Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Strait, some Sounds, and a Sea: Robinetta, #6
    A Strait, some Sounds, and a Sea: Robinetta, #6
    A Strait, some Sounds, and a Sea: Robinetta, #6
    Ebook153 pages1 hour

    A Strait, some Sounds, and a Sea: Robinetta, #6

    By Alison Cable and Julian Cable

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In 2017 We took our gaff cutter Robinetta from Holyhead on Anglesey up to Scotland, (via Liverpool), then down the Welsh side of the Irish Sea to Bristol.

    This book is an account of that journey, with all its attendant joys and trials, including a radio that would not stay on station, an engine that filled the bilges with oil, and some interesting weather.

    What with traversing the Menai Strait, more Sounds than we can remember (including some of a musical nature) and traveling widely in the Irish Sea we had a varied and fun sailing season.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAJ and Family
    Release dateDec 1, 2017
    ISBN9781386172277
    A Strait, some Sounds, and a Sea: Robinetta, #6

    Read more from Alison Cable

    Related authors

    Related to A Strait, some Sounds, and a Sea

    Titles in the series (8)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Outdoors For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      17-20ft POCKET CRUISERS

      Jan 19, 2023

      17-20ft POCKET CRUISERS
      13 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Oct 29, 2021

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Contessa Appeal

      Apr 14, 2022

      What is it about the Contessa 32? Even for a superfan such as me, its appeal is surprisingly hard to define. It’s cramped down below, without full headroom, the saloon is snug, the forepeak berths short, and the galley and heads both quite poky. Inte

      1 min read

    • Article

      A Watermaker To Be Proud Of

      Sep 29, 2022

      Creating a reverse osmosis (RO) system had long been a pipe dream as a liveaboard yachtie on a swing mooring, but the cost had always been out of my reach. However, one day, after topping up my water tanks, a A$25 (£15) water charge was added to my b

      7 min read

    • Article

      Top 10 Boats Around 30ft

      Sep 9, 2022

      Top 10 Boats Around 30ft
      7 min read

    • Article

      SKIPPERS’ TIPS & YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

      Aug 18, 2022

      VYV COX has sailed for more than 50 years, initially racing dinghies, and for the past 25 years cruising yachts. He is a Chartered Engineer HARRY DEKKERS is an RYA Yachtmaster Offshore. He was the Commanding Officer of the Royal Netherlands Navy’s sa

      3 min read

    • Article

      New Folkboat hub

      Mar 11, 2022

      New Folkboat hub
      1 min read

    • Article

      Skip Novak

      May 13, 2021

      Skip Novak
      3 min read

    • Article

      International Folkboat

      Feb 15, 2022

      International Folkboat
      2 min read

    • Article

      Easy Ways To Sail Better

      Jul 7, 2022

      Easy Ways To Sail Better
      11 min read

    • Article

      Servicing Blakes And Ball Valve Seacocks

      Apr 13, 2023

      Recently I was sent a photo of a 40-year-old Blakes seacock. The question was simple: ‘Is it OK or do I need to get rid of it?’ It’s hard to properly diagnose the condition of metal without being able to touch it and tap it for that nice ringing soun

      4 min read

    • Article

      Portuguese Man O’tour

      Sep 2, 2021

      Portuguese Man O’tour
      3 min read

    • Article

      Master Your Mainsail

      Aug 13, 2020

      Master Your Mainsail
      11 min read

    • Article

      Mount A Stern Anchor

      May 12, 2022

      Mount A Stern Anchor
      1 min read

    • Article

      An Anchoring Adventure

      Aug 16, 2022

      An Anchoring Adventure
      4 min read

    • Article

      Jeckells and Hyde

      Oct 1, 2021

      Jeckells and Hyde
      7 min read

    • Article

      Alternatives To Consider

      Mar 31, 2022

      Alternatives To Consider
      4 min read

    • Article

      Old Boats, New Ideas

      Jan 14, 2023

      Old Boats, New Ideas
      3 min read

    • Article

      Frank and Margaret Dye

      Jul 6, 2023

      Frank and Margaret Dye
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Question Of Seamanship

      Aug 17, 2023

      A Question Of Seamanship
      2 min read

    • Article

      Cruising Clinic

      Sep 14, 2023

      Cruising Clinic
      11 min read

    • Article

      Expert Opinion

      Oct 13, 2022

      The pedigree and seaworthiness of the Contessa 32 has resulted in much affection for this class amongst boat owners. I have surveyed some of the 38ft versions of the Contessa which in terms of construction philosophy, is virtually the same boat as th

      1 min read

    • Article

      Work And Pleasure

      Jun 10, 2021

      Work And Pleasure
      9 min read

    • Article

      15 Fixes At Sea

      Mar 14, 2024

      15 Fixes At Sea
      23 min read

    • Article

      Clewless In The Pacific

      Jun 15, 2021

      Clewless In The Pacific
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Beauty Of Junk

      May 30, 2021

      The Beauty Of Junk
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Strait, some Sounds, and a Sea

    5/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Strait, some Sounds, and a Sea - Alison Cable

      Introduction

      When we left Tollesbury in 2014 to sail round Britain we were not sure how long it would take, just that we were not in a hurry. Robinetta is not a boat to hurry in anyway, being elderly (built in 1937) and small (22’ 6" (under 7m)). Taking our time has meant that we have visited lots of places on the way. But juggling sailing with a full time job has meant missing some great places and events.

      Last year we almost accidentally set ourselves the task of sailing all the way round Ireland, and much to our own surprise succeeded. Of course that meant we made very little progress south down the Irish Sea. We also kept meeting people who invited us to their sailing events. We did manage to get to one of these, in Holyhead at the end of the season, but what about the Campbeltown Gaffer’s Rally, Portaferry Sails and Sounds, the Peel Traditional Boat Weekend? We decided that this year, instead of aiming to make progress round Britain we would focus on attending festivals.

      This was also Robinetta’s 80th birthday and Julian was keen to get her as close as possible to the place where she was built. So we added a trip up the river Mersey to the agenda.

      The timings of the different events made our route far from straight forward. To get to the Campbeltown Rally we would have to head north again, but doing that would let us visit Gigha and Islay, parts of the inner Hebrides we had not seen. On the way south Julian would get to sail the only part of the Irish coastline he had missed last year. Luckily Campbeltown was early in the season, which meant we could work south from there...

      Robinetta left Holyhead in April, and was there again in August. Had we headed south in April we could have been back in Tollesbury by the end of the season. But as A A Milne said Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day. We prefer to go to places than to go past them.

      The Irish Sea is another great cruising area. It is Robinetta’s original home but she isn’t the best boat for it. The ports are tidal and a long way apart. It would be more enjoyable in a faster boat. Some ports have been upgraded in the last 20 years with flap gates to create wet docks. But a boat that can take the ground would make visiting many places more viable.

      None the less we had a good season, and accomplished nearly all our goals. We did miss the Dun Laoghaire regatta and we missed out visiting the entire coast from the Mull of Galloway to Fleetwood.  But we succeeded in taking Robinetta to her birthplace in the River Mersey. We got to festivals, and we made progress south, exploring the beautiful Welsh coast and reaching Bristol in October.

      Sailing remains a joy, and there are still more places to visit as we make our way round Britain.

      Alison and Julian Cable

      Preparing for the season

      In 2014 we left Robinetta at Cairnbaan on the Crinan Canal. That was 460 miles from home and, as Adam Way had said, ‘the coldest place on God’s Earth’. We didn’t visit all winter.

      In 2015 we had her in the shed at Fairlie – a mere 400 miles from home and we did visit, but only twice, for a week each time.

      At 260 miles Holyhead is a lot nearer but we didn’t manage a trip between September and the beginning of March. Our excuse was that the weather wouldn’t be good enough to make it worth coming.

      By the beginning of March Alison decided it was time to start getting Robinetta ready  for her next season.  So on the 8th she drove to Wales with the intention of washing down the cabin, and painting the ceiling. But when she climbed aboard and went below she was dismayed to find the floorboards awash. Yes, Robinetta was out of the sea and in the yard, so she wasn’t sinking, this was rain water – the worst kind for a wooden boat.

      In the autumn when the yard serviced and winterised the engine and  they switched both batteries to off as they left. This is standard procedure, and we should have made sure they knew we preferred to leave the battery connected with the solar panel hooked up to keep it charged.

      If she had been afloat, we would have remembered. We forgot.

      Once reconnected, it only took the bilge pump about twenty minutes to get rid of all but the last gallon. Then Alison took up all the floor boards, rinsed them off, and put them in the cockpit to dry. Luckily it was a sunny day with a breeze.

      Another half hour saw the final gallon of fresh water mopped up, and the electric heater directed at the soaking bilges. All the interior wood was damp and the heater stayed on all day.

      The wood in the rest of the cabin had suffered from the damp atmosphere too. We have been thinking about getting the deck redone to fix the leaks, and this winter has moved it up the list of essential repairs. The deck beam under the forward bulkhead has suffered.

      Paint flaking off the cabin sides is a lot less traumatic, and quite easy to tidy up once the wood beneath is dry. It does mean at least three days at the boat, to get even a minimum set of coatings on.... There were no significant flaking areas on the ceiling though, so that job got done.

      This year we have decided to try different anti-foul. We have been using Tiger Xtra, but the chandlers at Holyhead do not stock it, and told us this was because it does not work well under local conditions. We have gone for Teamac D this time, partly because they are excellent sponsors of East Coast OGA events and partly because friends have had good results. So one of Alison’s jobs was to check it would go on over the Tiger without problems. She did a few test patches, and it seemed fine.

      At the beginning of April, a week before launch day, Alison drove up with Alex to help prepare Robinetta for the water. Alex got to work preparing the hull for anti-fouling, while Alison got the covers off, cleaned the cabin a bit, and sanded the damaged varnish off the foredeck cap rails, planning to put Deks no 1 on them on Thursday.

      Meanwhile the yard had given Robinetta a new anode, the old one having served for 5 years. Apparently the bolts snapped while the anode was being removed, so she now has new bolts. The engineer who did the work spotted Alison in the yard and came to tell her what happened, and assured us it's properly connected to the engine block.

      Alex and Alison worked late on Thursday, and made good progress. Alex put a coat of white Toplac on the bulwarks, so they looked finished, rather than in need of more layers! He managed to get two coats of underwater primer on to the bare wood too, so was ready to roll on the anti-foul on Friday.

      Meanwhile Alison concentrated on the foredeck, with Deks no 1 on the cap rails, and a complete coat of blue Toplac inside the bulwarks. (Last season they were a patchwork of blue and silver). The deck itself still needed work, with more damage revealed than expected once it was clean.

      On Friday Alex got on second coats of Toplac, white on the bulwarks, blue on the hull, and applied the anti-foul and then they drove home.

      Next day Alison and Julian loaded Worm onto the car roof, to head back and finish getting Robinetta ready to launch.

      Bridget, an ex-lifeboat long converted to a gaff rigged cruising boat, was also in the yard at Holyhead, and being a weekend her owners were around, getting her ready to launch. They reminded us that the North Wales Gaffers start of season party at Port Penrhyn would be held that evening, so we went along and met up with friends old and new for a great meal and music in a working boat shed. It made a lovely beginning to the season.

      Next day Julian fitted the new dead-eyes he made over the winter, then spliced together a new set of lazy-jacks. After that he checked over the electrics, and the anchor chain, and replaced the forestay lanyard. The forestay really deserves a pair of small dead-eyes to tension it properly.

      Over the week Alison repaired and painted the foredeck and the cabin roof, cleaned the cabin (thoroughly for a change), and did a variety of small tasks that have ended up with the cabin habitable, the galley usable, and everything put away. She would have changed the water filter,

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1