Struggling

Just sitting in the house. We never seem to have any free time. There is always a huge list of things to do. Every penny that comes in has to be carefully assigned to pay for some more work to be done. Will we be able to afford to do the conservatory this year, now that the attic, garage and bathroom are done? Should we pay as much as we can off the mortgage whilst the rates are so low, and leave spending on the house until we've paid it off?

Meanwhile, we want to go diving. We want to go sailing. We want to go away in the van, drink wine, eat good food, enjoy ourselves. We knew it was going to be hard. We're approaching the halfway point in our plans to move to West Wales, and everything is according to budget, and going really well.

Then our friend Tom visits, from the Phillippines. It was Tom that first got us interested in sailing, and, with whom, we got our first taste of what it could be like, crusing from Italy to the Greek islands in his 44ft ketch 'Perky Puffin' in 2007:

Here was a boat that we could live on. Long term. Here was a boat that we could travel on, cheaply. I've always wanted to dive in the Pacific. Rangiroa is near the top of my list. There are so many places we want to travel to, Galapagos, South Africa, back to Sudan, and, it keeps calling me, the Pacific.

Through Tom, we met John, from Tenby. John bought a boat in America, Chelone, and sailed her back across the North Atlantic:

The next year, John sailed down through Portugal, Morocco, the Azores, across the Caribbean, past beautiful islands where we ourselves have since cruised and dived, and then back to the UK. We often pop down to Tenby to visit John - he dives, too.

Then there are Brian and Sue, on their 33ft yacht, 'Blue Bear'. They left Cardiff in October 2010, sailed  the same way as John, but then went through the Panama canal and out into the Pacific. They are currently headed for Fiji.

These are not dreams. These are not adventures one reads about in magazines. These are friends of ours.

We need a boat, a scuba compressor and some time. We have three or four years to finish messing about with houses, and then we may be able to have those things.

Meanwhile, we work, and read about others who do. We plan, and talk. It's hard, and we're struggling.

I read this, earlier today:

"We shared meals ashore and on our boat in the Marshall Islands, drank kava with groups on several islands in Fiji, played with children, sang with locals, taught school children in Indonesia, picnicked with locals in the Cook Islands,  learned how to collect shellfish and prepare them the local way  in Kiribati, traded clothes for local produce in Guadalcanal, sponsored a model outrigger canoe race in the Louisiades, and repaired a solar power system and other equipment in Tikopia. We took locals aboard from several islands for overnight fishing trips, to visit their ancestral atoll in New Caledonia, took a family for two weeks to a Melanesian Arts Festival in Vanuatu and slept on crowded ferryboat decks on the Irrawaddy River in Burma"

http://www.arctracer.com/

The countdown is well underway.

Freshwater West

We'd expected to still be doing our chores on Sunday, sorting the mooring, picking up the car and so on. Having made the trip in one hop, and sorted both the mooring and the car yesterday, we had a day free to sail!

With high tide at 11 ish, we could go up the river and come back with the tide. That would mean dodging shipping and the inevitable hordes of other boats about on this fine Easter Sunday, however, so we elected to head out of the Haven for a few hours.

Winds light, NW, I heaved up the main and sailed off the mooring. We were soon goosewinging out of the Haven, passing, or, more correctly, being passed by all sorts of vessel.

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We'd walked along the beach at Freshwater West with Tigger a few weeks back, the beach deserted. This time, it was packed with surfers enjoying the summer-like weather, and great swell. Tigger was with my mother - we don't usually take him on 2 day passages (as this was originally planned) if we can't guarantee to get him ashore.

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Louise was enjoying the sailing, and I left her too it. She decided on her plan, where and when to tack to get back into Dale, and did it all, with little more than an occasional suggestion from me.

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I then took over - it would be nice to sail back onto the mooring, and have sailed the entire morning without starting the engine. I didn't get it quite right, though, and fired up our new Beta about 30 yards from our mooring, in fear of hitting another boat in the crowded moorings. More practice methinks.

So, an enjoyable and successful weekend. Ishtar is on her summer mooring, and ready for action. We left a crowded Dale after taking the dinghy ashore, and arrived back home about 18:00. All's well that ends well.

And in with the new.

The new Engine is a Beta 20HP, 3 cylinder engine running at a max 3600rpm. Louise picked it up from the factory in Gloucester.

Beta were very nice to deal with, did us a great price and were very helpful and professional with great communication.

Here's our new engine, sitting in the garage at home.





I was working when the engine was lifted into Ishtar, using a JCB at the club. Louise organised it, with the help of my father.





Our club JCB driver, 'Big ray' did a sterling job of lowering the 100Kg+ engine, gently, into the cabin.





Then she was in. Hopefully, when the propshaft, prop, bearing and so on arrived, the installation would go like a dream......





Meanwhile, there was plenty to get on with. The original Rudder 'shoe', which bolted on to the base of the skeg to support the rudder was made from 3mm stainless stell, and badly pitted. I bought 2 x 10mm 316 stainless plates from a local supplier and, with my father's help, set about welding a new one.





It looks fine. It became clear why the original was made in such thin steel, however, getting all of the angles right in 10mm steel was a pain. In 3mm, you could just bend it to shape. It took 3 visits to the boat, and as many wooden templates to get it right. I think it may last........

I blagged a piece of scrap hardwood from Graham, a mate refitting his boat. Lots of sanding and polishing and it looked like it would make a suitable mount to cover up the hole where the Bukh control panel used to be:





It's quite frightening. managing the project, you break the task down into subtasks, such as the mechanics of fitting the engine, electrics, pipes, running gear and so on. Each of these breaks down further, so, in the scheme of things, making and fitting the new control panel plate was a minor job, as was, say, fitting an air intake fan for the engine room.

The reality, once you break down the project in this way, and add up all of the time required, is completely different to what you originally guesstimate.

Anyway, another small job ticked off:





The day of the fit arrived. Our friend Vince was on hand, and he, together with my father and I, gently slid the engine onto it's new mountings.



Disaster. The front mounting fitted, but the rear was out by 20mm. No idea how that happened. Crouching in the cramped space behind the engine, I could see the engine installation slide, new feet welded up, a new date for fitting, and us missing our agreed launch date with the club. My heart sank.

Then a brainwave. All we had to do was cut the plate bolted to the engine to support the feet slightly and it would work. I was convinced it would. I discussed it with my father, and less than an hour later, we started tightening the engine mountings, ready to take final measuments of the prop shaft for cutting.

Not long after that, we set the workbench up, cut the shaft and fitted the flange. I was starting to feel hopeful.





Tired now, and with just the two of us, we finally slid the engine in, and set about checking the alignment with feeler guages.

[

0.125mm torerance was converted into thousands of an inch. Gradually spinning the adjustable feet up and down, we achieved half the allowable tolerance. We'd check again once she was in the water and had run for an hour or so, but for now, job done.

Short midweek trip

Louise finished work at 10am, after a night shift and we drove to Llangwm.

Started the engine and motored off downstream with the ebb, doing an easy 5 knots, past tankers, ferries, and a huge cruise ship anchored in the haven, the Deutschland:

We fancied a night at anchor, but settled for the pontoon at Dale - seemed nice and easy. Met a couple with a Mirage 27, from Cardiff Bay Yacht club.

An early morning start, just after a heavy thunderstorm and we sailed the short hop over to Castlebeach and dropped the anchor. Louise pumped the dinghy and we rowed ashore.

There are lovely walks to St Anne's head and to Dale. Both gave stunning views of the bay, and of Ishtar at anchor:

Back aboard and another short sail across to Longoar bay, near Sandy Haven. Ashore again:

Back up the river towards Llangwm. We'd hoped to call at the Jolly Sailor at Neyland for lunch, timed the depth just right, but there was another boat there, tied up in the middle of the hammerhead and we could not moor, so we headed for Llangwm. An hour later we tied Ishtar up. Short and sweet.

Hello world!

Welcome to the Blog of Ishtar, a Cobra 850 28ft Sailing yacht based in Cardiff Bay



We've just moved Ishtar to a mooring in the river Cleddau, a few miles up river from Miford Haven. Hoping to do some exploration of the Pembrokeshire national park. Sailing wise, that is, we've dived the coast down here for 20 years.

The trip down:

We left Cardiff at the top of a 12.2m tide - Louise went below as she'd been on nights and I motor sailed us, past the outside of the Nash and Scarweather sands, touching 10 knots speed over ground with wind and engine. The day brightened after a wet start.

The remaining wind vanished and we anchored off Oxwich bay, for an evening of curry and fishing. The former was more successful than the latter.

The next day we set off early, punching the last of the flood as we headed West. We were joined by common dolphin, playing in the bow wave and seemingly, teaching their young the rules:

 A short video:



Some chop off St Govan's and punching the tide again off Freshwater West, but we finally made Milford around 17:00. Delighted.

Up the river, past Milford, Pembroke and Neyland and under the Cleddau bridge:

Navigating the upper Cleddau was easy, with the help of the invaluable 'Sea guide to Pembrokeshire' by Tom Bennett, published by Imray, ISBN 978 085288 99 0

We arrived at our temporary mooring, Llangwm, and dived to set up our mooring chains:

The upper reaches of the Cleddau are beautiful and unspoilt, and Llangwm is a perfect and peaceful mooring. We are so lucky to be able to 'borrow' a mooring there for the summer.

We are here: