Off at last.

We're off, taking the spring tide out of Tollesbury in the very early hours of the morning.  The wind, such as it was was on the nose as usual so the iron topsail took us to Harwich in about six hours, where upon we dropped anchor just off HMS Ganges as was.

Spent the following day chilling out watching the Ultra Large container ships doing their thing and generally fettling the old boat.  The following day we took some tide and left north.  As the day progressed and the wind (21 knots) over tide caused a popple it was decided to pop into Lowestoft for a few hours rest.  At 0815 next morning there was more overcast skies and more wind and we had a tide to punch round the top of Norfolk.  By 0715 the next day we had made it to Grimsby where the Humber Cruising Association have a marina, whereupon refuelling took place.  Very nice it is too, the lock is freeflow for two hours either side of high water so entry is not too much of a problem with regard to timings.  Having said that I did have to gill around for an hour as the Humber spring flood got me there rather quickly.  You may remember last time I anchored off Spurn Head but Grimsby is a welcome haven after 108 miles of head winds.

With a force five from the north means that one would have to be rather brave to try the tidal havens of Blakeney or Wells.  But by the evening the wind had eased somewhat and I did dally with Wells for a brief while but thought better of it as I may have been stuck there.  There was a fair amount of shipping off the north Norfolk coast and the AIS came in rather handy during twilight, before the lights stand out.


A couple of days in sunny Grimsby then perhaps Flamborough Head's north or south landing for a rest thence up to the Tyne perhaps.  We'll see what the weather deals out shall we. 

Here is an ultra large, just come in and three of the booms have been lowered to start unloading the boxes.




 Don't know why there are two protectors, perhaps one is about to go away for service. Who mans them from Harwich I wonder.





 The "City of St. Petersberg".  What a lovely ship, well it does if for me anyway!












More akin to a "bullet" train don't you think?

 

 Here we have the "Stena Britanica" off to Holland.  I believe the seacat "Discovery" has now been scrapped, fast it was, but not cheap enough to run.

 

 The entrance to Great :Yarmouth is in there somewhere, it becomes evident when you get closer.



More goings on in Yarmouth's outer harbour.  I wonder what they use it for?

 

 The supply vessel "Highland Bugler" making for the entrance up river for the quays.

 

 Tutak safe in the old fish dock, Grimsby.  Back in the land of sunshine.  The hydraulic tower is centre background and is the visible landmark which leads you in from the vast swirl of the Humber.  Vis was not good on the way in and I was pleased to be tied up.

 

 The Humber Cruising Association - run as a "not for profit" company and owned by the berth holders.

 

As well as a racing calender it sports a very large boat fishing club with some appreciable catches.  Anyone for a large cod?  I would heartily recommend Grimsby as a stopover, fair pricing and service.  The clubhouse is quite good too and friendly to boot.  The lock gates do not open for pleasure craft outside of free flow as a matter of course but there are places to anchor whatever the wind so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Hoist the Blue Peter

Hoist the Blue Peter.

After many, many hours Tutak II is finally (nearly) ready for sea again.  The last trip, with its multiple cooling problems, have finally been solved.  We now have an accurate temperature gauge and an alarm that does work when it gets hot and not just randomly.  Access to the engine has been improved by having a removable front section.  This had always been screwed and plugged.  I have enlarged the cut out for the starting handle (have you tried hand starting a Bukh) to have excellent access to the water pump.  In the past changing the impeller was done by feel and lots of lost screws.





 
 

The new intake filter has a clear top and water flow can be monitored under way.  I am thinking about a Perspex window in the floor and leds so that the precious liquid can be seen in all its glory at night too.  Maybe a little too far.

New sail covers incorporating zips and nylon hooks and eyes instead of lacing makes fitting so quick.  They only took me a couple of days to make on my new  American Sailrite walking foot LSZ1 machine.  I bought the Monster Flywheel to go with it, 16 layers of acrylic canvas, sews bone quite well too!

I fitted a new luff tape to a secondhand furling genoa along with a lightweight acrylic sacrificial strip in white as tan seems to suffer rather quickly.  The main and mizzen just had a quick fettle with some new stitching here and there.

 



The anchor chain was reversed and remarked.  I could have just cut the first worn link off but the galvanising is getting a tad thin on the old working end.  It's done thirteen years so not too bad.

I managed to get a Plastimo triangular flexible water tank to replace the one that burst off Skye.  Not as big as the original and I have to carry 40  litres in cans now to supplement the 120 litres in the tank.  I have not had much luck in finding a replacement as Air Cushion who made the old tank have disappeared, probably since the demise of the cross channel hovercraft service.

Sorting out the water tank brought another problem to light, a frost crack in the water pump!  That will teach me.

I noticed the heads door was binding under the mast step.  Removing the headlining revealed a multitude of leaks.  The deck is balsa cored with a king plank added in the laminate of ply through which the mast step is bolted.  When it was built holes were drilled for a tabernacle which was not fitted so the holes were filled with polyester putty and gelcoated over.  These had let go and six leaks had soaked the balsa and ply.  The ply dried out ok but the balsa had to be raked out and the whole area drilled and injected with thickened epoxy having jacked up the support beam.  Tedious and time consuming but needs must.  A large new deck gland was fitted out of the way of the mast.  The balsa around the hole was raked out and filled with epoxy as a precaution; at least is was dry in this area.  

I will not be taking a hard dinghy this time.  I towed it for 2000 miles, is it the only dinghy to have made it round Muckle Flugga?  It was good to be able to row it properly but it did get in the way rather.  I will however be taking, along with the inflatable, a Dancer kayak.

 

It fits nicely on the side deck when in port.  It can stow athwart ships aft of the cockpit or on a very short tow.  The liferaft will be left behind too as the inflatable will be at least half inflated when at sea.  Space is tight on a long journey and even the redundant berth cushions are being left behind to make more space.  A folding bike has been added this year, a cover being made from all the offcuts acrylic canvas from jobs over the winter.

Where bound I hear you call, well, north, hopefully back up to the Shetlands and if the weather is kind maybe the Faeroe Islands, but the North Atlantic will have to be kind to me.  Back in the autumn all being well.

Tutak goes to Holland - Chapter VI (Dordrecht - the bells again).

We meandered out of the clutches of Oude Tongue which was starting to feel like the village in the "Prisoner", one expected the big white ball to come round the corner at any moment.  With the keel feeling the bottom we once more made our way through the reserve and back into the Volkerak.  North East to the Volkeraksluizen and into the Hollands Diep, the traffic was starting to get quite heavy now.  Wilemstad's fortifications would be left for the journey home as we cracked on for the left turn into the Dordse Kil and its junction with the Oude Mass, gateway to Dordrecht.

I got the highway code for European waterways out as some of the signs were new and barges were doing there thing of passing on the wrong side with the blue boards a-showing.  Powerful leading lights drew you to their lair and radar scanners spun their electronic web.  Fortunately and by chance I had planned to exit this aquatic highway on the right but even so it was delicate when negotiating the many docks let into the banks as one expected to be assailed by a heavily laden tanker with "right of way".   

We hung a right out of the main flow after waiting awhile for the rail bridge to lift after the 13:45 had gone over.  It had been bumpy and we were glad to be in the quiet back waters of the city, how little did I know.  There is a little board with a bell push and a man on a bike arrives in due course to open the bridge.



Adjacent to the flag pole is the pedestrian entrance and there are facilities sufficient for ones needs.



And what a pleasant location, the pontoons were a bit ramshackle but serviceable and it added to the charm.



The famous tower that was supposed to be much taller but never got finished, hence the rather stumpy look.


 

The Dordrecht tower towering over tiny Tutak is truly tremendous and terrible after a night with the town celebrating another goat bladder not being caught by a goalie or something, (takes breath while available).  The largest bell lodged in the tower weighs in at 9400kg which makes it the biggest in Holland. The peel of the six heavyweight bells fondles you awake by concussion.  The heart becomes superfluous as the pressure waves take over with (musical?) cardiac compressions.  If you are lucky the Carillonneur will play the other 61 bells for you which are not at all like an opening artillery barrage.  I did wonder at the frugality of the fees at this city centre location, but I guess the monster organ pipe railway bridge was a give-away clue.  I think there is a name for it, it escapes me, but the wonderful church organ can be heard through the tower with brilliant clarity as the organist practises for the Sunday service.  

 

 Dordrecht was to be the furthest we got this time.  We were halfway through our allotted time and it would be prudent to get to the coast if a suitable weather window turned up for the trip back to Blighty.  Truth be told I was a little wary of these very commercial waterways and to have gone further would have mean it getting even busier.

Tutak goes to Holland - Chapter V

So at the correct speed Tutak wandered back down the canal to join up again with the Oosterschelde at Sas van Goes.  Busy with shipping it is and a close watch must be kept on the barges showing big white moustaches.  Those ones are pushing a massive bow wave and can be so low in the water with just the heaps of sand or gravel showing.

We took the Keeten Mestgat north east to the Krammersluizen.  Turning left here would take us into the Grevelingenmeer but that was for another year.  Once through the lock we headed north and near the forbidden waters of a nature reserve.  Little buoys mark the way to a hole in the sea wall that leads to a sleepy place called Oude Tonge.  Prolific wildlife was bumped into and we scraped our way to the haven.

I'm not really a David Bellamy sort of guy so you will have to put your own names to the above.

Oude Tonge was rather nice and we found a Chinese eating house and then went a bar to watch Holland play against some other European team.  We got dressed in orange and came draped in the Nederland's flag.  They didn't realise that I am ginger and thought I had dyed for the occasion.  I was taken in hand by a large farm boy in dungarees who kept me supplied with  beer all night.  I was starting to get worried as he insisted on bear hugging me every time Holland had a shot at goal.  Everyone was getting very drunk and rather boisterous so the crew of the good ship Tutak separately went to the facilities and didn't come back.  Later in the early hours, gates were unhinged, waste bins were upended and fire extinguishers were let off in the Dutch village equivalent of football hoodlums.

Later that day we set sail with sore heads but without a police escort, we had done well.

Now when one goes off sailing it is often not possible to take piccies of ones craft in the elements.  So to give you an idea of what dear old Tutak is like I have included some photos.





Hard on the wind with yours truly waving. Not an "in focus" pic but it was taken with a long lens from 3/4 mile away, sorry.  The sails are Arun and are original, i.e. nearly thirty years old!  So excuse the baggy/saggy bits.




Ok so I didn't have the water sails on here but this is Tutak in all her lightweight finery.  An asymmetric and a mizzen staysail.  Asymmetric sounds fancier than "cruising chute" don't you think?

 


Head on with the chute and mizzen staysail.  The pole has a wee bend I see!

 


There is a story to this one.  I was single handed and it was a fine day and not a lot of wind so I thought I would take to the dinghy in order to photograph the boat.  The autopilot was engaged and I decanted into the dinghy on a very long painter, then the wind picked up and.......

Staying in touch when sailing.

I had a pay as you go sim card with O2 until recently.  I need O2 'cause some of the other networks don't work round here.  I did a tot up of how much I was spending and was rather traumatised when I found it to be around the 140-160 pounds a year mark, not the £60 I had assumed.  One of the ads on another forum pointed me to Tesco's offer of a sim for £7.50 a month including 240 minutes and 5000 texts and they use the O2 network.  Yeah, 5000 texts: if I tried to use them up I would have RSI on the right thumb!  I confess I snapped their corporate hands off and my number was transferred on the day they said so so far so good.  The O2 network was good around the islands and Scotland and the only reason I had to go for a 3 dongle was 02 wouldn't sell me one 'cause my address was iffy as I live on a boat.  Probably something to do with anti-terrorism even though you can get a payg with no address!  I'm not a fan of Tesco but I think they are here to stay but let's hope they don't rule the world and I still haven't got a clubcard so there.

I bought a 3 dongle and added data when I needed it for the 100 day trip and the coverage was good all around Scotland and the UK east coast.  The only dull area being the NW coast of Scotland, it was somewhat intermittent there but locals say it is the same for other networks.  I have just found out that 3 now do a fast dongle with multi user access (15Gb/m) for £15.  That is getting to be cheaper than a land line.

Tutak goes North - vids (Stromness to Cape Wrath).

It took me a long time to realise that I did actually have the facilites to take short videos on my Cannon.  This is one I took when I found myself alive after a few worrying hours out of Stromness and in the lee of Hoy with its attendant down drafts.  I had emptied my sick bucket by now by the way.

It is always amazing how benign the sea looks when caught on film.  Maybe it wasn't that bad and just my recollections.  Most of the waves were no bigger than 2 metres from top to bottom.  There was the odd rogue one that was rather bigger than the rest and slapped one about a bit.

I guess the real problem is a sense of scale, coupled with the fisherman's tale makes it hard to judge from a film.  According to the log the wind speed was averaging around 26-28 knots with the odd gust blowing the tops off.  Tutak was loving it and cracking on very nicely, she needs a blow to get her to lift her skirts and run.