Hi all, I have just joined your forum, I hope that's ok with you all. I own an Aquabell 27 with twin ford diesels through a pair of Volvo 270 legs. I got her just over a year ago and have been slowly refitting her while still in use.
Welcome to the forum, to be honest any new member around here is welcome as there are so few active members at present posts seem to be few and far between.
I run a Lochin 33 up on the Isle of Mull as a commercial venture doing wildlife watching trips. Where are you based? looks like Christchurch harbour in the background
You will find lots of helpful people on here if you have a question just ask away I'm sure someone will be able to help.
I am actually based in a small creek called Ashlett Creek, its on the lower west hand side of Southampton water, very close to Fawley and Calshot. I have had the boat just over a year and transformed the wheel house quite a bit from when we bought her, and getting her home was quite a mission on its own. We sailed her back from Hullbridge in Essex on the river Crouch to where she is now, some 200 miles.
I did a write up on the expedition for our yacht club news letter, I could put it on here if you think it might generate a little interest. Anyway, nice to meet you Martin
Regards, Steve (Woody)
Yep fire it on here, who knows it might inspire other skippers to write up there epic journeys.
My first trip after buying LJ was a bit of a baptism of fire too. I have never written the story but it gave me a few grey hairs i can tell you.
I post my daily exploits for all to see on my FB page which is Mull Charters so you can see what we get up to. I don't have much free time in the summer but have half a day this Sunday and we are going fishing, then the following weekend we have 3 days off so if the weather is good might head north to a little speck of an island called Hysgeir and do some serious fishing!
We had been to see our potentially new boat Seawold, an Aquabell 27 on a couple of occasions and really fell in love with her, she was everything we needed and wanted. She was an old girl and needed a bit of love but that being said, she would do for now in her current state.
We got a lift to Hullbridge in Essex on the 8th April and had our last good look around her and checked her over for the journey back to Ashlett. I felt a little bit out of my depth at this journey and was a little bit should I really be doing this state of mind but with my mechanical knowledge and my experience of boating I knew I could cope with pretty much anything that came my way, within reason!
The weather forecast was very good and it was a lovely sunny day, we had to wait for the high tide to be lifted into the water and there was a boat waiting in front of our turn but we eventually got lifted in around 3pm. The engines sprang into life and as the guy who sold her to us warned me to be aware that the port engine airlocks the cooling system and what to do we set off.
The river Crouch is quite a long river but the small villages and marinas made it a pleasant journey, even seeing the odd seal near the river mouth into the Thames Estuary. We headed out into open water and is it ever shallow in places!!! The GPS that was with the boat was showing a charted depth of 3 but the sounder was indicating 2 ft under us !!!! I went through the menus on the GPS and was shocked at my error, all the measurements was set to feet!!! I corrected this to metres as thats what I am in the habit of using and got on with threading our way across the estuary seeing more seals and wind farms en route. During this time the port engine was refusing to play the game with me and I really couldnt get this airlock in the cooling system to go and she ran hot all the way so we just kept our speed and revs down, I didnt want to kill it.
We made it into Ramsgate around 9.30pm in total darkness and tied up at the first pontoon I see, hungry, tired and wanting a break we went ashore and found a nice little place that welcomed us. After our replenishment we ventured back to the boat and spent our first night on our new boat, it was really nice and cozy.
The morning was a real shock, windy, overcast and totally NOT what the forecasters had predicted. The waves was coming through the harbour entrance and smashing our boat up and down against the pontoon that we was moored up against, the lanyards were being pulled to the max and Tracey really didnt feel safe, not even just walking along the pontoons to get out of the marina. In the end I knew that I had to move our boat from where she currently was as a matter of urgency into a more sheltered birth, this was going to be a huge task as now I was on my own. I managed and got away with it and once on a quieter birth we sat and played the waiting game with the weather. Even the marina staff told us that the weather, although it had changed, was a lot worse than was predicted.
The winds eased and the forecast looked a bit better for us to continue our voyage, the time was getting on late into the afternoon, I asked Tracey if she would be worried about running through the night, she was ok with that so that was the plan. Still running on both engines we set off at a slow but steady speed on to Dover.
As we approached Dover and in fading light, it became clear that the weather had not given up on us and the wind freshened back up, easily to a f6 south easterly and the sea just got bigger and bigger, I was hoping that this was just because of it being a headland but as we punched through it we realised that this was not the case and after having this 5 ton boat launched into the air while only doing six knots and Tracey almost wearing our cold box and contents we patiently waited for the opportunity to turn around and run inside the safety and shelter of the Dover port. I know I should have had an Almanac but I didnt and we was then faced with the guesswork of trying to find the Marina. We ended up tailing a yacht and it paid off as he was going there to our relief.
We got a pontoon allocated to us for the night and it was really starting to blow by now, we really made the right choice. In the morning it was a lovely sunny day but the wind was really going for it so I went to the marina office and asked for a mooring for a month as the following weekend we was going on holiday for two weeks, we ended up in a marina basin behind a single lock gate and had to wait for the tide to come up to enter it, we phoned our friend to come and pick us up and thats where Seawolf stayed for the next four weeks.
The Saturday after the first May bank holiday and all refreshed from our holiday we travelled back to Dover armed with a head gasket set and a few other bits to try and get our boat home to Ashlett. Tracey had to work that night so I was going to be doing this alone. I changed the head gasket on the port engine and run her up, still getting hot, I had the idea of removing the thermostat, I would rather have a cool engine than a cooked one after all, I was shocked to see that the thermostat was almost seized in the closed position, that was it, it was coming out!! Tracey stayed there with me as long as she could but had to leave in the end and I had to wait for the tide to get out of the marina, this was around 3pm. I got out of the marina and on both engines set off again in a beautiful sunny calm afternoon, I cleared Dover breakwater into open sea and it really was lovely, the engine keeping cool and all running sweet, what could stop me now!!!! A BEARING BEHIND THE JABSCO RAW WATER PUMP!!!!!
This was terminal for the port engine this time, I had spare impellers but nothing that would fix this. Ok, so now I am doing this on one engine....... I patiently pushed on, into dusk then the total dark, I had phone calls offering moral support and even found myself rehearsing my call to the coastguard should I need to call them on the vhf. I kept the speed and revs down and listened for any change in the engine tone or anything that would get my attention but she kept on going and going. I had made my mind up that I would stop at Brighton marina to get a bit of a rest up and got there around 3.30am. What a place to get in!!! All I can say is thank goodness for gps plotters. I had a couple of hours kip and went and paid for my brief stay over, the guy in the marina office informed me about the way the marina had silted up and said I wouldnt be able to get out until around 9am, I waited and had a walk about and got some food and drink for the next leg of my voyage. The charter fishing boats started exiting the marina at about 8.30 so I thought if they could, so could I. After all, every second counted for me. I set off again.
The weather was once again really lovely, a light breeze and sunny. I pressed on and had no more issues, I phone up Martin who has Easy Blue on the North Bank as I was motoring past Hill Head and asked him what the tide was doing, he told me that the quay in the creek was under water, I thought I had a chance of making it into Ashlett after all. I phoned him again and he said it was still ok but we all know how fast the creek empties when the tide goes out. I approached the entrance to the creek and oops, not enough water, I backed up and set off to the waiting bouy. Tracey called me up and asked me where I could pick her up so she could keep me company until the next high tide, I told her I would pick her up at the RNLI jetty at Calshot.......... my troubles werent over!!!
I pulled up close to the jetty to prepare my manoeuvre, the wind had freshened and the tide was hammering out, yep, wind against tide, and it was right where I was going, I have never seen it so rough in that area before. I pulled up to the jetty, starboard side on and put her into reverse to pull the stern in, oh no...... I couldnt get her out of gear!!!!! On one engine and fighting the effects of the tide I was fighting a losing battle and the boat run stern first into the shingle and the slipway. I eventually got her into forward gear and had to punish the engine to get any steerage or response. I got away and came in for a second attempt from the other direction thinking it might have been a one off but just in case, at least I would have open water I could pull into, no it wasnt a one off and she stuck in reverse again. I had to reverse in a quite choppy sea and tide up to one of the moorings off of the slipway to see if there was anything that could be done, luckily I did it and although I moored up stern first it gave me a chance to sort this new issue out. There was no way it was going to come out of gear so I took the good Jabsco water pump off of my good engine and put it on the problem engine that had a good gearbox. This took about half an hour and sorted my predicament out and enabled me to pick Tracey up. The engine behaved and we went up the river Hamble to get some fish n chips and a bit of a blood pressure reduction, I dropped Tracey back off at the RNLI jetty later on and had no more issues with anything else, I sat again at the waiting bouy for a couple more hours and once the tide was high enough I came into Ashlett and moored up on our pontoon, it was around 1 am.
I dont think I have ever been so tired in my life, it was a mixture of excitement, anxiety, worry and doubt but at the end of it all I came through and have a lovely old boat to show for it.
Thank you for taking the time to read this Epic of Biblical proportion, I hope you found it helpful if you ever think about getting a boat from so far away, oh and by the way, the boat would not come out of gear because the clamp that holds the outer cable in place came lose and allowed the whole lot to move, a really easy fix !!!
Steve Woodward (Woody)
Seawolf
Thanks Dave, I did contact Hollywood but they said they couldn't come up with that kind of budget, after all, the "African Queen" had already been made. lol.
