Shakedown cruise and rigging screws

Came out of Findhorn on Thursday to do a three day Moray Firth circuit, but ran into some bad weather.  I had my son and grandson on board, and with it being the first sail of the season (when things will go wrong ...) I felt a bit risk averse.

We were going to go to Lossiemouth, but the 'dredged to 2m' information in the almanac misled me - we could get in, but not to a berth.  We'd have to tie up alongside in Lossiemouth and lean on the wall.  I'll need to find out what the bottom is like there ...

So we motored up wind to Buckie and spend a night there, leaving at 7am with a F5 SW-W forecast, so tied a reef in the main.  I was glad we did, too, although the early winds were light.  We ended up close reaching across the firth to Tarbat Ness, in increasingly lively conditions (20-25 knots).  I wondered whether I'd got the rig tensions right, as I watch the lee shrouds, but more of that later ...

We dropped sail off Tarbat Ness and motored down towards Portmahomack with a view to anchoring.   On exploring the harbour, and having a fortunate meeting with the visiting harbourmaster, we realised we could tie up alongside and dry out safely.  The forecast was for 30 knots from the W/NW, so we decided to stay for a while.

When the rig was replaced last Spring, the rigger left the bottle screws without split pins.  I thought this must be OK (he was a rigger ...) and thought that locking them was something I could do later when I was happy with the rig setup.  I sailed up from Ireland with them like that.

In Portmahomack, I found the starboard cap shroud (the leeward one from our reach across) very loose.  The turnbuckle had unwound itself several turns.  This explained my concern at how it had looked when we were sailing.  (!)

I set it up again and checked all the others, which seemed fine.  Then I put split pins in them all and taped them.  I haven't done the forestay because I can't presently get at it - it's inside the reefing system.  I'm worried about this.  I've written to the rigger to ask whether it had been split pinned (since it is out of reach) and to ask for advice about getting at it.  It looks as though I have to remove the drum to adjust it or service it ...

We'll see.  I won't feel secure until I know what it's doing.

I'll post some more cruise photos when I get back on a faster connection, but here we are in Portmahomack:

The wind drops to single figures tomorrow, so we'll possibly end up motoring back.  Although we've plenty of time for a slow sail, so maybe we'll do that.

Launched and on mooring

In the boat lift on the slip:



On the mooring:

Final Spring refit visit ...

Photos can be found here.

I was up over the weekend, plus Friday and Monday, doing all the usual stuff - anti-fouling, hanking on sails etc.  Also some minor repairs - fixing the fuel lines, reinstating the reserve water tank, epoxying the toe of the keel where I clipped it carelessly in Pierowall, making a new place to keep the life-raft ...

I also added another notch to the J-prop.  I think another half knot or so is available without pain.

I should be launching on Thursday morning.

I jet-washed the hull before anti-fouling, and found evidence of reasonably sound looking Coppercoat under the flaking paint (see the photos).  A longer term plan might be to clean back to this and refurbish it.  But it's nice to know there really is an epoxy skin in there.

I've put the liferaft in the forward end of the cockpit, under a removable 'bridge-deck'.  This is a bit experimental - I'll make something prettier than a sheet of 18mm ply once I'm convince it works.  It gives me a nice place to sit under the sprayhood with my feet up, is a handy platform/worktop within reach of the companionway, and puts the liferaft in a really accessible place that it would float out of automatically in extremis.  It makes it very slightly more awkward to get in and out of the companionway, because I have to duck under the sprayhood.  At the moment I think this is a reasonable price to pay, but we'll see.  I'll post a photo later - I forgot to take one.