Tuesday 15th July

A productive morning on the boat. I installed a new outlet for the deck wash pump, which has been on my list for a couple of years. I can now rinse weed and mud off the anchor chain when raising it. I also started reattaching the weather cover to the new engine instrument panel. I had originally used Sikaflex, which reacted badly with the paint I used, and never set. This time I used Hammarite, which should be fine. We will see.

A big storm came through Dartmouth today. At its peak, the tide was running hard, and we were pushed very close to the 46-metre superyacht Constance. The harbour team suggested I move slightly upstream, where there was more swinging room. The anchor windlass has been unreliable lately, sometimes dropping to half power. This time it brought the anchor up fine, but when I got to the new anchorage, it refused to go down. Naturally, the wind picked that exact moment to deliver a consistent 30-knot gust, and there were fishing boats just 50 metres downwind. I sprinted to the cockpit for a winch handle and managed to dump 25 metres of chain just in time, giving us about 10 metres of clearance.

The Maxwell windlass is only four years old and every part of it has already been replaced. Before I left, I had rebuilt the solenoid, so I knew it was not that. I opened the waterproof housing and then the back of the motor to find the commutator and brushes had rusted away. Dead motor. As I rely on anchoring, and cannot raise the anchor manually when single-handed, this was not good. The anchor weighs 25 kg, and 10 metres of chain weighs about the same, with EIVIVA’s 18 tons leaning on it, it is not going anywhere without power.

End of sailing trip for 2025?

Waterproof motor housing.

Wednesday 16th July
First thing, after coffee of course, I phoned Vitesse Marine, the people who helped with the windlass issues previously. They had a new motor in stock and could deliver it by tomorrow if I paid £550. Why is everything boat-related so expensive these days? Still, a new windlass would be more than £3,000. Better the devil you know.

It was a grey, uninspiring day, so I mounted the engine instrument cover and cleaned the remaining windlass parts ready for reassembly. Then spent a very satisfying hour making a Dyneema soft shackle. I quite enjoy making them. In the evening I took the dinghy to Kingswear and went for a run. It is hilly around here, so I only planned five kilometres. In the end I could have gone further, but the only option involved a serious hill, so I took the easy route back to the boat for the spag bog I had made earlier.

Thursday 17th July
Parcelforce said the new windlass motor would arrive by 14:30. I hoped they were right, as the Harbour Office where it was being delivered shuts at 16:30. While I waited, I took the rib on a river trip, the nine nautical miles up to Totnes. A good excuse to test the Honda outboard, which was playing up last year and had been repaired over the winter.

Totnes was surprisingly lovely. A small medieval market town with a high street full of tourist shops that winds up from the river. I found the church, which was closed for building work, and the Guildhall, which has a list of town mayors stretching back to the mid-14th century. Somehow I managed to miss the Norman castle, which is annoying because it looks excellent. Note to self, always read about a place before visiting.

The motor arrived just after 16:00 and is now installed and working. I packed the gaskets with silicone grease, but even so I will keep a close eye on water ingress when sailing in rough conditions.

Captain Maz arrives tomorrow, so I will need to shoo the dockside floozies off the boat first thing.

The beautiful River Dart

Arriving at Totnes

Grey day in Totnes, interesting all the same.

Kingswear Castle paddle steamer 1924

Friday 18th July
I spent the morning looking at the redesign of a project in Istanbul. Later, I went shopping for Captain Maz essentials—chocolate, white wine, that sort of thing.

Captain Maz arrived on the Dartmouth Steam Railway at about 17:00 and was duly piped aboard. In the evening we took the tender over to Dartmouth and had dinner at Bushell’s Riverside. I tried John Dory fish for the first time, tasty but full of bones, might not repeat the experience.

Slightly manic outside the restaurant.

Saturday 19th July
We had a slow breakfast, then took EIVIVA to the water pontoon to top up the tank. Once back at anchor, we set off in the tender to Totnes again, as I thought Captain Maz would enjoy the town. We arrived at 14:00, right at high tide, and tied the tender to some railings.

This time I found the castle. It is a Norman motte and bailey, originally wooden from 1068 and rebuilt in stone in the 13th century. The keep is perfectly round, like a classic sandcastle, just a wall with a rampart that offers wonderful views of the surrounding countryside, the town, and the River Dart. Definitely worth the return trip.

Then back to the boat for dinner and some navigation planning for tomorrow. Although the weather looks miserable, with rain and wind from the wrong direction, the ever-intrepid Captain Maz wants to sail. She also has a dodgy stomach and is planning to dose herself with Imodium and Stugeron for the 06:30 start. I suppose I will wake her with a cup of tea when we arrive in Salcombe.

Captain Maz climbing the Motte of Totnes Castle.

Sunday 20th July
At 01:30 the anchor alarm went off. Outside, it was blowing 35kt gusts across the anchorage, and we were slipping upstream, pushed by the incoming tide and the wind. It was a dark, stormy night with heavy rain. We quickly got dressed and prepared to reset the anchor.

The anchorage was too tight to reset where we were, and the lights of Dartmouth through the rain made it too difficult to see. We decided to motor upstream to Dittisham, hoping the visitor buoys we had seen earlier were still available.

Of course, Navionics on the iPhone chose that moment to log out and demand a login!

The Navy has some mooring buoys halfway to Dittisham, and using the searchlight we saw they had lines attached. Even in daylight this would have been tricky, with the tide flooding and the wind strong, the bow kept getting blown off when the boat slowed. It took half an hour and at least five attempts to pick one up.

Once we were secured, the stress levels dropped. We had a cup of decaf tea and climbed back into bed, falling asleep to the sound of the rain on the deck above and the wind whistling through the rigging.

After the excitement of last night we dodn’t go to Salcombe. The weather for the trip was predicted to be better on Monday, so we moved the boat from the Navy Buoy to Dittisham and grabbed a swinging mooring. In the afternoon Captain Maz rowed us to shore and we set off for an epic 10km hike through the countryside. Later at the Ferry Boat Inn the locals confirmed that all the walks were uphill and never any downhill sections. we both concured with this point of view. Carol on a pint and a half of shandy managed to row us back to the boat in a straight line. I’m still trying to workout what this demonstrates.

Curry on board tonight then early bed. Salcombe tomorrow come hell or high water.

Captain Maz dominating the uphill sections. Must be all that tennis.

View of from the top of the walk with the Kingsclear Higher Ferry.

Captain Maz regaling the locals with tales of daring do.