Sheaves update

Well the top came off the head box without needing the fore and back stays removing, after a bit of a struggle Duncan removed two sheaves, remarkably small and both buggered. The damage was similar and consistent, one of the lips of the sheave being broken off all the way around.

Conclusion 1

The riggers at Largs had either not noticed or just assumed the spare sheave was OK.

Conclusion 2

Don't send a boy who has only worked as a rigger for a couple of months to the top of my mast and expect him to make a sensible assessment.

Conclusion3

Don't believe the riggers at Largs when they tell you that to replace the sheaves will need the mast un stepping and stepping. It's very expensive and not necessary.

John ordered a couple of sheaves from Z-spar, we also discovered that the sheaves are sized for 8-10mm rope so the 12mm halliards could have been a contributing factor to the sheaves demise. Consequently we shall be replacing them with 10mm, thought about cruising Dyneema but as it is only half a ton stronger and a few percent less stretch@ almost twice the price it doesn't seem worth it for a cruising boat. Plus I never like the way Dyneema loses it's sheath.

Staying here for a few days as there is a good band on down the pub Friday night.

I will be very glad to get the boat sorted.

Genoa sheaves

This has been a less than happy side to the trip, the main genoa halyard sheave broke last week. It was swopped by the rigger at Largs for the spare halyard which has also now jammed. This simply has to be sorted, so after the Crinan we headed to Ardfern yacht centre, which has fascilities to fix defective rigging. Namely John and Duncan, mast monkeys extraordinaire!

Duncan, an alright guy for a Yorkshireman!

No it won't move........

 

Tomorrow they will take out the mast head box and hopefully replace the knackred sheaves, achieving this without un stepping the mast will make me a very happy man and and also qualify as a minor miracle, Ardfern has a much nicer feel than Largs, it's that laid back west coast feeling.

It's also the first time I have been grateful for running back stays and an inner forestay, normally they are a pain in the arse. In this case they will hold the mast up when the forestay and back stay are removed to get at the masthead box.

I was idly looking up at the masthead this evening contemplating the job tomorrow, when an eagle flew around the mast being mobbed by a seagull........only on the west coast.

I love it here..........

Crinan

We have had a lovely time over the last few days transiting the Crinan canal.

Dark Tarn at Ardrishaig

This is Alexander McHall Smiths boat Puffin ( author of The number one ladies detective agency etc.)

Some friends of the owner had borrowed her to attend the Glasgow flotilla, and very nice guys they were, we shared about two thirds of the 9 mile distance including the final sea loch.

A bit tight this berth at Crinan!

 It really is lovely, don't rush take the whole four days that the transit licence gives you and explore.

Millport

We set off from the Royal hotel Tighnabruich in a glassy calm heading down the West Kyle, the plan was to go to Cunbrae centre and spend the night on their pontoon going back into Largs marina in the morning for the repair to the masthead and new quick drop system etc.

The wind began to fill in after an hour or so and as we approached Inchmarnock sound Dark Tarn was romping along showing an unbelievable 9 knots on the speedo for a short while. Speed remained high as we entered Bute Sound and then at the south end of Bute the wind veered to the SW and almost died away completely, we ghosted along at 2-3 knots reluctant to start the engine as it was such a beautiful day with barely a cloud in the sky.

As we ate lunch we listened to a search by the Troon ILB who were seemingly looking for a person in the water off Troon golf club, about 30 miles from us.

Approaching wee Cumbrae island the wind again did an about face and went back to the N E, giving us a nice lift into Millport. The mooring buoys in Millport have no pick up bouys and a rather small and difficult to thread shackle on the top, nevertheless, Lynne and I were prepared and lassoed the bouy prior to threading the shackle from the dinghy, all went very well even if I say so myself!

The heat by this time was intense (I know difficult to believe for Scotland but nonetheless true) so I had to have a swim to cool off, several in fact.

After a meal later we rowed ashore for a pleasant stroll around the seafront at Millport

A good day

First away to the shops for milk and a paper.........

Park the dinghy where you can remember where you parked it.......

Then deliver milk and paper to boat........

Then catch some fish for lunch..............

And a trip out to an isolated beach..........

Are we there yet?

Gennakers

Just playing with our new light wind weapon

In piratical black and red,

Be afraid Peter, it's huge! And fills if you sneeze......

Just a trial hoist at Tighnabruich, looking forward to playing with it for real soon, weather permitting.

Tighnabruich

At the moment we are relaxing on a mooring belonging to Chris Miller, he runs our home marina in Preston. Tighnabruich is nested in the elbow of the Kyles of Bute and at the moment is rather spookily decorated with all manner of scarecrows.

Here is one of the less scary ones!

The Kyles are very lovely, however the weather has been overcast most of the day.

Until this evening when the sun finally decided to show itself, I finish with a few views from the cockpit.

Finally big thanks to Chris for the use of the mooring, hope to see Duo on it in the next few weeks.

Testing testing......

First chance to try out the new sails today, well the main and roller genny anyway. We were sailing from Largs to tighnabruich in the Kyles of Bute. A wee problem with the top shackle on the roller furler will be sorted out next Thurs, so at the moment it tends to stick when unfurling, soon fixed by rolling in then out again.

The luff tension on the main needs to be greater than the old mainsail however even poorly setup the boat just flew! The wind was east to North East and about a force 3. Dark Tarn was consistently over 7 knots and hardly heeled.

Approaching the East Kyle, Toward point on the right.

The little number bottom left is speed in knots, in this case 7.2, taken just after the photo above.

Not bad considering the wind speed poor setup and we were towing a heavy dingy!

Going through the Kyles we met some old friends, starting with the Waverly.

Later we met up with Alba Endeavor, she is one of the BT challenge 72s I have sailed a lot on one of her sisters Alba explorer, they are owned by the Ocean YouthTtrust of Scotland.

After a bit of a look into Caladh harbour ( has to be one of the most scenic anchorages on the west coast) we hunted around a bit to find the mooring for our friend Chris Millers boat Duo. We eventually located it opposite the starting hut for the Kyles of Bute sailing club. By this time we were thoroughly

Wet through due to the Scottish "soft weather" so retired below for a warm and a brew.

A very good day all in all, still grinning!

The Irish Sea

It seems that this blog is a bit patchy, so in an attempt to fill in some gaps, here I am going down the Ribble, notice jaunty hat!

We had a very calm crossing to Isle of Man, picking up a mooring in a lovely bay on the east coast near Laxey

Had a quick run ashore

Lynne found a swing! 24 hours without sleep will do that.......

 Anyway lovely spot however the forecast south westerly wind became distinctly southerly making the anchorage subject to reflected swell around the headland, this meant swell on the beam ( cos the boat points head to wind) and ROLLING.......

So we moved a few miles up the coast to Ramsey.

Largs

Finally got here to get the new sails fitted, popped in to Saturn sails to see John, "anything you need me to do?" " no Phil just take the old sails off and I'll see you in the morning" could I get the genoa down? No I could not, was it stuck in the foil? had the Hilliard jumped a sheave? No option but to head up the mast before John or Graham arrived and see what was what.

Lynne and I have developed a technique whereby I can climb the mast using a mast ladder (this bit was easy as we had taken off the mainsail, the mast ladder runs in the mast rack for the main) she isn't strong enough to winch me up so I climb and she winches up a bosons chair at the same time. This means when I'm at the appropriate height I just need to sit in the chair and Lynne can support my weight on a winch.

The news from the masthead was not good, the halliard had not only jumped the sheave but had partially crushed it, this would need a rigger ( sometimes referred to as " mast monkeys")

Luckily Dark Tarn has a spare for most things and that includes genoa halliards so once I had freed the halliard and dropped the old sail we were in business.

The new main has 5 full length battens and three reefs the third being very deep, Dark Tarn has an inner forestay whose sole function is to carry one of the two storm jibs, let's call them storm and the tiny spitfire ( hurricanes only!)

The genoa is 130% as opposed to the old 150% monster. John has also made us a cruising chute or Gennaker for light downwind work, this will be flown from the new bowsprit.

Graham measured up for the last thing which is the quick drop lazy jack system which will be fitted next Thursday

In the meantime Lynne and I will be exploring the Kyles of Bute and upper Loch Fyne and hopefully getting to grips with Dark Tarns new rig.

Finally a few pics of Largs.......

If you are interested in ancient history the pencil monument balanced on Lynne's head is the sight of the famous battle with the Vikings at which they got their arses kicked by the locals, they are absurdly proud of this fact in Largs!

Arran

We sailed from Kirkudbright at 11 am Friday arriving at East Tarbert Bay in the evening. The bay is tucked in on the east side of the Mull of Kintyre about a mile from the headland. It is a very good spot to await the tide to turn in your favour in the north channel. It is very lovely and feels quite remote, however it being weekend there was a contingent of Geordie family's who were camping and fishing (there is a very basic campsite on the beach) they were quite noisy, obviously fishing and alcohol seem to go hand in hand.

We weighed anchor around midnight and motored around the Mull, it was a very dark night due to cloud. The over falls were abscent, but there was obvious tidal movement with large boils, however a remarkably calm strip was evident close in to the cliffs. We shot around into the North channel at about 7 knots.

With a fair tide all the way and a gentle southerly we actually arrived at the mouth of the Clyde at 4.30 in the morning and a couple of hours early to catch the first of the flood. The wind increased to force 4 and we had a bit of a wild run to Lamlash on Arran arriving at 10.20 in the morning. We picked up a mooring and tried to get a few hours sleep. The rising southerly south westerly wind made the mooring uncomfortable, forecast was for the wind to veer to the north west. This proved to be the case and after we had slept for 11 hours straight on Saturday night on Sunday morning we moved about 5 miles along the coast to Brodick.

Brodick Bay Arran

Bit of a selfie, taken at Lamlash, do I look short of sleep?

Dark Tarn on the visitors moorings at Lalash

Holy Island Lamlash, directly behind Dark Tarn is a great anchorage just of the buddist monastery, ( Holy Island is now owned by a buddist community) if I get the chance I will pop onto the anchorage and row ashore and ask the monks to bless the boat, you can never be too careful! Any excuse to re-visit Arran!

Kirkcudbright

Arrived here on Saturday, but were too late to get up the rver so spent the night at Little Ross Island ( scene of murder most foul if you google it)  There is a mooring there for the Range safety boat, there is an active firing range adjacent. Gary the range safety guy doesn't mind you using this mooring but in a SW it's a bit rolly polly. Anyway we were up at 5.30 and made our way up river to the pontoon at Kirkudbright. pronounced Kerkoobree.

  It's one of our favourite places to visit, a real jewel of the Solway Firth.

To be continued.........

This is a picture of the anchorage behind little Ross Island

When in Kirkudbright we made some new friends, one quite famous one (in ocean sailing circles anywa)y is Badger, now owned by a lovely couple from Haverigg. We spent an evening chatting and drinking aboard. It feels funny being on a boat you have read so much about, imagining her in the Falklands or Brazil, Badger didn't disappoint she is immaculate. 

 A Jay Bentford dory, junk rigged same size as Dark Tarn at 34ft, fabulous boat.