Some many years ago we fitted a carpet into the main cabin aboard Whimbrel – it was something we did after I read in one of Francis B. Cooke’s books about ‘comfort afloat of an evening…’ In any case, it is almost a common sense action. Cooke believed in carpet slippers too!

A carpet makes such a difference below and we would not do without one now. We tend to wear ‘below’ shoes after the day’s passage has been made and movement is largely between cabin and cockpit.

The first carpet was cut out of an offcut from a piece we had ‘loafing’ about. It was the wrong type, but sufficed for a few seasons. It and another length are used by the mate when working under the boat, antifouling…

The current covering is made from floor runner rubber backed carpet – in two pieces for when main run done, I couldn’t find a longer piece. The join has been lifting and caused a number of tripping moments this last season – indicating time for action.

Next season’s comfort could not be jeopardised!

After carrying out a prolonged search, I found a company that sold ‘cut to length’ pieces. The only catch was a piece with a greater width than needed. Hey, but what the heck, it would do the job.

On a visit to Whimbrel this last weekend to do a couple of jobs, the old carpet was rolled up and brought home. (The bilge was vacuumed out too…)

I began the cutting to shape process by removing the rubber edge from the carpet. Then carefully laying the old as a pattern on the new, trimming was carried out…

On my next boat visit, the new will be checked for fit and trimmed if needed, then returned home for winter storage.

The old carpet is likely to go back aboard for it helps to keep the cabin floor clean, needing a vacuum from time to time.

At the end of a season, we have always washed the carpet – it being actually machine washable – however, hand scrubbing and rinsing is best, I have found, it being my job!

So there we go. One job off the list…

Last year when on a road passage between Arundel and Devizes, we passed through Midhurst, a delightful little town situated in the West Sussex National Park.

Investigating later, it was discovered to be not so far from Jane Austen’s childhood home. Bingo: a place both myself and the mate have wanted to visit…

So, a year on.

The family was uprooted and moved to Bath by their father after he retired, however in a short time he died leaving all his females at the mercy of his sons. One especially: Edward having been adopted by the Knight’s of Chawton house (relatives by marriage) was extremely rich – as rich as Darcy in Pride & Prejudice…

It was at this house where Jane was able to settle into her writing. She recomposed her earlier works before getting them published.

In the house Jane had her own corner in the front parlour where she could write whilst watching the outside world move around her…

Her writing table is so small, a mere ‘Sherry glass’ affair. It was a good job, apparently, that Jane was a tidy and efficient worker.

I wondered what she would have made of a laptop…

We also took in Chawton House, where Jane and her sister Casandra often visited. Both were active aunts to their brother’s brood, especially after his wife died.

Chawton is on long lease from the Knight family to a charity foundation digging into the history of women writers. Fascinating stuff…

It was quite moving to stand close to her desk and look out of windows she herself had, long ago, developing her ideas as life went on around her…

It put me aboard Whimbrel, sailing along a salting edge, gazing at some all but non existent time rotted stumps of a vessel or wharf, wondering…

Autumn marks the end of the sailing season for most boaters. Others stay active. For many years now since my enforced early retirement from sea, Whimbrel and her crew fall into the latter category.

After my return from taking my youngest brother and a cousin away for a great late summer early autumn weekend on the River Blackwater, I have been giving the tender, Twitch, a bit of a going over. The poor girl has had a bit of a bashing this last season. Extraordinarily, the little tender will be thirty years old next year!

It takes me a bit of time to move through the season of summer and get autumn inside my head. It has been especially difficult this year due to the ‘second summer’ we’ve enjoyed in Essex’s corner of Britain.

But, the autumnal jobs have to be progressed … the summer’s damage to the tender’s gunnels has been sanded back and coats topped up. The thwarts too. Then all was overcoated.

In between times the mate and I enjoyed a sail out on the tide, followed by a recent weekend away during a very unseasonable warm period. Before leaving though, we took Whimbrel’s mainsail off and fitted her old one: all three sails are due a make-over and wash at Wilkinsons Sails in Faversham.

Tide’s were later afternoon, so we dropped out to the area of Lawling Creek where one can comfortably sit at anchor protected from virtually all directions.

There was little breeze left towards the end of the day, a bit of a blowy one at that, but as forecasted it died! Barely a lap against the lands of the boat’s clinker planks was heard overnight…

The morning was quite like it should be in summer. Blazing sunshine, temperatures towards the middle 20’s and NO wind! We managed to more or less sail (drift) out of Lawling then puttered down towards the sea.

A little after passing the Tollesbury Pier cardinal, a breeze filled in from the South-east. Great, we were sailing properly and tacked out to clear of Sales Point.

There were quite a lot of water-borne activity with several barges seen too.

After a sublime evening in Lawling again, we made our way back to our berth on the Monday morning, breakfasting on bacon rolls after berthing…

So, home came the newer sail cover for a wash and coat of waterproofing.

The tender’s floor boards, rudder, dagger board and oars came home too: they were in foe a treat…

The dagger board was easy. Scuffing’s were sanded and touch up coats applied before a final overcoat of varnish/paint.

The rudder needed a little more attention…

The floor boards were hard sanded with an orbital sander and a thinned coat applied. Meanwhile, with a couple of broken board battens, these were made up ready to replace.

Temporary screws were used to secure until proper copper nails could be obtained…

In between times, the oars were stripped back to bare and sanded, before coat after coat was applied…

Currently, all parts a refinished except for a final coat to the oars. Last week was perfect for the sun shone every day with temperatures around 22-24 deg C, meaning a thinned coat was overcoated later in the day.

Popping aboard Whimbrel after walking near to her mooring, all the cushions, oilies and coats were transported home for their winter washing. Cushions for storage, but we always put the oilies back aboard for the boat is regularly used during the colder months…

I have been looking quite hard at the varnish work carried out to Whimbrel during her refurbishment – May/June this year – and have found no signs of any breakdown. Early days, but good news. The coating seems to be pretty tough too (Le Tonkinois No. 1 varnish). This will all get a hard sand in the spring and given two coats.

So, here we are in mid-October. Supposedly the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. The hedgerows are full of berries – blackberries long past their best, sloes, not so good in our parts for it has been too dry, but lots of them. It is said if the hawthorn and rosehip fruits are good then we are in for a hard winter – hope not!

Tomorrow, I am planning on a lone sail from the mooring for a few hours on the tide. It’ll be my first alone from our new mooring…

At long last, I can ‘release’ the title to you: it is out there in the wider world of book sales.

The publisher said in their letter when accepting the book and offering a contract:

‘…your submission was found to be a powerful, poignant memoir, an admirable chronicle of overcoming extraordinary odds…’

‘…keen to comment on your masterful way with words and your remarkable ability to pull the audience into the text, to the point that it often felt like the reader was right there reliving he memories alongside you.’

‘comment(ed) on your engaging writing style and applaud the time and passion you’ve taken … we believe it to be a worthwhile addition to the genre…’

The book’s title is: Sailing through life…

Austin Macauley, my current publisher, has just released their sales pitch for the book and, I believe, it is on Amazon now too. Other sites will appear. But your local bookshop would surely love you to pop in…

https://www.austinmacauley.com/author/ardley-nick

As said in an earlier post, the release date is Friday 10th November 2023.

There are 80 colour plates and a front piece map.

The book comes in three formats:

Hard Back: ISBN: 9781398481343 @ £25.99

Soft Back: ISBN: 9781398481336 @ £18.99

EPub: ISBN: 9781398481350 @ £3.50

Blurb:

When Nick Ardley asked for a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, the aftershocks of a prostate cancer diagnosis were momentous. Frightened, he said he was too young to die. Petrified, he understandably broke down. But all was not lost: his family and the boat shared with his wife were soon at work repairing his life.

A life-long sailor, the salt marsh fringed waters of the greater Thames estuary had always enthralled, and it was to them he went for healing. It’s a place where in the free flow of a saline breeze his mind cleared, and he began treating it all as just another little illness. Like a cold, he said, knowing full well it wasn’t! Sailing up the River Thames, he announced to his wife his choice of the medical directions offered. Later, after mooring off Gravesend, both cried together.

Ardley’s treatment overlapped the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, the serious stuff was done and dusted. The pandemic brought new trials. The couple were frighteningly threatened by a fellow yachtsman who disliked an Ardley web blog … the horror of that summer has remained fresh.

Throughout the telling of Ardley’s tales, his story, sailing with family and friends, country walking and living life, he has maintained a normality. Perhaps a familiar story, but it comes with a warning: Men, get yourselves tested before it’s too late!

So, onwards he goes, sailing through life…

This project has seemingly just meandered atrociously from one edit to the next at a pace that can only be described as snail-like.

I have reached ‘final edit’ so many times, I’ve almost approached despair. The edit was returned some while ago, corrected, I was told, but absolutely nothing had actually been done. There were only a half dozen or so items … I had a major rant at editorial.

Recently, I received the document for checking with all cover work done. It had to be signed off that day to reach a publishing date in September. I sent a letter back apologising, but I could not deal with at a moments notice, late on an afternoon.

I sent everything off in just three days … that was a month and half ago!

I have been informed that the errors have been dealt with but QA found some anomalies (I had spotted one or two and told them, and they’re the experts and should not have been present…).

When, a complete check has been made, I will be sent all for reviewing and signing off. Publishing happens within two months of that point.

The end result though will be a well honed book, with much interest for a varied cross section of people…

It will also carry a very important message to men.

Update:

Well, I never, the files finally arrive back in my email box, however, only one out of six deficiencies had been done.

I ‘exploded’ verbally, to the editorial contact. Amazingly it came back within a day, corrected, with a qualifier that the editorial coordinator had personally checked – what blazes are they for…

I have now signed it off. A publishing date will soon be known, plus advertising details.

About time too…

News…

Publishing date: Friday 10th November 2023.

I have visited the Nottage Institute once before. It was some years ago when sailing with my sister and two other friends as crew. We’d come up on the tide for some stores.

We enjoyed an early morning sail up to Wivenhoe on the last of the flood and managed to get into one of the two moorings kept for visitors by the Wivenhoe Sailing Club – a generous act: no charge is made. They also provide a card to access showers…

Passing, Christobel spotted a sign for an art exhibition upstairs, so in we went. The works were by local artists.

For me though, the real art was below in the boat shed where I could see a number of dinghies under construction.

The Nottage Institute was set up as an education base by a Captain Charles Nottage in 1896 for fisher folk and ‘Colnesiders’. In time it spread its wings into educating men and women in boat crafts such as boat building (dinghies) and navigation learning. It is now an affiliated RYA training centre.

All the dinghies being built are by amateurs under the guidance of a tutor boatbuilder. The workmanship, even to my untrained eyes, looked to be very good.

The dinghy below has reached the fitting out stage. The rubbing band and internal stringer which will support the thwarts are fitted. A centre plate case is under construction – a multi-purpose dinghy which can be sailed makes a classic tender or a boat for enjoyment.

Look closely at the illustration below to see how well the plank ends fit to the transom.

Below is a dinghy in the early stages of planking. Note the moulds over which the planks will follow. The fore and aft edges have been rebated to take the next plank overlap.

My final illustration is of a a dinghy that looks like a dinghy I once pursued myself. Ca’t remember the designers name but they are light-weight and strong.

My simulated clinker GRP dinghy is great but quite heavy – it has stood the test of time though for she is thirty this autumn!

The plywood and epoxy method of construction allows the builder to dispense with the internal transverse ribs for the epoxy fillet that seals and fills the planking runs acts as longitudinal ribs. Some internal transverse timbers will be fitted though to support floor boards and such.

A centre plate slot was evident in keel timber of this little boat.

Yes, I enjoyed my walk round the little ‘boat shed’ and too the paintings upstairs where the walls are decorated by hundreds of half models of vessels built at the village’s sizeable shipyard until it closed in early 1980’s.

For more information about the institute visit their web site.

Web site of Nottage Institute: The Nottage – Maritime Institute

We have had a couple of visits to Maldon by water so far this summer, but on our last, we berthed at the mud marina and yard which is part of the Marine Store empire.

There is a relatively decent loo and shower facility available and a very friendly and helpful team ashore..

I soon spotted an abundance of wooden craft here and quickly introduced myself to a neighbour who had taken the stern line. But it was Whimbrel that ‘trembled’for she was in seventh heaven among so much wood…

Berthed beside us was a rare little pocket cruiser from the past. A Johnson & Jago 4 1/2-tonner (Thames measure) dating, the owner told me, from around 1934. She was found propped up at the back of the yard in a forlorn state. The chap has owned wooden boats going back down the decades and he decided, like himself, there was a life to live…

The hull, he said, was in good condition being of pitch pine and with a couple of years work, she was back afloat… Toe rails and rubbing bands were renewed.

On one of the tides, I spotted a very similar boat from the same era – this though was built in large numbers up in Suffolk. The Deben 4-tonner.

These designs were produced in a couple of sizes to suit the pocket of the ‘average man’ giving opportunity to get afloat for around the same price as a little car. They were nicknamed ‘pocket cruisers’ and served well.

The Blackwater Sloop was another of the pocket cruisers, built up river from this yard by Dan Webb & Feasey whose old yard buildings are now offices. The tiny docks still sit along the water’s edge…

I ambled around the yard and its pontoons looking at well kept boats and some not so well preserved.

Most I just haven’t a clue as to their class or build. They were all different and caught the eye – something plastic hardly ever does.

This one below particularly caught the eye for she has a grandeur of a much larger yacht. The reverse shear is sweet and aligned with the small cabin structure – almost dog-house-like – she is uncluttered.

I then back tracked to look under the covers of a few and at this one below. She has the look of a Hilyard ketch, however, her bright work has all but disintegrated to bare wood.

At the outer end of one pontoon was an old naval dockyard TSD. These vessels have all but disappeared. They were resident at every dockyard or naval base used by the Royal Navy and probably predate the second world war. They were diagonal planked – in teak, I believe, and had substantial scantlings and outer protective ribbands.

They were used for ferry purpose in the main but could be utilised a storing vessels too. Years ago, when on a Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel berthed in Mombasa, there were examples of these craft still in use.

The one seen above seemed to be sound, but is in dire need of a ‘paint job’ soon…

Then I alighted on this little ‘model’ barge, built once heard, of plywood. I saw her out many years ago with two chaps aboard going down past the Hythe. It looked odd for she is little bigger than a large day boat.

So, yes, our Whimbrel has been in cahoots with many wooden sisters…

Of course, Leigh Ray a pen name and it is widely thought to be the lead author of ‘Swin, Swale & Swatchway’, Herbert Lewis Jones, actually co-written with Charles Barrett Lockwood.

Ray Leigh, as many old sailing hands will know, often wrote articles for early issues of Yachting Monthly magazine.

Interestingly if one does a search of the two men, their medical biographies pop up but little else. In Jones’s case, sailing is mentioned as a hobby having been brought u o the banks of the River Medway. Lockwood’s biog n the other hand contains absolutely no mention of sailing… Both were doctors of some repute and died during the early years of the 1st World War.

The book was recommended by a sailing friend and I added it to a list which the mate uses for those yearly special days, and yes, it was in my birthday bag during June!

The book begins in a normal enough sort of way. The Teal’s owner gathers together a friend who often sailed aboard and his younger brother. The owner has just completed his finals to become a doctor.

Embarking aboard the Teal they set off on an east coast cruise taking in the River Medway, Havengore, Burnham, The Rays’n to Maldon then up to Harwich.

On the River Medway they cut through ‘marsh islands from ‘Sharpfleet’ Creek to investigate the oyster fishery in Sharpness Creek – now just an inlet.

From Harwich, the Teal then sets off, ostensibly to go either to the Deben or the Ore.

I went back several times to try and find the reason for their’ change of plan, to no avail – I clearly missed something!

The wind gets up and they are well clear of land.

A burning sailng ship is spotted> they sail closer, close enough to see that she is unmanned. Two masts are down and they see the foremast tumble, sails ablaze…

The wind increases. The compass is broken. A full gale rages … an old sail is cut up to make a cockpit well screen and sea anchor. The story has apparently gone past he ‘informative narrative’ to pure hokum…

They are driven before the gale. The skipper was using his watch to get a kind of directional drift – it gets broken…

This goes on for what seems like days. They realise that their drift has not been as expected: they would have been cast p on an east coast shore long before!

Surf is heard. The lead is cast. Nothing. Fifteen fathom. Less. Then less again. Then more, but calmer, until an unseen sheer cliff gives protection.

The anchor is pitched over…

There seems to be around 25% of book exploring the cove they find themselves trapped within. A huge sailing ship wreck dominates one shore. The cove disappears into the cliff, literally, in a stream in a cave.

Making an attempt to get out of the cove, they lose anchors and are swept back, into the cave and find themselves hurtling on the ‘flood tide’ deeper inside the rock. The rock they had already discovered to be salt rock…

An amazing ‘slalom ride’ ensues, the water turning from salt to ‘fresh’. Masts are cut away … the Teal is all but wrecked and finally they beach. Their dinghy takes them out, eventually, into fresh air.

Finally, the dinghy could float no more. They set off walking living off the land and find a village. The tongue is alien to all three educated young men.

I’ve had enough …

From the village they are sent by various means of transport to Trieste and a ship home!!!

Now, anyone with a modicum of geography knows that for them to have ‘come ashore’ with Trieste as a port of releases must wonder how they got into the Baltic: that is what I perceive.I finished the book, but blimey, it was gung ho ‘boys own’ stuff.

There are some superb black and white illustrations in the first half, but after ‘the ship’ there are none. The story line says there weren’t anymore for equipment was damaged. A batch of plates were boxed and sent ashore at Harwich, apparently…

Did I enjoy it?

Well, yes. It wasn’t as expected and would make a good read for most people…

Thank you for the recommendation, John, and to my mate for its ‘expensive’ purchase…

During last autumn, I came across a book about the ‘lost’ route to Portsmouth from the R. Thames.

The Wey and Arun navigations formed the backbone of this route from the ‘east and west’ respectively (although it was almost north-south). The route was effectively closed around the time of the trip made and problems were encountered. Sections remain navigable today, but the central link has been lost.

I then alighted on a short tale by J B Dashwood in which the chap describes a holiday cruise from the River Thames along the ‘lost’ route to the sea via the River Arun, then a coast passage to home on the Solent shores…

The book is a reprint edition.

The book was first published in 1865, at the insistence of Dashwood’s friends!

It is striking for one major reason: his mate for the trip is his wife who seems to have been of hardy stuff.

Their craft is a Una-rigged sailing canoe. It was built for sailing the upper reaches of the Thames and for sheltered coastal hops.

Towards the end of the book, Dashwood describes the trip round Selsey Bill and another covers her suitability for coastal waters and alterations made.

The Dashwood’s hired a pony to tow the boat and a canal man to manage the towing. That did not mean the holiday couple sat back. No, they played their parts fully.

The nights were spent at wayside inns along the route.

For me, I just loved the way the journey is described. The wild-life, fauna and his little injections of local history. Diversions, on foot, to ruins or the many large houses. It was so reminiscent of many of my own books.

Completing the journey with the Dashwood’s, I dearly wanted to stop and chat to them…

A lovely read. If you can find a copy, I thoroughly recommend it.

Some weeks before the early days of August 1983 we had cycled from Canvey Island, up Benfleet Hill and along a leafy lane cutting through extensive woodland to the yard of A F Platt Ltd, based in its own woodland paradise on the Daws Heath/Hadleigh border.

Our son did the trip too, at a little over a year old he was snuggled up to mum in a baby carrier!

The story is told about at the beginning of a large chapter in my book, The Jottings of a Thames Estuary Ditch-crawler which is available from bookshops on line, where I detail the Alan Platt boat yard story.

Our visit was to cast a serious look at several boats that were currently in the Platt’s yard. There were three Finesse 24s in for various reasons among a couple of 21s too. It was only the ‘24’ we were interested in.

Our first boat, a Yachting World People’s Boat, was on the market and we felt she was about to be sold away to the Burnham river. The signs were very promising…

Although we had viewed these lovely twenty-four footers afloat while sailing, it all depended on whether the mate was happy with what she saw…

There were just three tick boxes!

1. Standing head room.
2. A flushing loo.
3. Decent auxiliary engine.

We also studied the sales sheets and discussed our possible requirements with both Alan and Shirley Platt.

We went away with a plethora of details a whirl in our heads. Back home we made plans, we couldn’t avoid it: we were truly smitten.

We even had the un-ordered boat’s name ready…

So we did it!

We had a whole list of ‘extras’ as they are known in the ship and boat building world. The major of these was upgrading to a two-cylinder engine, a Yanmar 2GM, from the basic one-cylinder model. The unit lasted us until 2011 when we again upgraded to a fresh water cooled Yanmar 2YM.

More letters were to follow…

Clinching a marine mortgage, laying of the keel – a major, planking up etc…

Sadly, I was soon back at sea on a ship pootling around Caribbean waters working with an EU and USA fleet of warships on drug patrols, so consequently, I did not see any of the build processes – this was all left to co-owner, Christobel, the mate who wrote enthusiastically about her visits to view ‘chunks’ of wood…

My first view was of the completed boat at the end of March 1984, sitting ready for launching. One of our requirements discussed prior to my return to sea…

The ship’s good mate insists on there being another person in our long marriage – yes, she alludes to a mistress – but as I always point out, it is Christobel’s name on the ship’s papers!

However, more of that as the ‘build’progresses…

So, if ‘Ownership’ can be dated to the date of our order, yes, it is a day to celebrate with a huge dose of pride in a little ship that has served us well.

Thank you Alan, Shirley and all who worked on her.