Practical Boat Owner - July 2018

A

fter completing my cruise of
St Malo and the Channel
Islands in New Dawn, my
Hunter Horizon 26, I was
waiting in Jersey for a break
in the weather.
The last few days had dealt Force 6-7
north-westerlies – not ideal for the return
passage to Plymouth. Though I’d had a

friend join me for the outward Channel

crossing to Guernsey, I’d been single-

handed for the rest of the cruise and

needed to get back to my mooring at

Saltash, on the river Tamar.

The forecast at last promised a break,

with westerlies and possibly south-

westerlies, Force 4-5. Around the

south-west corner of Jersey from St Helier

would be rough but once around it I could

expect a good slingshot from the spring

tides past Guernsey.

I left at 1930 aiming to catch the

remnants of the east-going tide which,

I hoped, would smooth the way a little

through the overfalls off Noirmont Point. It

certainly hadn’t done anything of the sort.

The sea here was full of steep 10-12ft

waves, some breaking along their top.

New Dawn was coping fairly well but

there was a lot of water being thrown back

across the deck and sprayhood.

One of the jobs I’d noticed needing

doing while on the boat was fixing a minor

leak from the forehatch and windows

when it rained. Suddenly remembering

this I looked below, wondering what I’d

find. The little drips I expected were really

quite continuous and doing a good job of

getting everything wet; charts, almanac,

log... everything!

In my haste to move things to a dry spot

I dropped my parallel rules, and they

broke. From bad to worse, I thought.

I laid out towels to catch the worst of the

drips and then noticed that water was

running straight down the electrics panel

and all over the switches and their fuses.

It was also trickling – as if magnetically

attracted – to the 12V socket powering my

GPS receiver.

This was serious. The night was fast

approaching. I had visions of being

plunged into darkness with no radio, no

auto-pilot and having to rely entirely on

battery-powered GPS.

The thought of being glued to the helm

for 24 hours was not high on my wish list.

I could turn back, but the tide would now

be against me and the sea state would

Just a couple

of drips!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jon Wood is a retired

water conservation

adviser for South West

Water and was first

introduced to sailing at

14 when he helped his

father build and then sail a Lysander

17ft 6in sloop on the River Thames.

He now sails from Plymouth, mostly

single-handed, up and down the

south-west coast and across to the

Channel Islands and France.

Small leaks around windows

became seriously troublesome

for Jon Wood on a wet and wild

passage from Jersey to Plymouth

LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE

Don’t ignore leaks – they may come back

to haunt you, as Jon Wood discovers