Brimble's Blog

Each day Ella and I arrived late in the day in an anchorage, we had a fairly standard procedure upon any evening arrival. I would fiddle with the anchor for a while, Ella would sort the washing up from the lunch on the hoof, sail and tiller covers would go on, various cleanups done and then one of us would get cracking with the dinner. I would then connect to the speaker and we would sit 'chillaxin' listening to the fantastic Fellowship of the Ring Audiobook by Andy Serkis. We did this fairly religiously and we were growing to love it. One night after arriving late into Sardineiro the end of the chapter came. Our eyes were beyond drifting, and fairly satisfied by with the progress we had made that day and decided to call it there. We were already in our pyjamas, lee clothes up and teeth brushed so it was a case of lights off, eyes shut.

A good day come to an end until we were to set off at around 9am the next day

Or so I thought...

At around 2am I was rudely awoken by Ella shuffling around the saloon. She peered through the port holes on starboard side, then on port side. "Jack, JACK" she said, prodding me hard in the ribs. "I think someone is on deck".

Being her brother and being woken up at said hour. I gave her some foul words explaining to her, as most brothers would, that she is clearly wrong. I then rolled back over trying to get back to sleep only to he a loud BANG, and a huge CRASH, as the boat yawed sharply around 30 degrees to port.

oh...

At this moment I leapt out my bunk, popped my head over the spray hood and scanned the deck. No one?

There was nothing? I crept up past the cockpit, past the mast and arrived on the foredeck. BANG! Brimble lurched again. What on earth is going on I thought? I wasn't overly nervous but concern was certainly growing, that was until I saw the culprit.

I kid you not. The fattest bottlenose dolphin I have seen in my entire life was circling the boat. On each orbit this cheeky bastard was ramming into the anchor chain at full pelt catching it with its fin and spinning around it. Each time the boat was forced to go with it. This douchebag was playing with the Brimble like a beach ball.

I like to think I'm a good swimmer however I didn't think jumping into the water, to show this miscreant a piece of my mind, would go well. I therefore elected for the more passive approach and told Ella to come have a look. We both had a giggle watching this absolute geezer having the time of his life.

Ella, satisfied that her life was in no immediate danger, went back to bed. In hindsight i likely should have taken that moment to weigh anchor and find another spot and let the dolphin play with one of the other boats in the bay for a little bit, however instead I sat in the cockpit for a while thinking through the situation. Every time I expected this thick animal to give up, it had another go. It went on for another 2 hours. In the morning, I checked over the anchor chain, the roller, and the cleat and all seemed more than fine. Nothing like a good bit of entertainment.

July Update

The good ship Brimble is well into her new adventure.

She is slowly but surely getting used to her new skipper, who is himself learning as he goes.

It is beyond a privilege to be able to sail aboard Brimble, and I am constantly learning at every step of the process. The good ship has her own way of telling me "I told you so" and I occasionally find myself talking to the boat, both when berthed, and when under sail. Recently, putting in a reef when it was just the boat and myself I was saying "yeah, yeah. I know I should have done it earlier I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" as we were both being thrashed by some gusts going past Cabo Da Roca.

I seemed to have adjusted well to posting a lot on the instagram as many will have seen, showing how the boat is getting along, however have been far more hesitant as to what to do on the blog. For the moment I'm thinking I will come to it as and when feels appropriate for a more detailed discussion on the happenings aboard the good ship.

so... what has happened recently?

Well the GSB (Good Ship Brimble) set off from Falmouth to cross the Bay of Biscay towards the end of June with Commodore Parsons and Admiral Halsall. Weather wise, the crossing was well in our favour and as bay crossings go, was as ideal as you could generally ask. Foulies were often not needed, however the donk did need to be started once or twice. With the exception of a near sinking, gassing, and fire, all went without a hitch... hehe. (Turned out to be seperate exhaust problems and alternator problems, I will write more about these in the technical section soon)

The GSB arrived in A Coruna where she would spend a little bit of time as I had to rush back for my graduation! She was left in regretfully quite a bumpy marina so rubber springs were added to the lines and fairleads were moved all in preparation for her time alone.

Upon Return many jobs needed to be done. During the Biscay crossing we had some very odd wind readings for both direction and magnitude, and we deduced that the battery in the Anemometer was knackered. A replacement was bought in the UK that i bought with me, in the photo you can see Mads kindly helping me up the mast to replace it!

Up the mast in A Coruna to replace Anemometer battery

I also needed to repair the aforementioned Alternator. The engine battery charging light was flickering on and off on the second day of the crossing which prompted all onboard Brim to go "hmm" then promptly ignore it as a problem for arrival.

This may have not been the smartest of moves as the next morning I woke up at around 6am in a cloud of smoke in the saloon. Calling for Admiral Dad, who was on watch. He responded to the situation with a multitude of words that should likely not be mentioned on the family friendly blog. The engine was quickly turned off to investigate the problem.

I dare to say that both my Dad and Rob were rather excited to have some tinkering to do and we all got to work, drifting in the bay of biscay, to sort out the situation. The damage included a completely melted plug & wiring assembly that hooked into the back of the alternator. Despite the drama, it was fixable and some 10mm spade connectors and electrical tape was all that was needed for the bodge job to get us to A Coruna (shown in the photo). The cause was corroded connections resulting in increased resistance to the terminal therefore increasing heat within the wires, ultimately melting the components that secure the wires to the alternator. A more permanent fix was due. On return to the UK my mission was to find the correct plug assembly and right-angled spade connectors for our LUKAS alternator.

The temp job on the alternator.

This proved fairly difficult as I drove to a variety of different marine warehouses, hardware shops and chandleries with no luck. I was initially told - "no chance mate" and given an address of a scrapyard where they may be able to find what I'm looking for. It wasn't until I was driving home in defeat did I think of the local river chandlery in the neighbouring village to my own (Sheridan Marine) as a last resort. I unenthusiastically spoke to the man behind the counter explaining my situation, and without a word he picked up a small plastic bag with exactly what I was looking for. He seemed fairly confused with my response to this and probably assumed it was an overreaction but nevertheless I was ecstatic. Other than needing five different hands, the final repair was fairly simply and after this the GSB was ready to go.

Mads had flown with me to A Coruna and some confidence building was needed (for me as skipper, Mads was more than accustomed to the good ship), so some quick lunch time round trips were made across the Ria before Ella arrived. When she did we got set on some of the prettiest sailing of the Iberian Peninsula - Galicia. Mads jumped ship at the next stop in Ensenada de Corme before Ella & I cracked on.

Dinner onboard

The Rias of Galicia are known for their outstanding beauty and they really did not dissapoint. Dolphines were spotted every day and we were spoilt for choice with anchorages. All very protected from the North & North-westerlies that we were seeing.

Ellas and Mads Pit Stops:

A Coruna

Ria De Corme (Mads Leaves)

Ria De Camarinas

Sardineiro de Abajo

Muros

Illa De Arousa

Sanxenxo

San Simon (Just for Lunch)

Moana

Baiona (Ella leaves)