Weather or not

Pretty windy just at the moment, one of our many sources of weather forcasting is Predict Wind. It's an Internet based weather app, well suited to slow mobile connections. Spookily accurate too.

So I was looking at the predicted winds etc. for this week using Predict Wind and indeed there Is a small window of opportunity on Thurs for our return to Preston, however the winds which will have been strong all week then fall light and variable. Actually they are all over the place!

Warning technical bit coming up!

The passage plan to sail from Carlingford Lough to Gut Bouy off the Ribble is very simple, it's around 120 nautical miles, for the first half of the trip to around about the Southern tip of the Calf of Man the tides are permanently slack. This is because at Carlingford we are at the place most exactly in the middle of the two flood and ebb streams that fill and empty the Irish Sea. We go up and down but not North or South. After that  we are in an East West stream that if we time it correctly will carry us towards the Lancashire coast. We need to arrive at Gut buoy around two hours before high water in order to enter the Ribble. High water at Carlingford and the Ribble occur at the same time. Assuming we can maintain an average speed of 5 knots it will take us 24hrs to cover the distance. If we ignore any tidal assistance and leave two hours before high water at Carlingford we should arrive at Gut buoy with either a bit of time to spare or in good time to begin the three hour trip up the river, ( the last 2 hrs of the flood )

However we need the wind to be in a suitable direction and strength to let us keep up a high average speed. Force 3-4 in any direction with west in it would be ideal.

The weather on Thurs isn't doing it,, besides the winds being so strong for most of the week would leave a very unpleasant residual swell, meaning we would probably be slopping about in big waves with no wind. Of course all predictions are essentially a gamble, but in this case the odds seem stacked against us. 

We decided to wait and see what next week would bring, this also means that as this coming weekend  is Easter weekend the Council is on holiday ( read lock keepers ) it will be next Wednesday before we can exit the sea lock.

At which point we will drop down the rver probably stopping at Warrenpoint or Greencastle and then if weather conditions look suitable, implement plan A above.

Of course you could ask why not just take advantage of the westerly gale force winds to fly across under a scrap of storm jib in the next couple of days, Dark Tarn will be doing 7-8 knots and will cover the distance easily. The answer to that is two fold.

As this will be our " shake down " trip, it would be rash and foolish to set off into conditions that will strain and punish most of the on board systems that we have hurriedly re-assembled. That includes the skipper and crew.

But more importantly, and very sensibly,

Lynne would hate me.

So that's that then...............that's how we plan and that's how we roll......

Mast Shenanigans

Got back into Newry last night after a boozy week at home celebrating my sisters 50th birthday.

After a beer or three with Daithi in the Bridge we enjoyed a quiet night, the canal was absolutely calm, on awakening it continued to be very light winds and warm and sunny. A perfect day for climbing the mast. We decided to reeve the Genoa halliard and the spare which we had removed last year and left thin line ( known as mouse lines ) to pull them through. The Genoa halliard went fine but the spare had jumped off the sheave and jammed so there really was no excuse now!

We climb the mast using our mast ladder which goes up the mast using the mainsail track, of course this means removing the mainsail from the track first. Then I climb while Lynne hauls up a bosuns chair that I can sit in to work. First job was to change the steaming light for an LED one, unfortunately I had bought the wrong bulb, stupidly thinking it would be the same as the stern light as they were exactly the same light. How wrong can you be, stern light dimple ends, steaming light cone ends, bugger!

Still we now have a spare for the stern light so in 50,000 hours or so when it fails I shall feel very smug!

   So it was on to the masthead to change the tricolour bulb, this was a bit more successful. As was freeing the spare halliard.

The view was tremendous and we had quite a few ' muggles' watching, this is Lynnes new term for passers by.

Lynnes down there somewhere..........

I'm somewhere up there.

The view from the top towards Soteria.

After this we had sorted the main and bent on the Genoa, Lynne was trying to remember her lazy jacks from her topping lifts and it was hot enough for me to be brave enough to take off my shirt.

Looking forward to getting back to sea on a couple of weeks.

More jobs

After 5 months or so Annandale our trusty tender had developed a healthy colony of algae and other growth, it was time to scrub her off. Above is a sort of before and after picture, before on the right and after on the left. Not quite summer yet but definitely spring like.

The basics for a satelite phone system for the boat, this is an Iridium Go! Along with the essential external antenna. We have a sort of inkling where to run the substantial cabling, however still remember how difficult this proved to be last time we did it. Decided to leave it until we return from UK for my sisters 50th birthday bash. So I have just over a week to ponder it!

This is Lynnes favourite chair in Newry, the singing ringing chair. It's just outside the Cathedral. A close look will reveal the wildlife! We have no idea why it's there but it is a work of art.

Syzygy

What a brilliant word eh?

What it describes is a rather wonderful and rare conjunction of planetary bodies.

Namely the Sun earth and moon. As the moon just now is very close to earth, the bodies being aligned in effectively a straight line cause absolutely huge tides due to the resulting gravitational pull.

This happens in an18 year cycle, and as we are approaching the vernal equinox in March, Its actually on the 20-21st. ( the Autumn equinox is in September ) this alignment will be incredibly powerful.

To give an idea of the height of tide expected, our local standard port is Liverpool, the HAT or highest astronomical tide for Liverpool is 10.3 metres, this is literally the highest tide that can ever be, however on March 21st the predicted tide height is 10.2 metres of course if low pressure adds an element of amplification to that it could be bigger! 

  So there you go, Syzygy.

It's times like this that make me really glad we live on a boat!