Catching up - Portsoy and Peterhead

I've got some catching up to do.

On the 29th of June, Edan and I took Raasay through to Portsoy for the boatshow.



We had an uncomfortable night on the first night because she settled very head down - the slope of the bottom was against us. On Saturday we swapped round.

The weather was blistering.

Portsoy was just the first step in a much larger master plan, though, and on the Monday (2nd July) I sailed round to Peterhead.



I did some final checks and tasks, and some business in Aberdeen, and then Angus joined me on Wednesday night to sail for Vlieland on Thursday morning.

I was planning to fill up with diesel in Peterhead, but the marina manager was very difficult to get hold of and I decided to make do with what I had. Surely we wouldn't be motoring for more than 50 hours ...

Mainsheet Traveller

Freed up, cleaned, greased. With new control lines.

This has been needing done for a while ...



Still some cleaning up to do.

Alongside for a scrub, anodes, prop-greasing ...

Some photos from this week.

Really ready to go now ...

Incoming Tide, Findhorn - a couple of hours before HWS.

Sheet Winches

This is one of Raasay's existing -  well, up until today - sheet winches:




It's a Knowsley,  roughly the same size as a Lewmar 40 - or perhaps a size larger. These seem like very good winches (massively heavy, a lot of bearing surface), but they are no longer in production. Also, they are not self-tailing, and I sail single handed a lot.

Also, notice the painful cleat just where you might want to put your back when you are sitting towards the forward end of the cockpit.

Anyhow, I saw a pair of Harken self-tailing winches for sale, reasonably recent, not heavily used, and decided to change them over. The problem was going to be getting at the underside of the mounting area to do the change.

On the starboard side, I might have had someone reach up inside the coaming with a long extension, but the bolts were too long for a socket and getting a ring spanner up there was going to cause joint pain.

On the port side, the coaming is completely inaccessible - it's above the 'long locker', but set inboard of it. I think it's actually impossible to reach.

So: I decided to remove the winch handle pockets, which are separate mouldings behind stainless covers. On the starboard side, the little bolts holding them in place are accessible, but on the port side they are not.

This is the starboard side stripped back:



The Knowsley winches weren't original, you can see the traces of earlier version:



The holes didn't (of course) fit the Harken base, so there is another set now ... here is the outcome before the winch pocket was replaced:



On the port side, I had to grind the heads off the bolts:



And then replace them with self-tappers into hardwood blocks:



Not a work of art, but then who's going to see it? (Unless ...)

And here is the final outcome, port side:



The grinding marks on the plate are much less obvious in the flesh than in this photo. And may tone down ...

I'll trim the excess sealant with a razor once it sets. And there are some holes to patch with epoxy..

But now, I can more conveniently tail my own winches and I can sit comfortably in the cockpit with my back to them ...

Does anyone want a pair of Knowsley winches?

Next: needing to dry out and scrub ...

A nice photo with my waterproof camera:




Hopefully this week ...

Not bad, mind you, after more than twelve months in the water. The prop anodes go pretty fast ...

And another 'idyllic mooring' picture, just for nothing:




That will do for now.

Back in Findhorn...

Yesterday and Friday, Angus and I brought Raasay back to Findhorn. Tide times made this a two day job, as we picked up an outgoing tide at Lossiemouth and the next high tide was going to be after dark.

We over-nighted on a visitors' mooring in Cromarty, after a short visit to the visitors' pontoon berth in Cromarty Harbour. That was an interesting test - there is rarely room on the Cromarty pontoon as the visitors' berth is frequently occupied. Raasay draws 1.8m, and we now know that as long as we have 0.9 m over chart datum we can (just) float tied up to it. Even low water is often not below that.
We can only get about 2/3rds of the boat on the pontoon, mind you:



On Saturday morning we headed for Findhorn, motoring in flat calm, and picked up the mooring at 11am. This was about an hour before high water, and the tide was flowing strongly inwards. I'd forgotten that D section is not sheltered from this when the sandbanks south of it are well immersed.

Picking up a heavy mooring in 2knts of tidal stream, eddying and swirling, was an interesting learning experience, and involved a sheet winch on a nylon cable to pull the strop through the bow roller.

It's much more peaceful on the outgoing tide, and once the sandbanks give shelter everything goes very quiet indeed. I'll just need to time things carefully when I'm on my own.

I also thought that I could take the nylon cable from the winch, through the bow-roller, and back to the cockpit. Then I could pick up the mooring from there and just winch it through.

Some videos from last year...

I don't think I've posted these before.

Winter in Lossiemouth

I wanted to keep Raasay afloat over the winter - I plan to lift out every two years. This winter just passed it was in Lossiemouth, where it lay beside 'Rival Lady', Tristan Mortimer's Rival 31 - quite a rare early version of the marque.



I had thought about applying for a permanent transfer to Lossiemouth, but changed my mind over the winter. It's a great, well-serviced, marina. Raasay didn't like it there, though - too much movement in Easterly weather. I was never quite sure what was happening, but the boat burst a few fenders, and also broke a guardrail wire (from which they were hanging). Somehow, the tops of the fenders were getting stuck under the pontoon.

I think the bad combination was an Easterly plus a very low tide. Also, I think Raasay was inclined to heel over until it had dug a trench in the mud. So I'm down four fenders and a guardrail.

Anyhow, I'm going back to Findhorn & a swinging mooring. In 'D' section this time - over towards the Culbin side, within a short row of the beach and forest. It's out of the main channel, and less prone to floating tree trunks ...

Sunday - Inverness to Findhorn

And home ...

Saturday - Fort Augustus to Inverness

Penultimate (?!) leg.

We were able to tie up alongside the wharf in Seaport Marina and unload things into the car. Final hop back to Findhorn tomorrow.