodgems' avoiding all the drift wood all the way up river. 

We spent a few hours at Torksey once through the lock, then set off to Saxilby for a fish and chip tea whilst dodging overhanging trees on the narrow Fossdyke. Soon after we departed for The Woodcocks mooring for the night.

On Tuesday morning after a dog walk around Burton Waters, we set off yet again bound for the Brayford Trust visitor moorings in Brayford Pool for three nights. In our humble opinion the £15 per night fee is well worth it, with electric, water and facilities. We made sure to book ahead.

After a pleasant stay in Lincoln city centre, we departed on Friday for Torksey. We penned through the lock at high water with the intention of returning to Goole on Saturday. However, due to an incoming storm bringing with it a heavy band of rain, we decided to stay put an extra day, and return Sunday which was forecast to be a much better day.

Sunday arrived bringing with it much better weather. We departed Torksey on a neap ebb tide, meeting the flood at Keadby at displacement speed, then planed to Goole with a moderate wind against tide, but nothing that Moonshine can't handle.

After a week away, and knowing Moonshine has run faultlessly, we looked forward to returning back home. We will clean her inside and out next weekend, and look forward to our next excursion on her.

Ghost Ships

Last Tuesday we waited until the afternoon tide to depart Wells sun kissed shores for Hull. As ever, it was a wrench to leave such a lovely place, especially after the Indian hot summer heat of the previous three days. However the winds were due to change around to the north, which would mean either getting stranded there or a rather rough passage back. 

We enjoyed a fast run back on mostly glassy calm seas in the hazy sunshine, encountering only slight low lying mist patches once within the lower Humber. There were quite a few ships anchored off Spurn, which in the mist looked eerily like ghost ships. Crabpots were few and far between but easy to spot in these calm conditions, but also were confused at a distance with seals frolickling on the surface. We arrived at Hull Marina just as the sun set before 8pm. 

The remaining days of our holiday were spent in Hull. We departed Hull early Sunday morning on the biggest tide of the year. Moonshine was soon up on the plane, running really well with a fast flowing tide. Passing Whitton Island we spotted a yacht which was 'high and dry' aground. This just seemed coincidence as when we set off on holiday two weeks ago, a yacht in exactly the same location had requested our assistance in a tow due to grounding. We had advised it was too risky for us to assist due to falling water, and for the yacht to contact Humber Rescue for assistance. We never heard anything more on the VHF radio, and assumed he had drifted off. Maybe he had, maybe not....VTS Humber was aware of the yacht today which was now unmanned, and even they queried how to manage a recovery as it was so high out of the water. 

We soon arrived back at Ocean Lock Goole, which was ready for us to sail straight in. 

This concluded a not very adventurous, but very relaxing holiday for a change.... something which after previous years we think the dogs greatly appreciated!

Sea Dog

Wind wise, there haven't been many calm days had we chosen to head further down the coast. Due to the current global crisis, we chose to stay in Wells and have a nice relaxing holiday. 

We have discovered Scout enjoys the dingy, and looks forward to her little dingy trips...the older two aren't that bothered,  choosing to bed back down for naps between walks...we may make a sea dog of her yet!

Construction of the new Lifeboat Station has commenced. They plan to widen the ramp access over the dunes to facilitate a faster launching route at low water, whilst still allowing public access at all times. 

The town quay looks odd without the Albatros, which went to Maldon, Essex on 18th August 2020 for a major refit. 

Monday and Tuesday are looking calm weatherwise. We plan to top up with fuel on Monday at high water, and depart Wells Tuesday. Fingers crossed for a nice calm run back up the coast.

Silver Season

After feeling rather deflated for our forthcoming summer holiday due to the current climate, we decided an infusion injection of excitement was needed. Therefore, we had planned on Wells next the Sea, and a Wash holiday, the latter of which we haven't visited for the last 8 years. However the impending works to extend the King's Lynn visitor pontoon soon put paid to that idea.

We had an early pen out of Ocean Lock Friday morning. It was on top of the spring tides and due to a lot of fresh water coming down the Ouse, the river was littered with debris. We were also aware that UKD Seahorse was dredging in the Hull Marina entrance until 10am. This meant there was no rush for us to get there, however we did decide to plane when a large coaster which had penned out of Goole after us was hot on our tail at The Apex. Passing Whitton Island, a yacht called us on the VHF requesting assistance to tow him off as he had grounded....well out of the channel. We advised we were unprepared to assist in this instance, as the tide was now ebbing and he had gone aground at high water. Bearing in mind the tides would now be dropping off, we didn't want to risk grounding ourselves, and requested he contact VTS for Humber Rescue to assist with a tow. The skipper of said yacht understood our decision, but we never heard him call VTS. We presume either our wash or the ship's wash may have freed him. We were soon back on the plane to test the engines for sea, but reduced speed again at Lower Whitton and made Hull just as the dredger had completed his works.

We spent two nights in Hull Marina waiting for the breeze to die down, penning out early Sunday morning to head to Wells.

It was very busy in the lower Humber with shipping movements, and with the wash from the pilot and wind farm boats it wasn't a particularly smooth ride. Once out at sea we kept close to the Lincolnshire Coast which was a lot calmer, but crossing The Wash it chopped up once again. Wells next the Sea, as ever, was a great sight to see after an arduous trip. We can now relax, as at the moment we have no other plans other than having a lazy relaxing holiday.

We have heard the term 'silver season' described for this time of year, as retired folk can enjoy a quiet holiday once schools have reopened. Time will tell if this will feel odd to us. 

On The Move

A week last Thursday we loaded Moonshine up for our much anticipated 4 day visit to Hull.  On Friday morning we penned out of Ocean Lock, and had a good calm fast run down river. Once in the lock at Hull, we were directed to C pontoon near the boat hoist, as the visitor moorings being close to the new foot bridge construction site were said to be very noisy. We spent an enjoyable 4 days there, however on Monday and Tuesday the winds had gotten up very strong from the west, thus making a very uncomfortable ride back up river. We therefore decided to stay an extra day and returned back to Goole on Wednesday once the winds had abated. We penned out of Hull Marina on their 1st penning, and with a moderate wind still blowing wind against tide we headed back up river at displacement speed.

The new AIS installation has worked flawlessly, and Ocean Lock were able to pick up on Moonshine's location advising several outbound ships that we were on our way back inbound. This has been a very worthwhile investment.

Returning back to Moonshine again on Friday evening, and after completing some mechanical jobs in the engine room on Saturday morning, we were on the move once again for a quiet overnight stay at Sykehouse Lift Bridge allowing us the opportunity to spark the old Weber bbq back up again.

Whilst in Hull earlier in the week, we decided our Nav lights were looking rather tired and the lenses star crazed/opaque reducing the range.  We looked into replacing the complete units, but discovered that replacement lenses would be a lot cheaper option, as there was nothing wrong with the bodies and internals. We placed an order from a German Chandler's on the Sunday, and promptly received said new lenses on Wednesday. This was a nice easy job to do whilst at Sykehouse.

Having had our liberties returned after lockdown and with friends enjoying their own holidays, we are now looking forward to our holiday in early September.  We are crossing everything for this, in the hope that another national lockdown does not scupper our plans.

See and Be Seen

We have busy investigating purchasing a class B AIS transponder for about a year now.  After much deliberation we opted for a Onwa KP708A, which would double up as a backup chart plotter. Prior to purchase the agent emailed us several chart images showing the cartography as this plotter is available with built in K2 or K3, or for an additional charge Navionics charting. We opted for K2 charting, as K3 was a bit 'clunky' in operation, with the option later down the line to install Navionics if necessary after getting used to the unit.
The set came with a Puck aerial for internal installation as standard, but we also upgraded to an external 'mushroom' GPS aerial. In addition a Scout AIS 3ft aerial and stainless steel rachet mount was purchased for AIS transmit and receive signals.
All of this came with the challenge of reconfiguring the dashboard, which gave us the opportunity to mount various instruments to give us better visibility to use. This involved relocating the bow thruster control and clock, and then making two modules to house the six units, without making the dashboard look too cluttered. We think this has been quite a successful but time consuming exercise, but will be a good beneficial additional safety aid.

Before

After

This weekend we had a trip up the canal to Pollington. This has been our first opportunity to stay overnight on Moonshine since lockdown eased. Next weekend, we plan on visiting Hull Marina for a well earned five day break. 

Released from Lockdown

Since Christmas we have had only a couple of overnight stays aboard Moonshine, however due to windy weather earlier in the year we opted to stay in the marina. During the month of March, it became increasingly obvious that a boat holiday was going to be out of the question until later in the year.
However, we have been busy with boat jobs prior to lockdown. New carpeting to hull areas in all three cabins, and some additional lighting in the forward cabin. The new biscuit colour is a lot nicer than the original blue which was starting to break down.

Moonshine had her annual lift out the week before lockdown, and we were lucky to have her relaunched before everything came to a 'standstill'. 

One little job which was annoying us, was to replace a sun yellowed plastic vent on the mates side of the wheelhouse. We found a Plastimo vent  which was a direct replacement, which was purchased from Goole Boathouse.

We had a problem with the original Volvo/VDO starboard engine tachometer which was failing to read.  These are becoming very difficult and somewhat expensive to source. We enquired about a repair, however this was going to be £185 plus vat, and this may not have been a guaranteed price depending on what fault they found. After much deliberation, we decided to buy two new matching 4000rpm KUS Marine tachos, with a black face and stainless steel bezel. These were ordered mid January from China for £38.99 each, and took 6 weeks to arrive. Upon arrival, we paid the customs charge (about £18 which needed to be paid before the Post Office would release the package to us), and with much excitement we unpacked them only to find white faces. These needed to be returned as they would not match our dashboard. We eventually received replacements 3 weeks later, after advising them to declare with customs they were warranty items. We were now into lockdown, and rather frustratingly were unable to fit them. Once restrictions were eased, Peter visited Moonshine and carefully enlarged the mounting holes with a power file so as not to damage the veneer, as the old tachos were flush mounted and a lot smaller in diameter. We are really pleased with the look and the quality for the price paid.

This weekend we paid a visit to Moonshine, and stopped at Sykehouse Road Bridge for the day, before heading back home later on the Saturday evening as Peter was on call the following day. Hopefully we will be able to stay overnight very soon, and start planning ahead for a simple holiday aboard later in the summer.