Bonify at large

Friday 14th April This is  Bonify's blog so I am sorry to hijack it briefly for another vessel but it's also our personal sailing blog so I am dedicating today's post to Victoria . Our lovely 21ft wooden gaff cutter, built in 1897 for the Colne River Police, passed into new hands today. Very worthy and capable hands we have to say. Tony Winter has restored and maintained old wooden sailing boats for many more years than I have been sailing, in particular Bristol Channel Pilot Cutters Mascot and Cornubia (aka Hirta ) and his dynasty of East Coast Winters (if I can call it that) has an impeccable record for looking after old sailing boats. He has a host of grandchildren of varying ages who we hope will cut their gaffering teeth on Victoria in years to come. So yesterday we took her winter cover off for the last time and today she is rigged with the help of her new owner. Cover's off Thursday Mast rigged as ridge pole for cover - bow Mast rigged as r...

Wed 12th April A good day's work today despite strong wind and the threat of showers. Topsides sanded and primed, some of the hull below the waterline too, another coat of thin varnish on repairs to cockpit coaming, footwell, doghouse including handrails. We were sustained when flagging in the afternoon by excellent coffee supplied by our pals Sarah and Clive whose ship Distant Drum is also out of the water here.

Tuesday 12th April Beautiful day for a mini motor cruise. As soon as the tide is high enough Petra opens the gate to the Pond (oops sorry, to the Walton Yacht Basin) and we glide out and down the creek. The Twizzle takes us up to Titchmarsh Marina (or rather we take the Twizzle - it's a river for those not local) and there is barely time to eat our tuna salad lunch (Howard's in sandwich form) before it's time to prepare warps and fenders. The yard gang help us tie up and then head off for their own "dinner". Then it's time for the crane and the jet washer. Plenty of work for us to do here. Our timings from now on depend on the weather - Dry is what we want. Not too much wind would be good but not a show stopper, sunny and mild would make the whole operation from now on much more pleasurable - and that includes the sailing. Before we left the Pond we spotted an old friend Katie being lifted into the water for her new owners:  ...

Wed 5th April While Howard's busy putting the engine exhaust back together, I tackle the cockpit and doghouse varnish. We have mild weather and sunshine so far - fingers crossed. Bonify is still for sale but we will keep up the maintenance and take her sailing this summer as usual. We think it suits Bonify to have a large smart life ring even though we have much more high tech rescue systems on board as well. At last her name and port of registration have been added. Sprucing up the life ring and some bits of shelf from the forepeak

Sunday 2nd April 2017 - Walton Yacht Basin Bonify spent winter 16/17 wrapped up like this in Walton Yacht Basin Sunday 2nd April - covers are off

As the last post hinted we have a change of plan for the summer.  We won't be sailing all the way to the Brest Festival in Bonify as originally planned. Instead we are getting our smaller older gaffer Victoria ready to travel there by road. So Bonify is resting and  I've started up a new Blog for Victoria which if you haven't already seen it you can find here: www.victoria1897.blogspot.co.uk - hope to see you there! Victoria off Shotley in 2010

Not our best ever night at anchor despite the idyllic setting: 1am - We are woken by the harsh metallic grating of chain on chain as the bobstay (under the bowsprit) saws away at the the anchor chain. The wind has got up a bit since those calm photos of the sunset last night. We get up and Howard brings the bowsprit in while I watch him from the cockpit.  Back to bed. 3am - More sound effects, this time it's anchor chain dragging along the bottom under us. The anchor itself hasn't dragged but the wind is strong enough to blow us back over the top of the anchor and Howard notices that we are now in less than 2m of water - and the tide has 3m to fall. We have no wish to wake up later aground on a sandbank so something has to be done. We don't fancy upping anchor and moving in the dark (in our dressing gowns) so Howard has the bright idea of streaming 2 buckets out astern. They act as drogues and are enough to allow the tide to pull us back to where we should be despite t...