Catching up on the Solstice

 Tomorrow is the northern hemisphere winter solstice, and that seems like a good time to at least slightly catch up on what Katy, Idril and I have been up to since my  last real blog post back in mid-October.

We left Dartmouth, where we had been pinned down by weather, on October 20th, rounding Portland Bill well to its south, and arrived at Studland Bay around sunset, anchoring just outside of Poole rather than trying to enter a shallow, heavily trafficked and unfamiliar estuary in the dark. 

 

"Old Harry" and "Old Harry's Wife" rocks, at the south end of Studland Bay

The next morning we motored around the corner to the south side of Brownsea Island and anchored, spending two nights before setting off for the Solent.

 

Brownsea Island is known as the birthplace of Scouting. Troops
from all over the world visit , often leaving signs.

The Solent is an iconic sailing region on the south coast of England, the starting point of the biennial Fastnet Race, and chock full of harbors and anchorages to explore. It lies between the south coast of England and the Isle of Wight, and our approach from Poole took us past The Needles, a set of rocks defining the western edge of the narrow channel west of the Isle of Wight.

We picked up a mooring in Newtown Creek, on the south side of the Isle of Wight. We stayed for three nights, again waiting out weather, and exploring Newtown and Shalfleet.

From Newtown we sailed back to mainland England and Buckler's Hard, on the Beaulieu River. Buckler's Hard was an important wooden shipyard in the 18th and 19th centuries, and is surrounded by New Forest (new in the 11th century...). I found it to be a wonderful, flattish bicycling territory! :-)

After several more days of waiting out weather at Buckler's Hard, we sailed back across the strait to the Isle of Wight, this time to East Cowes - the actual starting point of the Fastnet race.

Our final port of call in the Solent was Chichester Marina, which is behind a lock a long way up a somewhat scary inlet with large over-falls if you approach at anything other than slack tide. We left East Cowes on the morning of November 3rd and arrived at the marina in the early afternoon - in time to get in a walk into the actual town of Chichester. It was a long walk, and we didn't get back to the marina until well after dark.

Wing-on-wing towards Chichester

The upside of rain showers

The next day we learned that the U.K. was about to re-impose a COVID-19 lockdown. It was hard to get reliable information as to what this meant for us, so we went out on the morning of November 4th for a nice bike ride near the marina.

Upon our return to the marina, we learned that, if we stayed, we would be confined to the boat for the entire lockdown - a real problem, as we were not suitably provisioned. Further, it appeared that the marina lock would be shut down for lockdown that night, leaving us TRAPPED in  Chichester Marina -- and the U.K. -- for at least a month. We really needed to get the boat back to Cherbourg for the post-launch checkout, so on very short notice, we prepped the boat for sea and set off for Cherbourg, regardless of the weather and tide state.

Leaving Chichester at sunset, about to enter the Solent

Luckily, the winds were very mild (we had planned on waiting for stronger northeast winds, expected in a couple of days), so we had a gentle, if slow, sail across the Channel to Cherbourg.

Daybreak over the English Channel

Sailing on just the gennaker

It doesn't get much better...

Almost to Cherbourg

Our AIS was broadcasting our location, and shortly after we entered French waters we were contacted on VHF radio by signal station Barfleur, asking us our destination, and (essentially) "What are you doing entering French waters when France is locked down and not accepting leisure craft?" Luckily, we could (legitimately) explain that we were headed for Cherbourg for repairs and winter service, which are valid reasons for arriving in France.

We've been in Cherbourg ever since.

SO - here we are. We have spent the past 6 weeks or so doing boat maintenance chores, trying to get our long-stay visas extended (they expire on January 1, 2021), and working with Garcia (actually, Grand Large Services) on the issues to be dealt with on the boat. Cherbourg is a very reasonable place for us to be. We know the town well (from our stay here this previous winter and spring), the weather is acceptable (rainy, but not too cold), and the incidence of COVID-19 is (at least for now) low. 

On Monday, January 4th, we will sail the boat to the commercial dock in Tourlaville, and GLS will haul the boat and have it taken to the Garcia yard for the work that must be done. We have reserved a nice Airbnb east of town (in Bretteville) for the 2+ weeks that the boat will be on the hard. It will be weird not living on the boat; since we moved aboard in June, it's really become our home.

Our tentative plans are to spend the winter in France (hopefully further south), then sail to Ireland and Scotland in the spring. At the end of the summer we will head south, reaching the Canary Islands in October or November, to be ready to cross the Atlantic to the Caribbean in December/January -- a year behind our original schedule.

This year has certainly been very different from what we had planned, but I can't say that I'm especially unhappy about it. We have the boat, we've been learning how to live aboard, meeting nice people, and seeing new places. COVID-19 has certainly whacked our plans for a loop - but isn't that true for everyone? We're still healthy, we still have each other and our family and friends, and life goes on.

I wish all of you a Happy Hanukkah, joyous winter solstice, Merry Christmas, and much better 2021.

-- Jerry (and Katy)

More pictures (some duplication from album to album):

• Solstice pictures
• Poole, and Brownsea Island
• Poole to Newtown
• Newtown Creek and Shalfleet
• Buckler's Hard
• East Cowes
• The Approach to, and Escape from, Chichester
  

LIfe aboard a one-fuel boat

 Katy and I have been living aboard Idril, our Garcia Exploration 45 sailboat, for about 6 months now. Our boat is unusual for a sailboat in that the only fuel we carry is the diesel oil for our propulsion engine.

 

Idril at night

Most boats also carry propane, butane or alcohol for cooking, and many also carry gasoline for the outboard motor on their tender. Idril, though, has an induction cooktop and combined microwave/convection oven for cooking, and an electric outboard for the tender.

Jerry at the induction cooktop, with the immersion
blender close a hand. Lots of gadgets!

 

This means that we need a lot of electrical power, which we have to both generate and store. 

Storage is handled by 4 distinct battery banks:

• Primary storage is a bank of 4 24-volt lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries from Victron, with a capacity of about 20KW hours.
  
  
• Secondary storage is three separate banks of more conventional lead acid batteries:
• a pair of 12V, deep discharge batteries for all the 12V equipment on board: lighting, navigation and radio systems, fans, refrigerator and freezer, pumps, etc.
• a single 12V starter battery for starting the diesel engine
• a 24V bank composed of 4 12V starter batteries near the front of the boat to drive the windlass, capstan and bow thruster

The primary 48V bank charges the other three banks through a set of DC-to-DC chargers. 

A wonderful side effect of this arrangement is that each type of battery is used in the manner best suited to its particular chemistry:

• The lead acid batteries are kept essentially fully charged at all times, which is how they last the longest.
• The lithium batteries are rarely fully charged, generally fluctuating between 60% and 95% charged. This is how they last the longest.
  

Power generation comes from three sources:

• A 1KW array of solar panels, mounted on the arch at the stern of the boat.
• A conventional alternator on the diesel engine
• A special, high-output AC generator, also mounted on the propulsion engine, and controlled by a smart system controller called Integrel.

The Integrel controller comes into play any time we are running our diesel propulsion engine, such as departing from or arriving at an anchorage, mooring or dock, or motoring due to lack of favorable winds. It is capable of adjusting the amount of power produced by the AC generator, and therefore the load placed by the generator on the engine. When the engine is running at low speeds, the generator produces a lot of power; as we advance the throttle, the generator backs off, allowing more of the engine's power to go to the propeller.

the Integrel system monitor

 By having the Integrel generator on the propulsion engine, we are able to do without the completely separate auxiliary generator common on large sailboats, saving space and complexity. 

The final piece of the system is a 5KW inverter that produces 220VAC power for appliances (the induction stove, microwave oven, hot water kettle, water maker, electric toothbrushes, etc.) from the power stored in the 48V lithium batteries.

Until we started cruising, we were a bit anxious as to whether the system would work out as well as intended in the real world. The past months of cruising have confirmed our expectations: the system works beautifully. 

During the summer and early fall, the solar panels produced a lot of power even on overcast days, and on sunny days could easily keep up with our daily consumption. Now that we're into winter, of course, not so much. 

The Integrel generator produces power as we motor for the usual reasons, and we have only rarely had to run the engine specifically for the purpose of recharging the batteries. For short stays in a marina, we don't even bother connecting to shore power; we just don't need it. 

We wanted our boat to be highly independent from shore and comfortable enough that we can live aboard it indefinitely and not feel entirely like we are camping out. So far, we seem to have succeeded.

 

 

High tide, low tide

 The tidal swings in northwestern Europe are much more dramatic than we experienced back on the south coast of Cape Cod. Here is a pair of photos, taken from the same point on the (floating) dock, at high tide (this morning) and low tide (this evening). Yowza!

High tide

Low tide

Meanwhile: we are going to remain in Cherbourg at least until the end of the current lockdown, which might be as soon as December 1st. However, we are also waiting for Garcia to do work on the boat, and I don't honestly think that will be done  until mid-December. We're also working on extending our visas, which may keep us here for while. Cherbourg is a nice place, but we are looking forward to moving further south for the winter, and being able to sail.

Hey, we got interviewed!

 Many things have happened since my last blog post, and I should write about those, but first, a little amusement, courtesy of one Oliver Clerc, a French reporter who wandered by our boat in Cherbourg  a few days ago. He interviewed us, and our dockside ("pontoon") neighbors, and wrote the following article, reproduced here in blatant violation of copyright, in English translation (via Google Translate...). This appeared in the Monday, November 9 issue of "Ouest France".

Note: the "quotations" are a bit embellished. We were not recorded via audio, rather the reporter took notes. We might not have said quite what he reported, and of course Google Translate may have further mangled things.

-- Jerry

At the port, confined foreigners sympathize

 

The Americans Jerry Callen and Katy Petersen, 
as well as the Germans Anke and Martin Birkhoff,
pontoon neighbors at the Chantereyne port of 
Cherbourg where they are confined.

The life of marinas is made up of brotherhood between frequent travelers. In Cherbourg, Americans and Germans live their confinement as neighbors on the pontoon. Links are forged.

The story

Chances of existence, for these confined so far from home ... Saturday, Jerry Callen and his partner Katy Petersen, Americans from Boston, leave their Idril sailboat moored in the port of Cherbourg, cross the pontoon to dine aboard Mago del Sur, invited by the Germans Anke and Martin Birkhoff. This is where they learn the outcome of the Trump-Biden duel. “Martin tells us about the election,” says Jerry. I turn on my phone and find Biden elected! "We are coming out of the Trump nightmare," Katy sighs.

Safe in France

In the evening, their daughter calls them from Washington, describes the scenes of jubilation. A little aside from the country for these great travelers who gave up everything to live their life as ocean adventurers. But their first stopover, in Nord-Cotentin, dragged on. In January, they take possession of the boat with which they must travel the blue planet, tame it, when in March, the first confinement slows their dreams. No big deal: "We felt a lot safer here than in the United States," Katy says.

A summer trip along the English coast later, they learn that Britain is going to close. “We were in Chichester. The following night we left for Cherbourg ”, sums up Jerry. New "locked down" (containment). "When you're sailing, you shouldn't be in a hurry ..." Their first gesture was to pay for their place in Port Chantereyne until December 2nd. The next, to look, in the masts of the neighbors, for the pennant of one of the international associations of long-distance navigators to which they belong.

Exactly, there is one. Nearby. It flies alongside the black, red and gold flag of the other side of the Rhine. Coming from Bremen, the owners of Mago del Sur were to reach La Rochelle, before Spain, the Mediterranean, and others elsewhere. A damage, longer to repair than expected, they are nailed in Cherbourg since October 14. “Then there was the storm,” says Anke. And when a weather window opened, containment fell on us. I feel a bit trapped. "

She points to an almost dead town, "a pity, with almost no one in the streets and all these closed shops". Put him in perspective, reports the pleasure of having discovered Mont-Saint-Michel, Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, Barfleur. They have fun together "this language that we invent to make ourselves understood when we buy vegetables", agree: "Life is never boring. There is always something to do on a boat. And we are better there than in an apartment without a balcony. Their world tour stopped in Cherbourg. 

Temporarily.

Fowey River to Plymouth to River Yealm to Dartmouth

 We left the Fowey River about two weeks ago and sailed to Plymouth, where we first landed when we left Cherbourg. We returned for a few days to the Mayflower Marina, doing laundry and having some new equipment installed. 

We now have two multi-purpose instrument displays at both helm stations. We also got an AIS transponder installed, so that we will be visible to other vessels using AIS. If you want to see where we are, take a look at Marine Traffic, one of a number of sites that offer AIS tracking information. We won't necessarily be transmitting AIS all the time (there's not much point while we're in port), but our most recent location should be shown. Finally, we added a dedicated WiFi router that accepts cellular SIM cards, so our Internet access will hopefully be a bit more consistent.

While in Plymouth we took several outings, exploring. Ferries are a common mode of transportation in these southern port towns, and we started by taking a trip across the Tamar River to its west bank via the Cremyll Ferry. We walked from Cremyll to Cawsand, passing through the formal gardens of Mount Edgcumbe, past ruins, sheep pastures and churchyards.

Add caption

We had planned to take a ferry from Cawsand back to Plymouth, but it had mechanical problems and we wound up taking a bus back to Cremyll, and then yet another ferry from Cremyll to the Barbican, the site of the Mayflower Steps in the middle of Plymouth.

As we walked back to the marina along the waterfront, a submarine coasted past on its way to the Atlantic.

We also took a short train trip up the River Tamar to visit Cotehele, another National Trust location. 

 

We didn't spend the entire time in Plymouth on the dock; we also spent a night anchored in "Dandy Hole", a deep spot in the Lynher River, a tributary to the Tamar.  We went up the river on a rising tide (so we would float off if we went aground...), very carefully following the channel, and then feeling our way around the edges of the anchorage by depth sounder, searching for a spot deep enough to keep us off the bottom at low tide, but not in the channel where we would impede other boat traffic. There were other boats anchored in the hole that we needed to stay away from, so it was a bit tricky.

We were rewarded in the morning by a magnificent sunrise, over dead-calm water.

We quickly dressed, dropped the dinghy into the water, and took a few pictures of Idril.

Pictures taken, we headed still further up-river for our meeting with Pete and Tracey Goss. Their boat, Pearl of Penzance, was the Exploration 45 that we saw at Annapolis two years earlier - leading to our purchase of Idril. They picked us up at the dock at the St. Germans Sailing Club and drove us around the southeast corner of Cornwall, showing us some of their favorite places and treating us to tea and pasties.

The St. German's Viaduct

St. Michael's Chapel on Rame Head

Our visit with Pete and Tracey was not as long as we would have liked; we had to get back to the boat before the tide got too low for even our dinghy. We spent another night at anchor and then returned to Plymouth for a few more days of laundry, shopping and boat work. In particular, as noted earlier, we finally got an AIS transceiver installed, so that other boats with AIS will be aware of our position. You, too, can track us now! 

From Plymouth we sailed a short distance to the River Yealm, where we spent a few nights and did more exploring. This was our first experience staying on a "pontoon" - basically a dock that is anchored and not connected to shore. It was also the first time we have been rafted on; shortly after arrival, another boat tied up along side of us. This is pretty common in busy harbors, and in many places the boats can be three deep.

As usual, we went ashore and walked.

Looking at the entrance to the river

Another shadow selfie

 We had expected our next stop to be Salcombe, but we got an early enough start and had good enough winds to instead sail around Start Point and on to Dartmouth, where we have been since Monday, October 12th, waiting for fair winds to take us on to Poole, on the far side of "Portland Bill". We'll probably leave Dartmouth this coming Tuesday morning at first light.

Meanwhile - more outings. We took a coal-fired steam train to Paignton, and then a bus to Totnes, a very old town way up the Dart River. It hosts a Norman keep and a large number of tourist traps.

 

Closer to Dartmouth, we walked the 16km of the Dart Valley Trail, which includes two crossings of the Dart: the first from west to east on the Dartmouth Higher Ferry (a cable ferry), and then at Dittisham from east to west. While on the Higher Ferry, the train from Kingswear to Paignton passed by.

 

More pictures in these albums:

• Cremyll Ferry to Cawsand, then the Barbican 
• Cotehele
• Cremyll to Cawsand and beyond
• Visiting Dandy Hole, and Pete and Tracey
• The River Yealm
• Visiting Totnes by train
• The Dart Valley Trail