Up the creek

 Time to put Bonita into her mud berth for the winter, and Saturday seemed a suitable day. Spring tides and light wind, but not very warm. Luckily I had help from Allan and Toby.

Toby is the one in the rhino wooly hat. With Allan at the helm we got up the creek without any trouble, and the only hiccup came when we had a bit of difficulty getting the bowsprit out of the boat. 

Faversham has 4 community funded rowing boats that exercise going up and down the creek at weekends, and we saw a couple of these on the water. Its so good to see the creek being recognised as an asset to the community.

So we took a lot of gear ashore for drying out, overhaul or repair as needed and fitted the winter covers. 

After so much motoring in the Dutch waterways last summer I thought I should replace both fuel filters. The primary filter was certainly quite dirty.  I put in new ones and ran the engine with the prop disengaged for a couple of minutes, when  for no apparent reason it decided to stop. At first I thought maybe air had got into the system, but after a bit of detective work I found the fuel pump wasnt working. Taking it apart, it was clear a fragment of an internal valve cage had broken off, and the broken piece was still trapped inside the pump. Definitely time for a new one. 

Its tempting to think that this damage was in some way caused by changing the filters, but I dont see how it could be. This fuel pump was the one fitted by a Dutch engineer after its predecessor stopped working when we were off the Dutch coast in 2016. Then we had to send out a Mayday and got towed in by a Dutch lifeboat. I am grateful that this time the pump failed while Bonita was safely tied up alongside, and I was just trying out the engine. The best possible place for it to give up I suppose.

Update on the Gleniffer

 For some time I have been wondering what to do with Bonita's old engine. This was a 2 cylinder  Gleniffer engine of about 20hp, manufactured sometime before 1918 and installed in Bonita in 1927. It could be run on either petrol or paraffin. This was definitely a good quality engine in its day and gave generally good service until we replaced it with a modern diesel in 1983.  The Gleniffer company went on to make large diesel engines until they were taken over in about 1963 and Bonita's may well be the only one of their petrol engines still in existence. However the design of the internal combustion engine had undoubtedly progressed somewhat between 1918 and 1983, and by modern standards the old engine was heavy, uneconomical, vibrated the old boat more than seemed wise and could sometimes be reluctant to start. It is started by hand and you have to prime the cylinders with just the right amount of petrol and adjust the timing first, so it was a good idea to get it going well before it might be needed.  Since its removal the engine had been stored in my garage, although I set it up and had it running about a year ago. But what to do with it?

We made some enquiries and the Maritime Museum at Chatham expressed an interest. There is talk of putting it in a launch of similar vintage and maybe getting it working on the water again.  This seemed like the best hope for the future for the old engine and as a bonus would free up some useful space in the garage. I offered to donate it and get it to them . 

This in itself was a significant undertaking. The engine is very heavy: probably over 400lb, maybe a lot more. With Johns help, a car jack  and many wooden blocks we spent a morning lifting it up and slid it into the back of the van. 

When I got the engine to Chatham I was met by Nick and James and they appeared enthusiastic. We removed the engine using a hoist and fork-lift truck and with this help it came out of the van a lot more easily than it went in. The Museum have lots of projects planned and I was afraid the Gleniffer would join the back of the queue, however we wheeled it into their workshop and they seemed keen to get it going again. 

So I was a bit sorry to see the old engine go. It has given us good service and I have spent many hours listening to its regular beat both in UK waters and abroad. It was in the boat when my father bought her and he developed a profound understanding of its inner workings. Dad could be very resourceful. I was with him once when the engine failed due to one of the teeth breaking off the timing gear. We were coming back to our mooring at Erith in a flat calm. Dad not only diagnosed the problem, he drilled the timing gear, tapped in a bolt and filed it into shape to replace the missing gear tooth, then successfully restarted the engine. All the time he was doing this Bonita was drifting up the river and I was towing her rowing the dinghy to maintain at least some steerage way.

So I'm hoping we might see the old Gleniffer back in action in the river Medway off Chatham sometime.

And modern yachtsmen who can have engine power reliably and instantly at the press of a button don't know how lucky they are. 

The Gleniffer in its new surroundings.....

In the Locks

Bonita is having a well deserved rest while D and I rush around catching up with all the home-based stuff that seems to accumulate when you spend a month away. Readers might be interested in this picture of a group of Gaffers squeezing into one of the many locks on the Dutch waterways. Reserves of skill and patience are needed as most of the boats have bowsprits, many are difficult to manoever and some either cannot reverse, or at least not with any degree of predictability.  As always it helps a lot to have an agile crew who can anticipate problems including sometimes the skippers slow reactions.

The picture below shows Bonita on a previous visit to the Dutch canals. She is possibly in the same lock, the photo taken by our friend Trevor some years ago. D is on the foredeck waiting for the lock gates to open when all the boats will start moving again. D perfected the art of running out on the bowsprit to fend off other boats or sometimes harbour walls that had got in the way. This skill came in useful yet again on our latest trip.

Home

 After days of strong SW winds we are now promised a few days of summery weather and light winds. Dave and I left the Roompot marina at around 5am and locked out into the North Sea at first light, about 6am Dutch time. The passage planning for a trip back to England is more complicated than it used to be a few years ago as there is now a huge windfarm off the Dutch coast, and yachts are not allowed to go through this - we had to divert down towards the south for a trip towards Kent. We had the sails up which makes the boat more visible to shipping, but the wind was very light and we ended up motoring the whole way. Chugging across the North Sea and along the Kent coast to the Swale took 30 hours and half a tank of fuel.

This is Daves photo of the sun rising behind the (much smaller) Thanet windfarm off the North Foreland.  Bonita is now back on her mooring after more than a month in Dutch waters. Thanks to all my crew for help in negotiating the difficulties in taking the old boat on a trip never imagined by her original builders. We have had a marvellous time as guests of the Dutch Old Gaffers and enjoyed meeting many old and new friends.

Roompot again

We have come back to the Roompot marina ready to clear customs ( have our passports stamped) and lock out into the North Sea as soon as the weather looks reasonable. We have had strong SW winds for days, but all the forecasts say it should be more favourable tomorrow and Wednesday. We are here with Transcur and Clytie, also keen to get back to the Thames area.

There doesnt seem to be much permanent habitation here. Apart from the marina, there is a large holiday camp with beaches etc. We were puzzled that all the signs seem to be in English and Dutch, despite the fact that there are no English visitors apart from a few yachtsmen.

Most of the visitors cars have German number plates, and of course Germany has very little North Sea coastline or coastal resorts and so many take their holidays in the Netherlands. We were interested that sensitivities are clearly such that signs for foreign visitors are in English rather than German.

On a more practical note, we hope to be locking out at first light tomorrow......

Colijnsplaat

It was not quite so windy today but still a brisk S - SW wind mostly force 6 with gusts up to force 8. We left Willamstadt this morning and progressed south through two sets of huge locks.Mostly we were motor- sailing with jib, staysail and mizzen, though we were able to rest the engine for a bit. We  had planned to meet up with Transcur and Clytie in Zierikzee, but this is approached by a long canal running SW, ending in a congested harbour. I was anxious about Bonitas manoeverability is a strong following wind, so instead we came to Colijnstaat, on the other (south) side of the waterway. I have not been here before: it is a fishing port but also has plenty of yachts. There is an active yachtclub- they had races planned for this afternoon which were cancelled due to the bad weather.

There is also some history here: unusually for Dutch towns this is known to have been a Roman settlement. Ships traded from here along the coast and also across the North Sea to Britain. We can only admire the skills of those who sailed primitive boats along this featureless coast with few if any navigational aids.

There is a model of a Roman trading ship in the village known as Caudicaria Navis. The original would apparantly have been about 25m long. It is supposed to be an accurate model, though  we werent clear how good the evidence for this was. I was surprised to see that the model has two steering oars, one each side. I has read that Roman ships only had one steerboard, always of course mounted on the starboard side.

Windy in Willemstadt

With deteriorating weather forecast yesterday we wanted to move on from the rather limited attractions of Strijensas. We extracted the boat from the box berth and in company with Barbara on Moon River travelled the 7 or so miles west to Willemstadt. The wind was SW force 6-7 and its impossible to tack down the Hollandsch Diep here due to the constant stream of barge traffic, so we motored slowly into the wind with a little help from the mizzen. Last time we came to Willemstadt the old harbour in the centre of town looked very congested, so we went to the nearby Batterij marina instead. This time though the harbour looked less crowded and we tied up at the town quay overlooked by shops and restaurants. We were soon joined by Transcur, Clytie and Moon River.

We found a local restaurant that had a table for 9 a few yards from the boats and enjoyed a sociable evening. 

Its very windy today ( Friday) and there are gale warnings in nearly all sea areas but is supposed to be slowly getting better in the next few days. We stayed in port today but hope to be on the move again soon. Its frustrating not to be making better progress. However prolonged bad weather such as this during summer is very unusual.

Strijensas

Due to bad weather and worse forecasts much of the English gaffer fleet is gradually making its way home going inland through the Dutch canals. In company with Barbara on Moon River we seem to be a bit ahead of most. After a peaceful night at Kaag we motored down the canals to Alphen aan den Rign. Here there is a rail bridge that is supposed to lift but is undergoing repair. There is no way round it so once we got to it we tied up to the bank nearby to wait. Sadly D had run out of time: there was too much at home that either she or one of us had to do, so she left the boat and got home by train in a few hours. It will take Dave and me a good bit longer.

The rail bridge was fixed at 6am today and we got up early to go through on the first opening. There followed a day of motoring into strong head winds through Gouda, Dordrecht and many miles of Dutch countryside reclaimed from the sea and used for productive farming.

We have now got to the  open water of Hollandsch Diep. We were tired after a long day and so put into the little harbour of Strijensas.I have never been in this harbour before. It was small and very crowded and I was quite anxious about entering it in Bonita with a strong crosswind and no realistic plan B.
However with Dave wielding the boathook we eventually managed to back her into a box berth.
We felt we had definitely earned supper in the excellent restaurant attached to the marina.

Most boats today have aerials, anemometers and other unfriendly hardware at the masthead. The traditional burgee provides a much more comfortable resting place.

kaag

Sadly Sian and Ant have had to leave us to go home in the comfort of the Eurostar. Yesterday after the end of the OGA NL 20 celebrations D and I left Enkhausen at first light - about 6.30am. We motored south down to Amsterdam. It was warm and there was virtually no wind and the trip was mostly memorable for the very large number of flies - many million- that settled on the boat. At the marina in Amsterdam we were joined by Dave Patuck who has come to help us get the boat back. Indian Runner and Moon River were also there and we enjoyed supper in the marina restaurant.

Today we left at about 6am. I had hoped to head accros the North Sea to England, but though the weather seemed quite calm, the forecast for the next few days is for strong SW winds. Its temptimg to disregard this, but the purpose of the forecast is not to tell you how it is, but to give the best guide as to how its going to be. So rather reluctantly we headed down south through the canals. For much of the time there was a brisk SW wind which was reassuring. We stopped for a couple of hours in Harlem to stock up with fuel, water and food, and then in company with Barbara on Moon River motored down as far as Kaag.

Here we stopped for the night, with a peaceful rural mooring providing a contrast with the many bridges we have negotiated today on our journey.

Last day of Dutch OGA rally

Light winds and sun today: and a battle between the English and the Dutch. Rik set us a complicated course across the Ijsselmere, which involved a circuit around a barge allegedly containing artists keen to record nautical scenes.However when we approached the barge it turned out to have a large number of young people armed with buckets of water and water bombs. In due course after much water had been thrown and received the English were declared the winners, although it was never clear quite why.

In the evening we had a dinner ashore with presentation of prizes, singing and general merriment.

So this brings to an end the organised part of our Dutch cruise. We have very much enjoyed it - it has been a really good experience, and organised with typical dutch efficiency. Tomorrow we head south and hope that the weather is kind to us as we head back home