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Post by pilgrim17 on Sept 16, 2015 16:52:03 GMT 1
I beat him too it!
After watching the BBC Breakfast weather forecast for strong winds, heavy rain, thunder & lightning from dinner time onward, I decided to go down the boat & alter the bow roller position before the rain came. After witnessing just how many dickheads there are driving cars around Swansea, I eventually arrived at the marina unscathed (no thanks to some of the arseholes who leave home too late, & have to drive like lunatics to get to work on time!) I moved the bow roller so it is now directly in centre of the winch drum & it looks right, Steve Bryant turned up to do the same job just as I finished, so I just about beat him too it, but its great to know you have somebody like him at your back thanks Steve. We gave it a try using the anchor rope & it SEEMED to do the job (well it was 100% better than before) so lets hope it solves the problem of it looping back on itself. The forecast for the weekend is much better Saturday than Sunday so I am calling a trip for Saturday (despite fishing Amroth on Friday night) Gentlemans lock out at 9am, probably fish Langland Reef to see if we can get any late bream or a codling or two, then maybe a drift or two across the bay to see if we can bag ourselves a plaice or two, if you fancy joining us then use the booking sheet or e-mail or ring me. PS What happened to the tsunami you promised for this afternoon Benhaz Aktar useless cow!
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Post by pilgrim17 on Sept 18, 2015 17:41:03 GMT 1
Looking forward to toromorrows trip!
It seems ages since we were out last, but we haven't been hanging around since then, the safety handrails have been fitted (Steve has even covered them with pipe insulation so you don't hurt your pinkies) I have fitted 6 rod holders to the front of the wheelhouse so I don't have to do a steeplechase over expensive carbon fibre rods laying across the seats & I have moved the bow roller, & I hope that has solved the problem of the knotting anchor rope. Still more to do before winter sets in though, I must remove the rotten wood from across the front of the wheelhouse roof, I will try to replace it with a piece of oak or sapele & glass it back, it will mean losing the "Mumbles Belle" logo across the front of the wheelhouse, but somebody will be able to sign-write another one or I will get one made up in sticky back plastic to go on there, plus I have to do something about sealing around the windows, if I use hardwood quadrant then I can re-use it when I eventually cut back the rotten plywood & replace it with new, the quadrant can go back on & form a permanent waterproof finish. But let me get Tomorrow & Tuesdays trips out of the way before I start any more jobs on bloody thing!
Tag somebody you know
Will I need to get bait?
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Post by pilgrim17 on Sept 20, 2015 13:24:13 GMT 1
Not a bad day at the office
Locked out at a sensible 9am & headed across towards Mumbles Head & held a Chinese parliament on the way across to decide our plans for the day, with HW at 1015am I suggested we try the bream mark to see what was about, then if it was no good we could move elsewhere. So this is what we did, & we did have a couple of bream, one string of mackerel ,& a couple of huss, & red gurnard, a small smoothie, & loads of growlers, & seeing as we had caught some of the target species I would have liked to stay a bit longer, but the mutinous crew wanted to move west, so we headed to Oxwich. The Knoll had quite a few boats on it but it has been so inconsistant this year, you only need one trawler to go over it once, & everything either gets caught, or runs away so I decided to push on to the moorings. Well we had dabs from the start of all sizes, & we soon had a nice total each but strangely we never had a plaice? We also had a couple of tub gurnard, a few dogs but not a lot else, (apart from Ken Davison who caught the anchor rope TWICE??) but seeing as we were fishing for the pan we were quite happy with our haul. WE tried for mackerel off Pwll Ddu on the way back, but caught nothing except a couple more tub gurnard, so we made out way back up towards Swansea. Seeing as a couple of the lads wanted to take some mackerel home I decided to try the SWIGG & sure enough Bryan did have one full string of good sized mackerel but that was it? We moved in towards the pier & had a drift towards Singleton,& I had a another dab & a tub gurnard before panic set in, when they realised that we were still an hour away from the berth, & there was a "show down the club tonight" starting at 8pm, so it was ramming speed across the bay only to be told that there were 8 boats in front of us to lock in! Anyway we squeezed in got home uneventfully. Unfortunately somebody went off with a parking permit which leaves me with only 1 permit now, but I have a small group of 2 who could be responsible, so either Bryan or Ken post it back to me asap, as I have a trip on Tuesday & I only have 1 parking permit!
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Post by pilgrim17 on Sept 21, 2015 15:40:15 GMT 1
More modifications required
I went down the boat this morning to wash the dishes, & hose the boat down, because my crew ran away on Saturday evening to "get down the club to see a show" & avoided carrying out their normal clean down, the hose made short work of the worm guts & seagull shit & in 5 mins all was shipshape & Bristol fashion. I also altered the modification Steve made to the bow roller, now that I have moved the position of the bow roller using the "Steve Mod" the rope is coming onto the winch drum on the flared radius on the bottom of the drum encouraging it to make loops in itself, I avoided this on Saturday, by lifting the rope coming off the drum up at an angle, this brought it off the flared part of the drum & it worked but it wasn't right I think now it should be okay. I should find out on Saturday when there is a trip booked Sat/Sun/Mon are all forecast to be good days so I hope to get at least 1 trip out of it.
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Post by pilgrim17 on Sept 23, 2015 18:49:28 GMT 1
Meteorology Is it a black art?
On Monday the forecast was good for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, then by Monday night we lost Sunday to E winds, now today we are given E winds for Saturday as well, so the last day with a W forecast is Friday? Well Bryan said he is ok to go Friday but Steve has had to cancel for this weekend, so I am down to 2 of us at present & I would prefer another 1 or 2 to make it viable. The easterlies are setting in for the next week after Friday so I will take advantage of Friday, I will ring a few to see if I can get a motley crew together to take advantage of the weather. Little else to report on the boat apart from the fact that the front of the wheelhouse is falling apart behind the "Mumbles Belle" logo is rotten plywood & where the fibreglass has cracked the water has got in behind & rotted the ply. I don't know how far it has spread & the only way to find out is to cut the fibreglass away until I get to solid wood, & then scarf a piece in, & fibreglass over it. Having only "Hercules" my trusty Honda90 limits how much I can carry, but with my wife going away for 10 days tomorrow, I can use her car to take kit down to do the work, and stay dry if it rains when I am coming home (the rain has a knack of catching me on my way home). So if you see an orange hull with "Bles Belle" heading across the bay its us, & I have cut "Mum" out of the wheelhouse.
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Post by pilgrim17 on Sept 25, 2015 20:19:00 GMT 1
Is Mumbles Belle an immigrant?
Well it is currently "Displaiced" boat, we haven't seen a plaice for weeks, none again today despite a couple of really good long drifts, all we had to show for it was a few undersized tub gurnard & couple of growlers. I had a nightmare trying to reverse back into the berth tonight, the old yacht that was moored next to me has gone, & has been replaced by a fairly nice cruiser, which I "baptised" a couple of times on my way in, but the owner was aboard & seemed quite relaxed about it. Then like a knob I jumped off Belle onto the pontoon, caught my foot in one of the mooring ropes & went down smack on my right knee on the pontoon, it now has a very large red wheal across my kneecap & my knee is swollen to about twice its normal size. Add this to the fairly poor day we had with only a couple of bream, no codling again, a few gurnard & about 10 mackerel, roll on the jumbo whiting! Shit this Algipan burns!
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Post by pilgrim17 on Sept 26, 2015 11:25:55 GMT 1
I gotta doctors paper!
Obviously people don't look at the forecast when they book a trip, the forecast has been for easterly winds to come in from last night (Friday night) & remain E/SE for the next week, & people know that when the wind is from E/SE I wont take the boat out. Now anybody else who is qualified is quite welcome to it, but not me, I have NEVER been happy in an E wind its always uncomfortable, & the wind always seems to be over the tide? Plus the fact that last night I struggled to berth the boat & in the end I jumped from the boat onto the berth to pull it in by hand, & tripped on a mooring rope & went down with all my weight on my right knee, which is now bruised & swollen (along with my pride). I hobbled to the car (lucky my wife is away & I had the car) I don't know what I would have done if I had the bike? Anyway with the winds being from the E/SE for the next week it will give my knee a chance to deflate!
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Post by pilgrim17 on Sept 27, 2015 15:02:54 GMT 1
I have a cunning plan!
I limped my way down to the boat this morning, basically to see what I had tripped over on Friday, & I found it, some dickhead had tied at tyre to the pontoon to act as a fender, "good idea" I hear you say, but unfortunately they had tied it from the cleat on the next berth through the eye of the cleat on our berth onto the tyre thus creating a perfect "man trap" strung about 3" off the surface of the pontoon, & Muggins here found it! Why would anybody with more than 2 brain cells string a rope across a pontoon? I don't recall seeing it there before which makes me think that somebody might have been "helping" by putting the tyre in there as a buffer, if you did, in future will you mind your own f*****g business, & let me worry about the berth, @ 75yrs of age I can do without going flat on my face injuring my knee (& also my elbow I have found out since)! Every cloud has a silver lining though, as I came past the skips, somebody had put 2 "jerrycans" out for disposal, so I recycled them, they have a few rust patches on the outside but inside they are perfect, I will give them a rub down with a wire brush, put a lick of Hammerite on them & the jobs a good un. The "Cunning Plan" well as I have confessed I struggled to get Belle back onto the berth the other night, & I had to revert to backing up to the berth & jumping onto the pontoon (& falling arse over tip for my troubles) to pull the stern in. So I am thinking about dropping somebody off by Dereck's old boat so they can walk down to the berth & I can throw a rope to them & they can pull the stern in quite easily, all I have to do is line her up with the mooring & let the guy on the pontoon pull us in. There are times when the wind is in the wrong direction & the stubborn old cow will not go where she is told, this way she will have no option! Another little "gem" whilst drifting across the bay on Friday I spotted a large fender float past & I thought to myself "That will cost somebody a few quid to replace" then I had that awful feeling that it might be one of ours, & on checking it was! So I belted after it & retrieved it using the net, now when I come to think about it, the fender came from the same area as the tyre was, so I am even more convinced that somebody has been "helping out"
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Post by pilgrim17 on Sept 28, 2015 13:21:24 GMT 1
Not much to report today
"Hercules" was due for its MOT today so I got that done, & while it was being done I nipped across to Wickes & bought a tin of green smooth Hammerite (or Wickes own) to refurbish those jerrycans I "recycled" I will go down in the morning & rub them down with a wire brush, & give them a coat of paint then I have a refuelling capacity of 60 litres. With the wife away for 10 days I also needed to wash some dishes as the plates were running out, & do some washing as my underpants drawer was getting low, & I suppose next time I go to Lidl for wine I had better pick up some food, because so far Rossi's shares have been going up. While I was hanging the washing out I noticed that the grass could do with a cut, so I did that to avoid the complaints coming on an A3 sheet as opposed to an A4 sheet next week, there will be no "Brownie Points" to be earned, just keep down the complaints. The weather is looking pretty poor in terms of wind direction with E/SE for most of the week, but at least its going to be dry, so I will make a start on replacing the rotten plywood in the wheelhouse, & seal around the windows before the monsoon arrives. But before I do anything I intend to let my rugby ball sized knee shrink back to normal size!
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Post by pilgrim17 on Sept 29, 2015 17:51:45 GMT 1
Chinese "Jerrycans"?
Well Steve & I tackled the rust on the recycled jerrycans, & I think we are both pretty sure why they were thrown away, the metal they are made from is VERY thin, & the particular Chinaman who painted these, needs to stand nearer the paint tin! We eventually managed to get most of the flaking paint off (about 50% of the surface) & rubbed the rust down with wire brushes then applied 2 coats of Wickes own brand green Hammerite. They don't look too bad now & seeing as they are only going to carry diesel from the car park to the boat, they should last for years. I had a closer look at the front of the wheelhouse roof where the fibreglass has split & allowed water into the plywood, & on closer inspection it seems that the rot has only penetrated about 9" so if I cut it back & replaces the plywood & glass it over it should be ok. I will try to get that done before the weekend when it appears that the wind is going to shift to the SW/W with rain. So it looks like no Belle trips for another week, & I am playing golf on Wednesday anyway (so its bound to rain) but the forecast looks poor until at least Friday of next week.
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Post by pilgrim17 on Sept 30, 2015 17:51:22 GMT 1
I dont like it!!!!!
When a plan DOESN'T come together Steve & I spent ages chipping the paint off those jerrycans, then rubbing them down & painting them. Then today I went down & picked them up now that the paint is dry, & I took them to Sainsbury's to fill them up with 20litres each. Now everything was trouble-free until I got back, to find that both trolleys were gone (there were 2 there when I left for Sainsbury's) so I have a cunning plan & I tie a rope to each can & lift them up behind my neck like a yoke. Don't as k me how oxen, Chinese, milkmaids manage to carry weight like that? I used to carry some fairly heavy weights in the army but in a Bergen, that yoke method is crap! Anyway I get these cans across to Belle & I clear the junk from inside the cabin & unscrew the filler cap, I go back outside put the pump hose into the fuel tank & drop the pump into the jerry-can neck, well I TRY to drop the pipe into the jerry-can neck, but it wont fit in? There are small vent type pipes in the neck of these "recycled" which prevents me dropping the pump into those particular cans. So I am stuck with 40 litres of derv in two jerry-can into which I cant get the pump, the answer, siphon the fuel from the recycled jerry-cans into my old original jerry-can (twice) then pump in onto the tank. During this fuel transfer operation inevitably some diesel went onto the deck & Muggins here went arse over tip later on getting down from the wheelhouse repair! Wheelhouse Repair Well there is good news & bad news, the good news is that the rot is only REALLY bad in the first 22", but the bad news is that the 2 x 15mm ply boards that make up the roof have rotted in the corner where this water damage is, I don't know how far it has spread, but it is far too big a job to take on at this time of year, so I will carry out this repair & the club will have to make a decision on what to do (if anything) to the roof & windows next year. Better it isn't going to get all I can do is cut out the worst & repair it. I need 22" x 4" of 12mm ply if anybody has any, & fibreglass resin & hardener, & some glass fibre matting to do this faschia before it rots through to the roof!
Its not rot free where I stopped cutting back, but it does have structural integrity, which if the rain is keep from it should last a few more years.
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Post by pilgrim17 on Oct 2, 2015 15:27:52 GMT 1
He caught me!
Modifying his stern safety rail Across the stern is a favourite place for people to sit going out & coming back, & it also helps to keep the stern down & gives the prop more bite into the water. However since we fitted the stern safety rail they cant sit on the stern because the safety rail stops you, so I thought if I move it back about 4" it will still carry out its function & the stern can still be used as a seat. I managed to get all the bolts removed & the new mounting holes marked when who should show up but Steve Bryant, I was captured modifying his work of art, so he gave me a hand to mount it in its new position, there still isn't enough for my fat arse but most people will find it fine. I also cut a new piece of ply coated it with Sadolin, & fitted it into the faschia, now I need to get some glass mat & fibreglass the repair over to keep the water out. Forecast is poor for Sunday with the SE wind rising throughout the day up to 25+mph, so Mumbles Belle wont be sailing on Sunday (well not with me at the help anyway) lets hope it improves as the week goes on.
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Post by pilgrim17 on Oct 4, 2015 17:19:20 GMT 1
Took a turn down to the boat today
As is my usual daily chore, I wanted to make sure that the new piece of ply I had put in the facia was sealed before the forecast rain appeared & got into the open woodwork. I think it should be ok & will withstand water until I manage to get some fibreglass mat to cover it properly. If anybody has any fibreglass mat hanging about I will gladly accept it, I don't want to waste money buying it if somebody has some lying about in their shed, it only needs to be about 2ft long & about 8" wide. I also swapped some of the small fenders for some bigger ones, that a neighbouring boat owner was kind enough to give me, with our level of control in the locks we need all the soft bits we can get Apart from that there is nothing else to report, the boat remains ready to go at a minutes notice, all it needs is some reasonable weather, & some anglers. I took a spin down to the observatory before I came home & it looked quite evil out in the bay, there were a few yachts about taking advantage of the stiff breeze, but we certainly wouldn't have liked it, so well done xc weather for getting it spot on yet again, I will be looking for a day beyond Thursday to maybe try the Green Grounds to see if there are any early whiting or codling about.
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Post by pilgrim17 on Oct 6, 2015 19:44:03 GMT 1
Nothing much to blog about
Never went down the marina today I had to dig my golf clubs out of the shed & fight the spiders that have taken up residence in & on the bag, so now I am as ready as I will ever be for tomorrows Autumn meet, of the Army Golf Assoc at Coed-y-Mystwr GC, where I will no doubt play very badly & find out who else has died since our last golf game (I hope it isn't the guy who is giving me a lift) Then I wont be going down on Thursday either, I have to take my Basic Road Skills Test (Theory & Practical) at 75 yrs of age having ridden a motorcycle from the age of 17 until about 40, BSA's, Triumphs, Velocettes, Ariels, Royal Enfields, Matchless, AJS, etc usually around 500cc or 650cc the biggest was an Ariel Square Four of 1000cc, but because I never applied for a motorbike licence when the law changed, I now have to sit my test all over again, so I am swatting up on my Highway Code, & my motorcycle theory test, without that I cant ride "Hercules" down to the boat, so no more Mumbles Belle trips if I fail Weather look crap for the weekend anyway so I will probably get some fibreglass matting & cover the repair I have made on the front facia of the wheelhouse to try to stop the rot spreading, & maybe give the engine a run to recharge the batteries which are keeping the bilge pumps working, pop down & have a chat if you have nothing else to do.
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Post by pilgrim17 on Oct 9, 2015 16:14:00 GMT 1
Got down the boat today
Nothing much to report, bilges were empty so the pumps are working ok, I ran the engine for about 20 mins to charge the batteries up a bit & looked at the repair to the facia, now the frame sealant has gone off it seems waterproof enough but I will fibreglass it to make sure. I notice every time I go down there that somebody has been down there since my last visit checking things over which is great, but can I ask you to unplug the mains electric before you leave, to stop any galvanic exchange between the prop & the pontoon, which is what happened to Oystercat & cost £900 for a new prop, I don't want that happening to Belle! There are conflicting forecasts for next Thursday & Friday BBC give S winds up to 15mph & xc give much lighter winds from E/NE/N & if xc are right I would like to take the first trip to the Green Grounds to see if there are any whiting showing yet, I know there will be dogs but if we can get through then we might have whiting too, its worth a stab! I played golf on Wednesday, & felt like I had been run over on Thursday, & I had to get up & go for my motorcycle instruction course & test which I passed (the oldest person that the instructor had taken ) Went down the club night last night, & we had just about enough members present for a poker school if we had a pack of cards. I don't know why members still remain members, yet don't use the boats, don't support the beach committee rep when he organises a trip, & don't attend club nights, why keep on paying £30 per year for nothing? Ok you may say those £30's subsidise the club activities, but if there is no support for the club's activities then it might be prudent to curtail them, if only a handful attend the club night why bother to spend the money booking the room & paying a barman, we could sit in the West Cross Hotel & drink beer & it wouldn't cost the club a penny. We have two boats & a minibus, but if they aren't being used why keep paying for their berths & insurance, & the tax & insurance & MOT on the minibus if that isn't being used either? Maybe it would be economic sense to sell Mumbles Belle & the minibus, & hold an impromptu evening in any pub you care to mention, & buy another chalet at Caswell, because that is the only profit making venture we have at the moment, everything else is a financial drain, just like the membership numbers & support?
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