| Ameera |
Out and AboutPersonal time, weather and tide finally coincided today - an opportunity to get out of the marina and calibrate the Autohelm. Seedog, from the YBM forums, contacted me a couple of weeks ago and expressed interest in coming out on Ameera, and as today's plan was to motor out when the marina gate opened, follow Raymarine's calibration instructions, and back into the marina before the gates closed again, it seemed like a good opportunity to meet for the first time without being stuck together on the boat for half a day.Met Doug (Seedog) near home and drove us up to Fleetwood. On Ameera, which I hadn't seen for a month, I was pleased to find relatively little water in the bilges. Started the engine, expecting difficultly because it hadn't been run since December - it started first time, no hassle, running as sweetly as if I'd only turned it off an hour before. Left the engine ticking over to run the old fuel through and refresh the batteries, and dug out my old Zodiac tender. Doug kindly volunteered to inflate it, so I nipped back to the car to collect the outboard. This is the life - returned to find dinghy almost ready to go. The starboard air valve was still leaking slightly - what did I expect, it was leaking last year! Into the water it went, and I lifted the outboard in. This is a little 2hp Yamaha 2-stroke, old and pernickety. I expected problems starting it - it hadn't been run for five months and still had last years stale fuel in the tank, but half a dozen pulls on the starter cord and it too was running sweetly - the gods were obviously smiling on me today! All done then, ready to go. We tied the tender to Ameera's stern and I radioed the dock to ask when the gates would open. No reply - was the new radio working? It was receiving OK. Tried again after a few minutes, success - the gates would open in half an hour. Time for a sandwich. And a beer, looks like Doug has good taste in beer - we stopped off on the way up and bought a couple of bottles of Black Sheep, and a couple of something that I didn't recognise. We didn't get round to the latter, so they're sitting in a locker waiting for next time. Ready to go. Checked the GPS, 2 satellites and no fix - oh well, looks like I'll have to remake the antenna connection. A sudden mad rush of boats jostling for position to exit the marina, we let them go and cast off, me gingerly taking Ameera off the pontoon for the first time. Hmm, cocked that up, we're pointing the wrong way. Not going to try and turn around here, would only wind up bashing into someone else's pride and joy, so reversed out all the way into the main channel through the docks. Ameera goes quite nicely backwards - far better than I was expecting. Pointing the right way now, we motored out of the marina and into the channel, following the flotilla of other yachts ahead of us as we entered the Wyre estuary, and drove against a couple of knots of tide, past the Stena Leader (Fleetwood - Larne) ferry and out into Morecambe bay, following the channel to the old Fleetwood lighthouse and Lune Deep. The depth sounder is playing up still, all my attempts to improve it have failed, it oscillates seemingly randomly between readings, although observation suggests that the deepest readings it gives are the correct ones, but unconfident of the ground below us we stuck doggedly to the channel while the rest of the flotilla dispersed to port and starboard, sails hoisted and enjoying the gentle breeze. At the end of the channel it was time to start "work". I hooked up the Autohelm, read the instructions, and throttled right back. We were supposed to motor round in circles at under 2 knots. I checked the speed using the handheld GPS and throttled back further. We were just under 2 knots, but how much was boat speed and how much was tidal drift I couldn't tell. We started motoring round in circles, each circle to take at least 3 minutes, while the Autohelm self-calibrated its fluxgate compass. Amazingly it seemed to work, and after the first circle came up with a reading. As we carried on to do a couple more rotations I looked at the track on the GPS screen, with the tidal drift we were drawing a curly line like a pigs tail in the sea. During all this excitement Doug pointed out a ferry crossing our path, concerned that it would want to come our way as we were still close to the mouth of the channel into Fleetwood. I looked and thought remarkably slowly before realising that the ferry was on a course perpendicular to the channel, and was actually the Ben-My-Chree operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company on its way out from Heysham towards Douglas. No threat to us, but why it was so slow to dawn on me is deeply worrying, it is only just over a week since I was sat on said ferry myself, making the same voyage at the start of a weekend exploring the Isle of Man. Calibration done, time to actually try this thing out. We straightened up onto a heading and set the pilot. It works. The boat steading to a heading of 032(M), compasses and Autohelm agreed - hands free sailing at last! We motored gently across Morecambe Bay, me playing with my new toy, in a calm sea with glorious sunshine until we realised it was time to head back. Using the autopilot we went about, returned to the channel, and navigated most of the way in on the autopilot until I took over manual control approaching the docks as we came close to the Stena Leader which was preparing to leave. All good so far, the flotilla had reformed around us, and we headed back into the marina, heart in mouth in my case, because I knew what I had to do next. When I moved Ameera to Fleetwood I gave Andy the helm for the job of taking us in to the marina and getting us onto a pontoon, because he is much more experienced than me. Unknown to either of us the currents in the dock can be quite strong, and we overshot our chosen berth, tried again, failed again, before finally making it in with an excess of power riding the bow high up onto the pontoon and a deep shudder passing through the boat. Given the difficulty Andy had had, I wasn't looking forward to my first attempt at berthing Ameera! I crept into the marina with the engine barely ticking over, turned around the outer pontoon, and approached our finger. Hard to port on the rudder, and Ameera turned on a sixpence giving me a perfect presentation. A touch of power astern to take off the remaining speed, and Doug jumped onto the pontoon, bow lines in hand, with a fender gently brushing the side - brilliant. A perfect end to a super afternoon, Ameera is finally ready. 6:45 PM - Mar. 24, 2007 - post comment
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