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…
View looks odd, but I was looking down onto it!
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…