Having finally packed in working it was time to head out sailing on Isosceles. I was heading along the south coast of the UK towards Cornwall. A cruise in company with friends from Poole Harbour on their boat, Powder Blue.
This was my first trip of any length sailing solo, it was reassuring to have the company of another boat. After a few days on the boat checking that everything was in order, especially with the engine & fuel filters after problems I’d had with fuel bug, it was time for me to head out. I would be meeting my sailing buddies in Weymouth at the end of day two. That was fine as the first part was sailing in familiar waters.
Day One : Swanwick to Yarmouth IoW
The first step was sailing to Yarmouth on the Isle of White. This is a really pretty little town and is incredibly popular with weekend sailors and can get very very busy.
The sailing down through the Solent was excellent, with a good wind the boat was in her element. Of course as the afternoon wore on the wind speed started to pick up. And blew from the west, which was the direction I wanted to go in. Unfortunately the boating version of “Sods Law” states the the wind will eventually come from the very direction you want to go in, and boats can’t sail directly towards the wind. Finishing the day under engine was no real hardship though.
I was only stopping at Yarmouth so I could get an early start through the Needles channel the following morning. As it was already looking busy in the harbour I picked up a mooring outside of the main harbour. Perfect for an early start the following day.
Day Two: Yarmouth IoW to Weymouth
I was up and ready to set off towards Weymouth bright and early the following morning. I had arranged meet up there with the crew of Powder Blue. First I had to go through the narrow needles channel between the Isle of White and the mainland.
There are places around the coast known as “Tidal gates”. These are places where it is difficult, if not dangerous, to go through at the wrong state of the tide. At the Needles the tide has to funnel through a very narrow entrance to the Solent. If you time it wrong it’s very easy to end up being pushed backwards by the tide. I know this only too well, I’ve made this mistake. Instead the tide was with me and I shot out of the narrow channel and on my way across Poole bay.
Once again the sailing was as good as it gets. The wind was coming from the stern quarter, pushing us along at 8.8 knots for most of the morning. This is a great speed for my boat and we were both in our element flying along the coast.
Radio Malfunction
Suddenly there was a Mayday alarm going off on the ships radio. I looked around but could see no boats near by, so the mayday was unlikely to be near me. When I stuck my head into the cabin to hear the distress call a bit better I was more than a little shocked when the coastguard made a call to “Mayday station Isosceles”.
I tried to call them back on the radio but nothing was transmitting. My radio had developed a fault and I couldn’t disable the automatic mayday message being sent out. My only option was to turn the radio off and phone the coastguard to cancel the alarm.
I have been spending time moving things aboard the boat now I’m retired, and so the sheet with my call sign and MMSI identity number on it were not where they should be. I must have looked like a madman throwing things around looking for those details!
Contacting the coastguard
Eventually I found the information I needed, then managed to search the internet for the phone number for the coastguard. I managed satisfy them that I was genuinely who I said I was and I was calling from the right boat. After ensuring that I was OK, and the call had been a faulty radio, finally the mayday call cancelled.
It is a bit disturbing to realise your boat has suddenly decided it wants to call an mayday all on its own, especially while you’re all alone at sea!
I was left sailing without any radio to call for help in an emergency, so the coast guard insisted on setting up half hourly phone calls to check on me. Thank goodness for mobile phones! I also needed to be able to call the marina and bridge operator as I approached. Luckily a phone call to Powder blue solved the issue. They were ahead of me and would call on my behalf when I was ready.
The dreaded bug
Of course it never rains but it pours.
The wind had died by now and I was motoring towards Weymouth when I suddenly lost all power to the engine. The revs dropped from 2000 to 800 and the engine just sat there chugging slowly. Dashing below to look at the engine it seemed that the motion of the boat had churned up some age old gunge in the bottom of the tank and was beginning to block the fuel filter.
Luckily I have 2 fuel filters on Isosceles, and it is a simple job to switch from one to the other. This cured the problem but I really didn’t need the stress on top of the radio incident.
Day 4 Weymouth to Brixham
After 2 nights in Weymouth, a new hand held radio for me and the fuel filters all nice and clean, it came time to leave.
We were all up early for the 8am bridge opening so we could continue round Portland Bill and head west. Portland Bill has quite a reputation. Even in calm conditions and moderate wind it can turn rough very quickly. In good weather and with the right tides it is fine, but timing is everything.
I went to start my engine and “Click” ….. it wouldn’t even turn over.
The engine on Isosceles is a newish Volvo. These engines have an electronic control box on the side. The engines are reliable and solid, like most things Volvo. But the black boxes have a reputation for being suspect.
There is a commonly used modification to these engines that bypasses the starting circuit in the black box. Basically it involves connecting two wires to the back of the box. When the engine refuses to start, you use a switch to connect these to start the engine. We arranged to stay another night in Weymouth, and I collected the bits I would need to build this bypass to this black box so I could start the engine in an emergency. There are plenty of web pages and YouTube videos about doing this.
The problem only repeated itself once more during the rest of our trip. I’m as sure as I can be that both times I had neglected to turn the engine control panel off, and this had caused a drain on the battery. The following day the electronics did not want to start the engine.
Day 5: Weymouth to Brixham take 2
The following day we were again up early and off through the town at 8am ready for the trip off towards Cornwall …
Travelling round Portland Bill that morning was as painless as it can get. The slack tide was just about to turn in our favour and push us towards Brixham. There was no wind at all to stir up trouble and we had two boats with eyes peeled for fishing pot markers, of which there were remarkably few to be seen.
Then it was off across Lyme Bay towards Brixham.
Again there was some fantastic sailing with the wind from the north east and Isosceles doing 8.6 knots at one point. Unfortunately again the the wind died during the afternoon. In the middle of Lime Bay you are just about out of sight of land all around. I do love the feeling of isolation and self reliance. Powder Blue was the boy racer of the gang, the boat is much lighter than mine and Dave the skipper is much more performance oriented sailor. This suited me fine though because then I had a shore crew to catch the boat as I came into moor at the end of the day.
Engine issues again
As we motored along later in the day the engine decided to lose power again, the revs dropping from 2000 to 800 just as before. This time however it came back to life by the time I had got into the cabin. Checking the fuel filters they were fine so I was a little stumped. This repeated 2 or 3 times that day, making me more than a little nervous as we entered Brixham marina.
Once I had topped the fuel filter housings up again this didn’t repeat itself during the rest of the trip. Where the fuel hose goes over the top of the mounting board for the filters there is a slight loop. This must have filled with air when I dismantled and cleaned the filters, eventually pulling just too much air into the top of the filter housing and occasionally allowing a little air into the engine side of the system. The other, probably more likely, option is there was some gunk inside the fuel tank that was affecting the fuel pickup. Cleaning and filtering the fuel is now top of my jobs list just in case it was this.
