Anyone for Applejack? incorporating 'Adventures of Applejack' ®

[Tim Gardner]

Great report!

[brackish]

I've truly enjoyed your continuing saga, the refit and the adventures.  Particularly like the pics of the countryside when docked. 

You used the term faux pas to describe your boat once.  One of the early boats I owned, a Columbia 24 Challenger was named Faux Pas.  My BIL and I owned it together and at that age (early twenties) and given the condition of both the boat and our attitude it was quite fitting.

[GeeW]

Thanks for the replies chaps. Appreciate knowing that at least two people are reading this!
I have just realised that I still have a couple of posts to do yet to finish off the trip report, I'll try to get them up in the next day or so.

We're trying to tie down the dates for a weeks sailing trip. If we stay in the Solent we will probably attempt a circumnavigation of the Isle of Wight or a run along the south coast. Either way I'll do my best to take a few more images.
Gordon

[NCboater]

More than two.  Have been following your saga, just haven't chimed in until now.  Thanks for posting your adventures.

[Bilgemaster]

Make that more than more than two!  Being a bit new to this forum, I'd only just stumbled along into the latest postings today.  I've since reviewed the whole thread going back to last year, and would say that it has been the most enjoyable I've followed so far.  Well done!

For the benefit of any other late-coming "colonials," here is a guide and glossary to some terms and concepts appearing in these accounts that might be unfamiliar to Yanks and Canucks:

• broad  shallow lake, one of a number of bodies of water in eastern Norfolk and Suffolk counties in England.
• draught  draft (and pronounced more or less the same), with "air draught" being the distance from the surface of the water to the highest point on a vessel or impediment such as a bridge
• HW  High Water (high tide)
• HWB  Hot Water Bottle (?); in the present travelogue this may be referring to a Thermos® or vacuum flask and perhaps not to the traditional red rubbery comfort for denizens of a damp cool climate often lacking effective central heating, or, as the author George Miles pointed out, "Continental people have sex lives; the English have hot-water bottles."  Then again, it is hard to overstate the fondness of the British for their "hotties," so maybe they've brought theirs along for the trip.  Not a bad idea, really.
• iron tops'l (iron topsail)  iron wind, motor
• N° 2 kettle  2-quart kettle (by Imperial measure, approx. 15% more than U.S. quarts). Prior to being supplanted in most British households by the ubiquitous squat electric kettle with the little red switch, the old "N° 2" held permanent residence on the "cooker" (range).  Nowadays look for it in the cupboard.  You'll find Nan's (Grandmother's) old one in there between the fondue kit and the electric breadmaker. 
• quant  to punt or propel a vessel using a pole with a broad flange near its end to prevent its sinking into the mud.
• staithe  wharf or other fixed structure where ships land, especially to load and unload; landing stage (archaic or dialectal to east and north-east England).
• stink-box  stinkpot (powerboat)
• victual (or re-victual)  to provision, obtain edibles (related to the folksy rural North American term "vittles")

 

 

 

 

 

[GeeW]

Good effort, but no cigar. 9 out of 10 score for you Bilgemaster!

No 2 kettle, refers to an old kettle used only for the filling of the HWB's, capacity is one imp pint. We use the water we're floating on rather than fresh water for this.

Gordon

[GeeW]

For the lake sailors amongst the assembled (small) crowd.

Chichester harbour has a few very nice beaches, of which East Head is considered the prime beach of the harbour owing to its very sheltered position and slightly soft fine sand. With a mid afternoon low water (LW) the locals often park up on the sand and let the water go away for the afternoon. This lets wives/kids/pets have a nice afternoon on the beach whilst the master of the vessel can give the below waterline bits a quick check and maybe remove a few barnacles...but not use or rub down anti-foul. As we were near neaps we only had a tidal range of 2.5 metres (just over 8 feet) so those with deeper keeled boats had to hit the beach a couple of hours after high water (HW).
The usual trick when coming up to the beach is to deploy an anchor over the stern such that you have paid out say 20 metres of rode before it goes scrunch (often accompanied by complaints from the galley because despite promising to warn, you forgot at the critical moment). Once settled move the rode to a bow cleat and settle down to a peaceful afternoon on the beach.
Water then goes away and comes back. As your boat comes afloat, it will then sheer out and lay to her anchor. This happens quite suddenly so make sure you are aboard when it happens... (don't ask!) All good fun.
Three hours after this image was taken they were afloat again.

[GeeW]

'Applejack' loading plan

At the foot of each bunk there is a plastic storage box.
Port hand contains toolkit and spare two stroke oil.
Starboard has adult beverages and 4 litres of spare water
On each bunk during the day are our personal clothes bags, sleeping bag, HWB, fleece blanket and two cushions. All of which stows under the cockpit side benches.
During day Elsan toilet stored under bridge-deck and under tiller when anchored/moored.

In the fore peak (if weather is nice)  sailing boots and waterproof jackets and chest fit trousers. Cockpit tent in its own bag.
Bags as in image from L to R
Ditty bags, One each, personal ready use items, phone, camera, sailing gloves, buff, hat and all the other tat I can't think of anywhere else to stow!
White bag with 1 on it. Crockery, pots and pan set, toaster.
Blue bag. Food, contains enough for 2 people for 5 days
Behind blue bag and not visible. Two cartridge gas cookers (gas only installed when cookers are in the cockpit)
10 litres water. For those all important cups of tea!
Behind water with blue lid just visible. Cold box, Usually milk, fruit juice and fresh meat etc and items for the full English breakfast demanded by both the Admiral and Sailing Master.
Turquoise briefcase. Navigation bag, charts, almanac, tidal stream atlas, boat documents.
Red bag. Cutlery, and all things for making tea/coffee and lunches. If lunch or a snack has been pre-prepared it will be stored here as will thermos of hot water for making coffee/hot chocolate/beef tea when under way.
Between head of bunks, fire blanket and first-aid kit Fire extinguisher under bridge-deck.

Aft end of cockpit, 2x 5 litre cans of fuel plus spare cartridges of gas. Normal usage is circa one per day.
At night our personal clothes bags sit on the area between the other bags and the head of the bunks, forward of the switch board.

[Seadub]

Excellent information, smart stowage! Much appreciated.

[GeeW]

Well, I must first apologise for almost a years delay in posting. Must say it hasn't been a great year but never mind.

Just came back from a nice 5 day outing aboard Applejack, once again sailing in Chichester Harbour with the Admiral as crew. I will try to find where the old muppet (ie me) has left his camera and do a much better post with images in the next couple of days.

Significant events of the cruise included why you should never trust tide tables and what not to have in your cold box in +F5 winds.

Gordon

[GeeW]

Found camera after only half an hours looking, hiding pretty much in plain view....... "<sigh> typical mans look" in Admiral speak! I sometimes wonder whether you chaps  get the same level of 'encouragement' from your Admirals?  Just asking?

Right and so to business, as I have now uploaded my short video of us sailing in Chichester Harbour in a Full F4 with bottom of F5 patches I thought I would post this first. Aficionados of the marque will immediately spot that we have one tuck (reef) in the main and full jib. What you cant see is that I am helming by draping my leg over the tiller to give me one hand for the camera and one hand for the sheet as some of the gusts were pretty solid.


https://youtu.be/2ndM3eM3auw

Gordon

[tmw]

Nice video, Applejack is cruising quite impressively there.

I understand the admiralty "encouragement", although I'm impressed you were permitting to continue the voyage in those conditions, and haven't been keel-hauled, although is that why we haven't heard much from you lately?   

[GeeW]

tmw
Keel-hauling is reserved for minor offences according to the Admiral, as she deems it to be "the soft option"! Further talk on this subject and I'll be "kissing the gunners daughter", Royal Navy style ...so moving on swiftly.......

We launched without issue on Wednesday and had a cracking sail round the harbour. Absolutely ideal conditions. I opted to take a vacant mooring in Mill Rithe and wary after last years Faux Pas on getting past the bar at the entrance took extra care (successfully) to get us safely in.
At low water we were still afloat with perhaps 6" of water under the keel. With the tide table showing that Thursdays early morning LW to be the same value a very pleasant evening was spent relaxing out of the light wind under a half rolled back boom tent.
Over night the wind backed by 120 degrees and for a short time it was a bit bouncy as HW gave us a bit of a fetch to windward that necessitated the Sailing Master take a trip to the foredeck to adjust our lines. As the tide started to fall all calmed and sleep was once again easy.

At just before LW I tried to take a drink from my glass of water and as I moved I sensed all was not as normal with gravity as the sensations were all wrong as it appeared to be in a state of change! Applekack had been beautifully perched upright in the mud and my weight shift had destroyed the equilibrium and the boat very slowly fell onto her side. My bunk being the uphill side meant that I now slid in a semi-controlled manner from bunk to floor . The Admiral shuffled herself round so to cary on her slumbers against the side of the boat and suggested I make tea just as soon as Applejack came upright again......
It was very pleasant sitting in the cockpit waiting for both Sun and Tide to rise. Tea was served in the appropriate manner some two hours later.
Moral of the story- Never forget the tidal prediction is just that , a prediction and reality reserves the right to vary this as it sees fit owing to atmospheric conditions.
Image show my view on my way out to the cockpit.

[GeeW]

Thursdays met forecast promised starting F3 slowly increasing F4, possible F5 for a while mid afternoon and then dropping to F3 by 19:00.
We sailed round the harbour until the tide turned and then worked our way out into the eastern part of The Solent. We were lucky to get reasonably close to 'Lallulah' which is a replica of a Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter. 'Lallulah' is considered a small Pilot Cutter as she is only 40' long and 25 Tonnes. More usually there were about 5' to 10' longer and 5 to 15 Tonnes heavier
Out of the many hundreds of these boats built only 18 originals survive plus another handful of replicas.
The Bristol Pilot Cutter is considered one of the classic British sailing boats, being designed for a crew of 2 (plus the pilot) to work the Western Approaches of the Bristol and English Channels. With the prevailing regular Westerly Storms they always sailed with a very unforgiving rocky shore to leeward so were designed to point well and work the very rough seas.
It was a real treat to see one sailing close up.

The wind as predicted did increase, I put a reef in both main and jib. Eventually the wind over tide and the odd (just into) F6 gust forced us to turn tail and very broad reach back into Chichester Harbour, it was a glorious sail. The rest of the day we just pottered about the harbour, and picked up a handy mooring in Mengham Rithe for the night.

[GeeW]

Both Friday and Saturday were light wind days with decent temperatures (for the UK, but the Admiral was reluctant to shed the sailing fleece! see image)  which gave us some lovely sailing within the harbour. The Admiral did a sterling job in getting up and back on Thorney Reach, much of the time having to 'steal' to keep us in the channel without tacking, at the end of this I mucked up picking up a mooring several times as the relationship between the now strongish tide and gusty wind made for a tricky approach. Got the little blighter in the end. We then had a wonderful sail beating but lee-bowing with the tide across the huge area that is outside the marked channel. At times we were over 1/2 mile from the channel with nearly 18" of water under the keel. It's the bravest I have been sailing for a long while. Once back in to the Emsworth Channel the wind was much more predictable and we enjoyed one of those fine late afternoon sails where the wind is just perfect and the water very sparkly.....if you know what I mean?