Hatea River, Whangarei
Author: Shirlz
Friday, 17th July 2020
It’s raining and dark clouds cover the sun. Speedwell is back in the water, anchored in the Hatea River a little way down from the boatyard.
Another grey day on the river
After nearly four months on the hard, connected to shore power, I suddenly find myself dependent on solar panels to keep the ship’s batteries charged. I have one approximately 40 watt panel mounted above the stern which does the job happily on long sunny days, but at this time of the year in New Zealand, the days are short and not very sunny. To complicate matters, the boat swings with the tidal current and/or the wind which means that unless I keep a careful watch and manually adjust the angle of the panel to the sun it is often directed away from the energy-giving rays.
Annie and the informal JRA once more to the rescue. A stack of old panels resides in Annie’s boatshed and I was invited to take my pick. I couldn’t imagine where to mount either of the large, rigid ones but there were also two promising-looking flexible panels. After testing with a multimeter we found one that had an open circuit voltage of over 17V. Great! I hooked it up in parrallel to my existing one and voila! Of course, this is not a perfect world and now that I am seriously in need of the extra amps I have discovered that as the two panels are of very different efficiency, there is a need for bypass diodes in the circuit. Fortunately my little charge controller gives a clear indication of whether or not current is actually flowing in the direction of the battery and as soon as this stops, I jump up and disconnect the big flexible panel which is the culprit that is dragging down the voltage. Like magic the controller is happy again. My energy needs are very low so I’m content to put up with this less than ideal arrangement. Having the extra input when conditions allow, makes a big difference to the hours that I can indulge in using my laptop. I just have to be careful not to become mesmerised as I gaze bemusedly at the flashing led that indicates the charging status of the system. If all else fails, I can always resort to the brutal solution of running the engine to revitalize things.
Boats that dragged in the storm
The anchorage is very well protected from all wind directions and the muddy bottom provides good holding. A fact I was very grateful for two nights ago when a cold front passed through bringing heavy rain and gale force winds. It struck after dark, as these things do, and interrupted my dinner preparations. After being warned of other boats dragging, I hastily struggled into full foul-weather gear and ventured on deck to pay out another 20m of chain. The wind raged on but as there is no fetch in the river the water was relatively calm. I was able to finish my dinner (a rather good kumara, onion and garlic frittata) but spent a restless night keeping anchor watch. By morning enough rain had fallen to refill all my water tanks.
About a week before relaunching, while Speedwell was still cradled ashore a tornado swept through the boatyard creating some shocking devastation. I was very lucky and Speedwell was not directly in it’s path and was only a little roughly shaken but other boats were lifted or blown over with a lot of chaotic damage.
The Morning After
Annie was incredibly fortunate that her boat shed was spared. Another shed a few feet away was demolished. Annie describes it all very well in her blog.
My last few weeks in the boatyard were spent refurbishing the dinghy. It had been getting more and more difficult for me to lift it out of the water and stow it on deck. Either the dinghy was getting heavier or geriatric decrepitude was taking it’s toll. Not much I could do about the personal aging problem so I decided to try to lighten the dinghy by stripping off the multiple layers of paint that had accumulated over nearly 20 years. It was a messy job.
Working on the dinghy
I carefully collected all the old paint scrapings in a bag and it weighed in at over 3kg by the time I was finished. Some had to be added back with a new coat of epoxy and paint, but the difference is very noticeable and I feel quite encouraged about my remaining lifting ability.
By the time launch-day arrived I had managed to tick off most of the items on my job list. A major achievement was being able to lower the mast, repaint it and check all the masthead fittings. We had been through some rough times and it was reassuring to see that all seemed well. I replaced the lazy jacks with new dyneema line which I covered with water hose to protect both lines and sail from chafe. I patched and restitched most of the sail and one fine day, Marcus arrived to help to raise the mast and settle it back in the tabernacle.
Annie and Gordon deliver the sail bundle
Now it was my job to reassemble the sail. I had smartened up the boom and yard with new paint and fendering and it was a pleasure to insert the shiny new aluminium battens. This was all done in the boat shed lean-to and then Annie and Gordon helped by transporting the sail bundle on the roof rack of Annie’s car to a convenient spot next to Speedwell from where I was able to winch it aboard and complete the rerigging exercise.
Almost there
The launch proceeded smoothly with only one delay caused by an airlock in the new cooling water intake hose that I’d installed in the engine. David who was directing the proceedings, very ably fixed the problem and showed we what to do if it should ever happen again. Once floating, there was space for Speedwell to be warped around in the channel so that we could chug out to the river without having to manage an awkward reversing procedure. Many thanks to the Norsand Team!
July 27th, 2020 at 04:03
Hi Shirley, I’ve been really enjoying your blog, which I started reading backwards, and looking forward to the book that you clearly have to do if you haven’t already. I own Ice Bird, V45 also a ‘ocean’ version so I’m finding your travels inspirational.