Dulcinea is our Moody 40 – we bought her in July 2024, when she was berthed in Premier Marina, Gosport, with the intention of taking her to the West Coast of Scotland in 2025. In the meantime there is much that we want to sort out.
I’ll be keeping an irregular blog of progress here – for many years I did the same for my antique firearms restoration website www.cablesfarm.co.uk but I am not really doing much restoration now that I have the boat to fret about, so I’ll transfer my attention to this website! Note – the posts here are the most recent first.
13th May Appologies for another long silenece! We left Milford Haven at 5 a.m. for Arklow across the Irish Sea – Long motoring passage. Arklow was a bit crowded, and we rafted up along the long pontoon with lots of other boats. Next day was a longish run to Dun Loaghaire, where we parked in a large marina, Then on to Strangford Lough and a very run down Strangford Marina – a rather sad place! From Strangford Lough we went on to Ardglass, a lovely small marina in a tiny town – the local sweet and tobacco shop was open 24/7 – the proprietor slept on site and you just knocked to wake him up and he would serve you. The harbour master must have been in his 90s and had almost lost his sight 6 months before so you had to enter the amount for the berthing fee on the card machine yourself as he couldn’t read the numbers. There were lots of hand written notes in very large writing pinned up in his office – such a lovely, helpful man! We’ve been feeding the engine with vast quantities of diesel along the way – evey couple of days it seems to need an infusion of 120 litres as we haven’t been able to sail – either there is virtually no wind, or it is coming from dead ahead and we can’t afford the time to tack all the way to Scotland! From Ardglass we called in at Bangor (outside Belfast) for 131 litres of fuel (£200) and then went on to Glenarm, another pleasant little marina (with no fuel, like most of the small marinas) but with a less interesting hinterland! Tomorrow we tackle the dreaded St Georges Channel where the waters that fill the Irish Sea rush in through a fairly narrow channel at up to 4 knots so, as we can motor at about 6.5 knots in still water, it means that we do 2.5 Knots against or 10.5 with. As the passage to Port Ellen on Islay is 40 miles you can see that its definitely advantageous to go with the tide when the water is rushing out! We seem to have upset the Border Force and HMRC by not filling in the right forms – all really nonsense – so I’m not sure what country they think we are in! Probably be departed!
Very peaceful Marina at Ardglass
Anyone would think it was the middle of Summer!
8th May At anchor in Dale for another night (Milford Haven). Trip down to the Marina to fill up with fuel and water and replenish supplies of bacon which was running a bit low. Just filled in the stupid form for leaving the UK in a yacht – wanted to know when I was coming back and wouldn’t let me go on without an answer – I haven’t the foggiest idea! We filled up with 121 litres of diesel, and we had filled up in Penzance about 120 miles previously, so I reckon its a litre a nautical mile, and at around £1.30 per litre (you don’t pay VAT on 40% of the fuel as it is considered to be for heating, just on the transport element) that is around £600 for the 600 mile journey from Gosport to Kerrera, less any sailing we manage to do, which given the very light and/or contrary winds we have been having wont be much! Had a little adventure with the dinghy this afternoon – we put it in the water and set off under engine, only to notice our feet getting wet as water came in from somewhere – I initially thought that I had forgotten to put the bung in the transom, but I could feel it in place – when we got the dinghy back on board I found a place where the floor fabric has peeled back a bit, which I assume was the cause – I’m not sure if I have a repair kit on board, and I’m not really sure that the dinghy has much life left in it after sitting around for the best part of 20 years – maybe time to replace it. We are planning to be off at 05:30 tomorrow to Arklow – a projected 13 hour journey- watch this space.
7 May Again things seemed to get in the way of putting news on the post! We spent a few days in Penzance harbour – Penny hired a van ( was supposed to be a car but Enterprise website and booking is a mess, and in spite of having booked a car and had confirmation, all we could get was a van) so that she could go up to our cottage nearby and do 4 loads of washing. We were also waiting for Rory who was going to crew with us on the long leg fram Penzance to Milford Haven. You can only leave Penzance Harbour around high tide, so on Wednesday we left PZ at 1300 hrs having filled the fuel and water tanks at the quay on the way out. Once we got down past Mousehole and the Minack Theatre and West along past Sennen Cove we came round to head North and go past the Lizard and Cape Cornwall directly into wind. Although the wind was only about 15 knots it did produce a fairly short wave pattern that with an adverse current meant that for a long while we couldn’t get our speed above 3.8 to 4 knots (it would normally be 6 1/2 to 7 knots in calm conditions ) which with the constant pitching and the occasional slam as we fall into the hole between waves meant that it was a bit less than enjoyable, although the boat coped perfectly well and we felt very secure. The wind gradually moderated and the seas subsided so that we were doing a more reasonable 5 1/2 knots by the time it was dark, and as we got closer to Milford Haven the wind became light and the seas almost flat, so we were able to do 6 1/2 + knots. In all, the 120 nautical miles took us just over 20 hours and we got in around 9 am and anchored off Dale just inside the Haven entrance – at an average speed of 5 knots, which in the circumstances was reasonable. Tomorrow we’ll refuel and top up the water tank and see if we need a gas refil at Milford Marina, then go back to the anchorage for the night so we can start at 5:30 a.m. for Arklow on the East coast of Ireland, a crossing of around 80 miles which sould take us around 12 to 13 hours all being well.
Sunset over Dale
2May Dartmouth was lovely – and a really good baker – crousants for breakfast! Then a sail round Start Point to Falmouth and up to the entrance of the Fal River proper – this is our old dinghy stamping ground from many years ago. We moored up on the pontoon by Channels creek – the 29th turned out to be a scorcher of a day, and we stayed in the Fal all day – I launched the dinghy using the spare halyard, and lowered the outboard on the derrick on the stern – all worked just fine, no effort required! We motored it round to Loe Beach and found Mark sitting in his Land Rover on the beach supervising the preparing of the moorings just as he had been almost 20 years ago! And he recognised us.
On the pontoon in the Fal was sailing vessel of about 50 ft inhabited by an old chap – reputedly in his 90s – apparently he had dragged his anchor off Loe Beach and damaged his rudder, so he was rescued and taken to the pontoon, where he has been for the 4 years since – The kindly harbourmaster checks on him occasionally, and people bring him bits and pieces, and he occasionally takes his dinghy to a pontoon where he can walk to a bus stop to go shopping in Truro. Only in Cornwall! SO different from the South Coast over to the East. Yesterday we went round to Penzance inner harbour, where we are at present. Part motoring, but a nice long sail once we got round the Lizard. We took the wimps way round and went 3 miles off rather than sneak through the inner passage, although there was no sign of any turbulence of rough water, and most of the other boats going West used the inner route. We are now tied up alongside a big work boat in Penzance inner harbour – there are hardly any facilities for yachts – the half dozen berths for them are mostly occupied with boats in various stages of decay or resurection – none seem ready to go anywhere in a hurry! On the way from Gosport we’ve met a few boats crews, and most of the ones weve talked too are heading to Scotland too – we are tracking them on AIS – most are romping away from us – we are waiting here for Rory to arrive as crew, and the have to find a weather window to do the long hop to Milford Haven or Kilmore Quay in Ireland. So far we have covered 250 nautical miles, at an average speed of 6 knots. Probably amounting to 1/3 of the complete journey to Kerrera. No-one collected any money from us in Fowey or in the Fal, and neither place had a way to pay automatically.
Penzance harbour – rafted 4 boats deep
St Micheal’s Mount from the ‘other’ side.
27th April – Weymouth to Dartmouth. Whoever would have believed that the biggest danger sailing in April was sunburn! Round Portland Bill this morning by the inner route close to the Bill itself – dead calm, just a 3.5 knot tide against for a while, but not too bad. Fuel arrived on time at 6.30 am and we shipped 90 litres of fuel (£110) – we had intended to leave at 7 but last minute recalculation gave a slightly later optimum time for avoiding the worst currents round the Bill, so we left at about 8:15. No wind at all until we were almost in Dartmouth, and then dead on the nose, so we motored all the way – as these photos show, not that stressful. Tomorrow we are heading for Fowey to meet up with one of Penny’s relatives, then on Tuesday all being well, Falmouth and our old haunts in the Fal. Then on to Penzance to await Rory who is crewing for the Land’s End leg. Dartmouth is a fascinating town with lots of old 3 and 4 storey houses, some claiming to date from 1390, all built along the waterfront. Again we averaged 7 knots for the trip, or so ORCA said! £32 to tie up on a walk ashore pontoon with no electricity.
Sailing can be very stressful at times!
Portland Bill – the West Country’s Cape Horn!
26th April – Poole to Weymouth – a short 4 hour hop today averaging 7knots with a very short sail when the wind picked up to around 10 knots for a while, then back to engine. Anna and Sam and William came down for a fish and chip supper on the boat. £52.50 for a pontoon berth overnight with free electricity and showers etc. Hoping to make it to Dartmouth tomorrow, and if the weather continues kind we might brave the inside passage round the notorious Portland Bill – there is only a 3 hour window when conditions are right to make the close inshore passage, otherwise its a diversion of an hour or two to go out round the outfalls off the Bill. Hoping the fuel truck turns up at 6:30 as promised as we need to be away at 7 a.m. prompt for the 8 til 11 window……..
Dulcinea alongside in Weymouth -looks quite short in this photo!
25th April – Away at last! We left Gosport at 09:30 – wind a bit variable going through the Solent, so we motored and motor sailed for a couple of hours but once we got through the Hurst Narrows we had a steady beam reach all the way to Poole with the tide helping to give us a boost – average speed over the ground of 7 knots, not bad as the breeze was not particularly strong – in fact once we had the sails up and trimmed it was a very relaxing trip. We got into Poole and tried to anchor at the end of the Wych channel but a couple of other boats had the only good spots – we didn’t realise that they were only there for afternoon tea, and we could have nestled in, but instead we picked up an empty mooring in the channel. 7 hours stop to stop. We debated whether to go to Weymouth tomorrow or to head straight to Dartmouth, which would be a 12 hour trip at least- in the end opted for Weymouth as we need to work ourselves and the boat in gently! The boat performed fine – slight problem reefing the new main as the last batten won’t feed smoothly into the mast and needs a bit of extra force, but not a serious issue as it can be left until we stop.
24th April – a couple more days of hovering while the upholstery was delivered and the new mainsail arrived – lunchtime today – so this afternoon took down the old main and put up the new – a bit of head scratching as its a furling main with short battens to keep the back edge straight. If you aren’t a sailing person, a furling main is one that wraps around a tube inside the mast when its not in use, and there is a slot in the back of the mast where the sail emerges when vigorously pulled. Working out how the battens fitted was the main puzzle – happily solved quite quickly! Actually the biggest problem of the whole business was finding somewhere to stow the old sail – we could have given it to the sailmaker to dispose of, but that goes against deeply entrenched instincts! Anyway, departure is scheduled for about 9 am tomorrow all being well on the first leg of the overall voyage to Kerrera Marina opposite Oban. Its a short first leg of about 37 miles to Poole Harbour where we will probably anchor. With luck it will take us around 7 hours. We need to break ourselves in gently and get our sea-legs for some longer hops. Most will be day sailing with hops of less than 10 to 12 hours but there will be a couple of longer legs. We’ll see as we go how long we can manage between us, mostly dependent on the weather I guess – if its warm and sunny its a lot easier to do long passages than if its cold and wet and windy or there is a lot of shipping about. Some of my plans from the previous post didn’t happen – I looked to shift the windlass to the bow battery but as in all things Moody, the wiring is hidden behind all the furniture and it was going to be a major destructive job so that is postponed. I didn’t get a rope rode for the main anchor, but I did make up a 50m rope for the kedge anchor with 3m of chain at the anchor end for emergency use -all flaked nicely in a big bag so it can be carried on deck. Anyway here are some photos of the new upholstery and pics of the boat sitting there ready to go – it even has the dinghy lashed on the foredeck!
21st April – Hovering on the brink of departure! We had planned to leave tomorrow, weve been waiting for the upholstery in the saloon to be fitted, but it’s running a few days late, and our new mainsail is almost ready. – an incredibly quick job by Kemps, so we might stay a day or two in Gosport rather than hang about for the fitting to be done in Poole or Weymouth, and get both things out of the way. That would also give me time to change the windlass over to the bow battery instead of the house battery, thus saving a bit of a drain on our domestic supplies when we do a lot of anchoring in Scotland as we frequently do.
14 April – bit of a jump here! We’ve been busy getting things sorted to take Dulcinea up to Scotland, and the time has nearly arrived – probably just as the unseasonal settled weather with ideal E winds comes to an end! We’ve been sorting out the boat’s systems so that we feel reasonably confident that they are functioning well enough to be safe on the trip, and that we know how to operate everything. We’ve have had a few trips out, but so far haven’t sailed in any significant wind so that aspect of the boat is a bit of an unknown. We have got the ORCA navigation system up and running, and it looks good although I will still revert to Navionics for close inshore work – Navionics seems to have changed a bit and I haven’t got used to the changes yet – for one thing, and most annoyingly it won’t allow you to have more than 2 devices using the app at once if they are on the internet – its a pain because I like to have the option of Navionics at the binnacle and on the little tablet under the spayhood, plus on my phone if I’m off watch below – I need to work out a protocal for sorting that problem. Also I can no longer drop an anchor pin when I want. To add to the boat’s internet access I’ve added a fancy 5G router (RUTM51) with a data sim card that will set up a boat wifi so I can get internet access anywhere there is mobile reception – in Gosport we get 20 Mb/sec up and down speeds, which is handy. I’ve replaced the house and engine batteries with Predator DPX AGM batteries – I just managed to fit 3 size 1500 120 Ahr in the battery box with about 2 mm to spare, 2 for house and one for engine starting, giving us 240 Ahr for domestic, although that only amounts to about 150 Ahr that can be used without impairing the battery life. We fitted a new nnchor to replace the 15Kg Delta I had mistakenly bought before I did my homework on anchoring! We now have a 20 Kg Ronca Vulcan on 60 meters of code 4 8mm chain. We’ve only tried the anchor once – in softish mud off Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight, and it bought the boat to a sudden halt when we had deployed about twice the water depth of chain – not something I’ve encountered before, so that is a good sign – I plan to put about 30m of Nylon rope (Octoplait) onto the chain to give us a toal rode of 90m. One nice thing about the Moody 40 is that the anchor locker is enormous – I’ve put in a GRP bin on one side of the aft bulkhead to hold a spare gas cylinder and the snubber ropes and anchor buoy, without getting in the way of the chain.
Anyway, all being well we are pretty much prepped to go after the Easter weekend, when the tides will be right – just hoping the weather will be kind!
9th March – Back from yet another visit to Gosport to work on Dulcinea. Jobs are gradually being ticked off – This time we fitted holders for the emergency tiller in the port stern locker, fixed up the NMEA engine data link (Yacht Devices YDEG04) and got the Orca system more or less running BUT the connection between the ORCA CORE and my ruggedised l-tablet is not 100% reliable even at close range – maybe due to insufficient memory. The Navionics on my 10 inch Tab A tablet also hangs up occasionally so I need to address both issues! I put on the new binnacle extension bar with the new plastic plate for the tablet – it does work but would be much better if the angle of the tablet could be adjusted to accomodate both sitting and standing at the wheel – at the moment its fine for sitting, which is not the normal position, so I’ll have to engineer a tilt mechanism. Some time ago I got worried about how much gas we had on boards for extended periods away from supplies – Dulcinea currently runs on Camping Gas 907 bottles that only hold 2.7 Kg instead of the 4.5Kg of the calor bottles. I decided it would be good to carry an exstra spare bottle beside the spare in the gas locker – it needs to be in a place where any leaked gas drains overboard, which rules out the aft lockers that drain directly into the bilges. There is plenty of room in the anchor locker, so I made a fibreglass ‘bucket’ to fix on the aft bulkhead of the locker that would hold a spare gas cylinder or e.g. the tripping line and snubber or whatever. My bucket was too big to fit through the opening and past the windlass and the bar running forward, so I cut it in two and reassembled it wben inside the locker. It doesn’t take up any of the chain space – the only downside is that it will need to be unscrewed from the bulkhead and lowered to allow the windlass to be serviced. The first tranch of upholstry has now gone off to be used as spatterns for the complete new saloon upholstering. So things tick on and we are starting to think more seriously about setting off for Scotland! Next big jobs are sorting the batteries and power etc, getting the binnacle right with tilt and holders for the radio extension and thruster remote control, and possibly adding a router and dedicated mobiles connection. I also need to sort stowage for 40 lts of emergency fuel storage. We will get there in the end!!!
17th Feb 2025 Made another visit to Dulcinea for the Volvo engine inspection and trial which went OK – boat handles nicely with the Featherstream prop. I tackled the instrumentation – sorting the antenna connections for tha VHF as they were a bit on the short side, and putting in a fuse block for the vhf, antenna combiner and network bus. I have a composite network as there are instruments running on the old SeaTalk, Seatalkng and NMEA200. See the INSTRUMENTS page above for details…… I have now finished the emergency tiller – the old one was rusted beyond recovery, so I made one in Stainless steel , and made the main.lower leg in two parts to make it easier to stow. In use it fits onto the top of the rudder post which is under the aft bed, and sticks out through the deck above, with a cross piece that has ropes to the two aft winches for steering – tried it on the pontoon and it works – not the easiest thing to use though!
9th Feb 2025 Back in the water last Wednesday! Cue starting work on the various jobs again – it means I cna stay on the boat instead of having to stay in the local Travelodge – which is near the boat, cheap and serves breakfast from 7 a.m. so its practical! I spent a couple of days fitting lighting and some sound insulation in the engine bay and rebuilding a bit of the furniture around the engine, plus refitting 8 doors that I had taken off to make access easier for the engine swap. I reconnected the wiring to the mast using Wago electrical connectors that I mounted in 3D printed boxes – much neater although I did have a couple of wires that Hadn’t made connection as I hadn’t pushed them in far enough…. Next job is to finish the emergency tiller assembly – I need to align it with the rudder – and then begin to sort out the instruments an fit the interface to the engine instrumentation and the ORCA CORE system – all joined together with a new wiring system… I’ll be back down tomorrow as the engineer from VOLVO PENTA is coming on Wednesday morning to inspect thes engine installation so that they can give the engine a 2 year guarentee.
27th Jan 2025 Dulcinea is now ready to go back in, the engine is done, the mast is back in and the keel is re-bedded and its antifouled. At the moment the yard is very busy and the wind has been at more or less gale force for the last few working days so they can’t safely operate, and we don’t know when they will get her it. I am standing by for an email telling me they have a slot, but I have a feeling it will be Febraury before its in. When its back in I can get on and put he doors back on and get the instruments sorted. I have got most of the kit to put in an Orca Core2 and connect all the existing instruments to it – I’ll put up a separates technical post elsewhere along with the circuit diagram.
14th Jan 2025 She is still in the yard – the mast has now come out and the keel is off – Mark is waiting for some studding to make the new bolts before the keel goes back on. Ross the rigger (from GTR Rigging derigged the mast for the takeout and found that there was no VHF antenna at the masthead – given that we don’t have any other antenna connected I’m mystified that we could pick up the King’s Harbour Master `(KHM) who assiduously controls all the traffic in the harbour – you are not allowed to move a boat in the harbour without a listening watch on channel 11. Ross thought that there was probably enough wire to pick up the very local signal, but I’m glad its been discovered now. I had had a look at the masthead with binoculars but I must have missed it…… Another thing to fix. And another – it turns out that the stainless elbow and the joiner in the exhaust were 2 1/2 inch, or about 63mm diameter, and the new exhaust hose is 60mm – so I’m having to make new ones from 60.3 stainless 316 tube – I will probably get the welder I use for gun parts to do the welding on the elbow as I’m not sure I can weld well enough to last 20 years! I am in the process of cutting and filing a perfect matching 90 dergee joint!
8 Jan 2025 I’ve just got back from Gosport – the mast was supposed to come out today, but Ross the Rigger got called away to an urgent job so it won’t happen until Friday, and even then depends on the wind being low enough. I did manage to check a few things while I was down there – I’ve been working on a replacement emergency tiller, so I was able to check the sleeve I’d made to couple it anto the rudder stock – unfortunately just too tight a fit, so I’ll have to remake it. I also checked some hooks I’d made to support the lee cloths I’m making – I need to refine that design too. I found that the ‘house’ battery was flat, so I borrowed a battery charger to run off the extension that one of the contractors had left on the boat – hopefully that will save the battery, although I wouldn’t be surprised if it needed replacement. While I was there Ash and Andy fitted the new propeller and rope cutter – I was quite glad we had asked for one to be fitted as I heard an account of a 68ft yacht that had caught a creel line off Southampton that had got so wound up in the propeller that it pulled the shaft and separated the gearbox from the engine and bent the ‘P’ bracket and damaged the shaft seals……. I’m busy planning the upgrade to our instruments – I’ll put that on a separate page.. Here is the beautiful prop….
29 Dec 2024 I hope you all had a peaceful and pleasant holiday over Christmas. The New Year is almost upon us, and the days are beginning to get a bit longer- at least in the Northern Hemisphere! Dulcinea is sitting out in the yard at Endeavour Quay waiting for everyone to get back to work – I think it will be next week before things really start to happen – the mast is due to come off on the 7th – I’ll go down on the 6th as I want to get a look at the fittings etc at the top of the mast and replace anything that needs it. I’m hoping th standing rigging is OK, it was replaced 7 years ago so it should have 3 years before it is due for a major inspection, and maybe it will need replacing then or at least within a couple of years – I’m pretty sure it hasn’t had a lot of stress since it was replaced, so I’m optimistic that it will last. I do know that some of the running rigging needs replacing – particularly the genoa halyard as the core is bunched up in a few places. The main halyard doesn’t get much use – in fact I would not be surprised if the mainsail had been up all the time since the rigging was replaced, so I’m not expecting it to need replacing – All the vulnerable bits of it are within the mast anyway and thus protected to some degree.
