We'd been out to sea briefly a few days before, and it was unexpectedly very bouncy - I think we dislodged some muck off the tank walls/bottom.
We'd spent the previous night sleeplessly anchored at The Anchorstone, downwriver from Dittisham, in winds gusting up to 30 knots from the South. There wasn't much tide so the boat tended to be pushed over to shallow water while the tide was falling. We were close to touching the bottom and a slight drag of the anchor would have definitely put us on the rocks, so I was having a little trouble relaxing. In reality it would have not been life threatening or anything just "paint threatening" and uncomfortable while we would inevitably have heeled over a touch before the tide came back.
But I motored us 50 metres back into the current, deployed a couple of buckets off the stern, and put the wheel over to starboard, and it held us out in the tide more effectively, and we were fine.
Next morning we motored a few hundred yards to a buoy off Dittisham and went to the shop for supplies.
Then we started the engine again for the planned trip up river - and it died with a minute. Had it died when I needed it to get us out of the sticky situation the night before I'd have had a proper serious look on!
But this is not good. Sometimes, as last night proved, it's very important to have a working engine.
We cancelled our plans and I changed the fuel filter and bled the fuel lines and the engine worked fine again, but we had no spare filter aboard now so we took the steamtrain back down into Kingswear, bought a filter, and walked back to Dissisham. A very pleasant day out with me feeling very proud of myself for successfully fixing the engine, changing a fuel filter and bleeding the fuel lines - not something I had much confidence in my ability to do - but I am much more confident now, and next time I won't make the mistake of dropping a bleed screw under the engine!
I've booked in Stephenson Marine to come and talk to me about the whole thing. There's a load of possible things we can do next to nip this in the bud, but whatever else we do I'm definitely going to get set up with parallel fuel filters and a suction gauge so if one ever does block on us again we can predict it before it does (using the suction gauge) and turn a couple of taps to start using the other one, then change out the blocked one - all potentially without even stopping the engine. May also have some tank drains installed in the tanks - possibly also an inspection hatch - and/or possibly also install and start using a "day tank". Watch this space.
We limped back to Dartmouth and spent a few days riding out more high winds on the pontoon before returning to the anchorage where we are at the moment.
This brings me to the seagull attack.
We went ashore yesterday for a "w a l k" with the small white one and she caught a seagull as it tried to take off - got it by the neck and started playing with it - in front of children and frowning parents. So embarrassing. But in fact after it got away (it flew off looking ruffled - surviving for another day unlike the last time this happened) - Lunar must have just been gently chewing on it - and the gathering crowd all expressed their approval of her actions - apart from not killing it - so it ended well really.
Except that Lunar is now fixated on seagulls. She is such a handful
Additional:
We have a date booked for being lifted out for the winter. We have mixed feelings about it. We're loving being down here and life aboard with Nina is great. It's nice and quiet and more relaxed here also now there's much fewer boats about and tourists. I liked the maelstrom of activity in the summer, and this is a lovely contrast. I'd like to watch the weather get colder and the winter set in, afloat. But I'm also looking forward to Christmas with family, based in a caravan on the North Yorkshire moors, which is what we're going up to.
I'll be commuting down to continue the endless task list on Towser, and hopefully we'll be all set to launch, with sails this time, next spring - and we can then really start to go places. Salcombe and back first I think. Definitely Plymouth for the firework competition. Perhaps the Scillies for the first time. Exciting!
health and safety etc There is uproar about it.
