It’s been a while since I posted, mainly because although we have moved further down the coast to Porto in Portugal, we have spent most of the time sitting at anchor or at marinas waiting for the weather. It has been storm after storm coming in with less than 24 hours between each one.
Tag: LadyCindy
Posts specifically about Lady Cindy
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A Coruña to Muros
We left A Coruña after waiting for a weather window and a package sent from the UK and are now in Muros waiting for yet another storm to pass on Monday. The current forecast then gives at least a week of good weather to move South to Portugal.
While in A Coruña we did some boat maintenance. We had a rigger up the mast to replace a broken halyard and replace a nav light bulb. The light is still not working so I will need to get a new light fitting. I also got strengthening strips sewn onto both sides of the main sail where it has been rubbing against the stays, a stitch in time?
Biscay has not been a pleasant sailing experience mainly because of frequent storms and big rolling Atlantic waves mixed with locally generated waves from a different direction. Nelly has suffered from seasickness and I have felt queezy on several occasions; but we did it and things should improve as we head South.
We arrived in Muros today and ate out in a seafood restaurant. Calamari pie was new to me but was delicious. A big storm is passing through in the next 24 hours so we are in the marina for 2 nights, maybe 3. Its less than 1/2 the price of a UK marina.
At either Porto or Lisbon a friend of Nellie’s may be joining the boat for a short stay and I may take advantage of having a dog sitter to fly back to the UK for a week or two. I have had to deal with several emotionally difficult situations recently and want to spend time with people I love.
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A Coruña
We reached A Caruna last week and have been carrying out various repairs, sightseeing, resting etc. We need to stay a few more days but the weather is not looking kind to continue around the corner to head south to Portugal and Gibralter.
While sailing here we had a problem with the main sail halyard and had to switch to a spare, the mast top tricolor navigation light stopped working a few weeks ago too so we have paid for somebody to go up the mast to put in a new halyard and to replace the bulb in the light. The light is still not working so I may need to get the mast wiring replaced or checked. In the mean time we will continue with the motoring nav lights on the bow. Lots of other minor jobs have also been done. 
on the way here we anchored and explored Ferrol.
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Sailing with Nelly
Nelly joined me in Santander and we have sailed West along the North Spanish coast to Gijon. We had hoped to get to a Caruna but very rolly seas and little to no wind forced us to come in for fuel. The masthead navigation lights have stopped working and we had hoped to have them fixed but nobody is available to climb the mast. I should be able to do it, I have the equipment but I would rather not.
Tomorrow we leave and head further West.
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New windlass and across Biscay
My windlass finally arrived in Brest, and with advice and reassurance from Darren who repairs boats for a living it was installed and is working great. I have anchored twice with it so far with no issues.
New windlass I decided against crossing Biscay direct from Brest to A Caruna. The frequent storms and being single handed made me nervous. If there is on thing I have learnt in my travels, that is to trust your gut instinct. Instead I have travelled down the French coast and crossing to Santander where I will pick up my new crewmember Nelly.
The storms still effect me, it’s just that they lose some of their power as they travel East. I have been outrunning one coming in tonight, its forecast near gale just North of Brest, it should be a brief storm for me in the morning.
Crossing Biscay Day 1
I have been sailing for 12 hours now, progress has been slow due to low winds so I have motor sailed a lot. The wind has picked up now but not from the forecast South West, it is Southerly, the direction I need to go so I am having to tack through it. After the storm the winds come from the opposite direction so I should make good progress then.
I have been accompanied by dolphins all day. Mostly common Dolphins but I have seen a few Bottlenose Dolphins too. They have been leaping clear of the water, tail slapping alongside me and bow riding.
Day 2
The brief storm actually lasted 24 hours, first with South Westerly winds then halfway through they Switched to North Westerly. Wind speeds were 15-20 knots so as I had hoped, it blew out most of its fury before it reached me. It was near gale closer to Brest. The wind was no issue, it was the confused seas due to the changing winds. After the first 12 hours, the short choppy waves that picked the boat up and promptly dropped all 8 tons on the other side gave way to big rolling waves that were better but occasionally I could feel the boat sliding down the other side. I am sure Lady Cindy said weeeeee…, I said wow!, Dotty said howl! When the winds changed direction, the whole process restarted with short waves but with the added bonus of the long ones still coming in from the other direction.
Winds have died now and switched direction again to North Easterly. The seas are still a little confused about which way the waves should travel but Lady Cindy is happy cruising under mainsail only at 6-7 knots. I should still arrive in Santander tomorrow (Thursday) but only just.
Day 3 Arrived in Santander
The final days sailing was.. well.. plain. The wind was following me all day at a steady 10-14 knots, perfect. I arrived in Santander after dark so I have anchored for the night and will go to the marina in the morning to pick up a new crewmember Nelly. I may stay a couple of nights to fix a few things. The main one being the masthead lights. But now I sleep 😴
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Parcels, Anchors, Stramash, and Crew
First the parcel, which was sent from the UK, its a replacement windlass and it was held up in customs. I knew I had to pay french vat and duty on arrival but didn’t know how this was supposed to happen. Apparently somebody on the French side should have contacted me to tell me. Nobody did and I had no contacts except the shop I bought it from and a DPD Web page that simply said in transit then to be delivered Friday (last week).
Yesterday the DPD status changed to time expired to pay duty, return to sender. 😳 How are you supposed to pay if they don’t contact you and you cannot contact them?
I would have been here until at least Friday anyway due to storms in Biscay and have arrived here now. Hey ho, go with the flow.
The shop (YouBoat) have been very good, it’s not their fault, they have now sent a replacement which should arrive this coming Friday.. we will see.
What’s Stramash I here you ask (or am I phsycic?). Stramash is a 44ft boat solo sailed by Darren who has similar plans and goals as mine and is going South as I am. We met in a facebook group for sailors looking for crew, more on that later. Realising we are both in Brest we arranged to meet at an anchorage. More on how that turned out later (are you on the edge of your seats yet?). We shouted our hellos across the windy water when he arrived. At least I think it was hello, he is Scottish and although I am a quarter Scot and lived in Aberdeen in my youth, I have trouble with the accent at the best of times. In that situation he could equally have been saying “fuck off you sasanach bastad”
OK the anchor.. here is my Facebook post at the time…
Well that was exciting. Making pizzas and the anchor alarm went off. Looked out and shit!!! I am moving back fast toward my new sailing friend Darren. Engine on, forward gear while i went forward to let out more chain. My windlass is broken (parcel I have been waiting for) so no way I am pulling in the anchor with this wind and current. Luckily it caught again and I am stable but idling the engine to reduce strain on the anchor. Sorry for scaring you Darren, pizzas are ready and we plan to go back to the marina tonight when the current slackers and have pizza and as Darren put it “get shitfaced” that sounds like a bloody good plan to me.
Getting too close to Stramash And the next day….
Soon after my last post yesterday about all the excitement, it all kicked off again. My anchor slipped again and now I was far to close to Darren and getting closer, I had to move; fortunately the tide had started to ease. After a bit of maneuvering by both boats trying to get anchors in and stay clear of each other, the shore line and other boats, we were away. 3 hours later we were in a packed marina looking for a free slot. I got in between two bigger yachts with the help of other boaters, I have about 2-3 foot gap fore and aft 😳. It’s been a day of uncomfortable closeness. Darren found a spot in the residents area but has moved to the visitor area this morning. We never did get shitfaced, I hope we can remedy that some time. I have saved you some pizza though Darren.
And finally… the great news you have all been waiting for…. come on play along…. drum roll….. I HAVE CREW 😊🤣🤗😘🥰🙂🙃😊 or I will have when I reach Spain. Can you tell I am happy 😊
Her name is Nelly and she has sailing experience. She will join me at a point to be decided on the Spanish coast. More on this another day but it improves my safety with an extra pair of hands and eyes, it reduces my workload and stress in sailing, anchoring and docking, I can sleep more than 20 minutes at a time on long passages and it will be company for dotty who gets lonely occasionally and says I don’t talk enough to her. I may have got me and dotty mixed up there.
Plans for today were to go to an anchorage tonight but you know me and plans, we just don’t seem to get along. Darren came around today and we decided that stopping tonight and going out to get the long neglected shitfaced was a better idea. So we planed one more night. No, we cannot have that.. a plan? It has to change! I went to the marina office to pay for tonight and they kindly offered to bundle all my nights here and give the weekly rate (basically a free night), oh no, sorry Mr Barret with tonight you have only been here 5 nights, you need 7 to get the 7 night weekly rate. 🤔 so if I stay 2 more nights, the second is free? Yes, 🤔 OK, I’ll do that…. wait a minute, that’s a plan!!! It has to change!!. So I am staying 3 nights here (paying for 2) so I am here Friday for the parcel.. unless plans for its delivery change…
Oh yes, I forgot something I know you were all concerned about… Darren got his pizza today.
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Waiting for a parcel
I have been at Chateaux Marina in Brest the last few days waiting for a new Windlass to arrive. DPD tracking says it should be with me today 🤞
Cleaned side name canvas In the mean time I have been doing some cleaning and maintenance and had a look around the Town and the Naval History museum
I have had two very sad and personal things to deal with. I will decide either later today, or next week how it effects what I do next. I have a 3 day weather window from this afternoon to cross Biscay, if the parcel arrives I may take it. If not, I may move to an anchorage and spend some time reflecting.
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Tough few days
The last few days have been tough on both me and the boat. I want to get on but the weather and strong currents around here mean slow progress.
The sail from Guernsey to the French coast went well. It started with good winds which dwindled to nothing and ended in strong winds gusting to 25 knots and passing showers. I found a safe anchorage in the Lee of a small island and have spent two rolly nights here. The strong currents here mean I can only move on the ebb tide, high tide is mid day so cannot move in the mornings at the moment.
I tried to move yesterday but the anchor windlass stopped halfway up. The anchor was not snagged, I could pull the chain. I spent the next couple of hours stripping down the windlass to investigate (missing my chance to move). I found this….
Windlass motor drive shaft sheared I think the gearbox has jammed and that caused the motor to shear the drive shaft. The winch is old and given the gearbox and motor will need replacing its more economic to replace the whole thing. Especially as I wanted to move it further forward anyway. That will have to wait till I reach a marina, probably Brest. In the mean time my muscles will get a workout manually lifting the anchor.
I have also struggled mentally with a lot of setbacks. I am naturally a positive optimist but the last few days have drained a lot of that. I need something to enjoy for a few days. I may stop at Brest a while and live a little 🙂.
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Installing Lithium Batteries
Last year I installed Lithium batteries from Sterling Power onto Lady Cindy. This is how I did it and a summary of how the system is working out in real usage.
The problem with lead
Lead acid batteries traditionally used in boats suffer from a major problem over time… sulphation. This reduces their life span and their capacity. They can also degrade if they are discharged below 50% capacity, they drop voltage as they discharge which means you should only use about half the power stored in them, and they take a long time to charge from 80% to full capacity.
Advantages of Lithium
Lithium batteries can be discharged to near zero and maintain a steady voltage throughout the discharge cycle. Most come with built-in battery management systems that optimise the charging and monitor cell performance. Often, they provide remote monitoring via Bluetooth. Lithium is far lighter than lead, so although they are similarly sized, they are easier to manipulate and can be installed on their side, which gives more install location options.
Lithium is expensive
There are issues with lithium, too; they are very expensive and can not be used in the same bank as lead batteries as they have different charge and discharge characteristics. The established view is that you cannot mix lithium and lead and must throw away perfectly good lead leisure batteries to install Lithium… BUT THIS IS WRONG. I have done it with minimal rewiring, but a special charger is needed.
How to mix lead and lithium batteries
The secret is to have separate battery banks, and the lithium is added as a new bank isolated from the existing lead bank by a battery to battery charger. I chose UK based Sterling Power for both my batteries and my charger after speaking to their technical team to confirm their product could do what I needed. That was to charge the lithium side when the lead side was over 12v (charging or charged) and isolated the lithium when the lead side was less than 12v (discharged below 50%).
All house loads such as lights, fridge, instruments, etc. were moved from the lead leisure battery to the lithium bank. Charging sources (wind, solar, alternator, mains) remain on the lead side, so they are unchanged. The separate lead starter battery and its charging sources are also unchanged.
How the charger works
When there is an active charging source on the lead side, not only are the lead batteries charged, the Sterling charger takes some of this power, regulates the voltage and controls the current to charge the lithium bank.
When the charging sources disappear, the lead battery provides power to charge the lithium until the lead side drops below 12v (50% discharged). When this happens, the Sterling charger isolates the lithium bank, which continues to provide power to the house loads.
Has it worked?
Yes, and better than I hoped. I used to have 2 x 120ah lead leisure batteries that I could use half of (120ah usable power). Adding 2 x 110ah Lithium batteries could have given a total of 340ah of power. In practice, I decided to reduce weight at the aft end (where the lead leisure batteries are located) by removing one of these batteries. So, currently, I have 280ah usable power, and that power is always at a stable voltage. The only negative is that there is a cooling fan on the charger that is noticeable but not loud when it kicks in, so think more carefully than I did as to where to locate this.
I am very happy with the power I have now. I live aboard Lady Cindy and have never run out of power. I charge when I am in a marina, when there is daylight or wind, or when I run the engine. I have a 240v inverter aboard to run various electronic device chargers, and an xbox and have run that for 4 hours before getting to 25% charge and turned it off, so I had power for lights in the evening. The next day was sunny, and I was back to nearly 100 % charge on everything at the end of the day.
How I installed on Lady Cindy
Lady Cindy’s starter battery was installed under the starboard side saloon berth/seat. The two leisure batteries midship under the floor in the galley area. When I rewired the boat, chargers, loads, inverter, and isolation switches were all moved to a locker under the port side map table. This was my start position for the installation.
The lithium batteries and their charger were installed under the port side saloon seat/berth. And charger wired through to the leisure batteries. As all loads were on a single terminal under the map table, it was a simple job to switch the terminal input from the lead leisure battery bank to the new lithium bank. You may have a more untidy setup with lots of loads directly onto your leisure batteries. In this case, put a new terminal near these batteries, move all loads to the new terminal, and then a heavy gauge wire from there to the new lithium battery bank.
Negative terminals of all loads should go to the negative post of the lithium bank. The negative side of all banks and all charging sources should be connected together by a heavy gauge wire.
Future upgrades
Although the original design idea was to be able to install Lithium alongside lead and the battery to battery charger allows that, there is another plus from that charger in that it protects the lithium from any excessive voltages that a charge source such as an alternator may generate. This is a useful function even when the lead battery reaches the end of its life and is removed. Any new batteries in the future will be lithium and added to the existing lithium bank.
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About Lady Cindy in 2021
Lady Cindy is a 32 foot, long keel yacht and was one of the first GRP production boats ever built. She was built in 1965 by Halmatic and Camper Nicholson. More information about the Nic32 can be found on the Nicholson 32 association Web site. I have yet to find a definition for a classic boat, but I think she qualifies.
Lady Cindy She has a very thick hull and topsides and 3 tonnes of lead ballast in her full length keel. Nic32s are renown for their safe and kindly behaviour, a big factor in my choice of boat. She is slow in the water compared to modern lighter boats, but I am in no hurry to get anywhere and I do want to get there safely. They suffer from osmosis like all GRP boats but Lady Cindy has previously been properly peeled back and treated and shows no signs of problems since.
Lady Cindy was originally purchased new by a syndicate (hence the name) and has been kept for most of her life in the Portsmouth area. I think I am the third owner in her 56 year history; that is if you count a syndicate as one owner.
I bought her in the late summer of 2020, just before the second wave of Covid 19 in the UK. My intention was, and still is, to live aboard and explore the world.
Over her years, she has been well cared for and essential work done as needed. However, she needed updating especially the electrics, plumbing and eventually the engine. Priorities were the electrics and navigation, followed by the plumbing, both unsuitable for liveaboard. I have blogged the work done so far.
The engine, a Yanmar 2gm20, is old but serviceable, it’s got a few years left in her but I cannot see me doing 6 knots of speed for several hot and long days that would be required for Panama or Suez canal crossings. She has been serviced regularly and only smokes at startup, which is normal for these engines.
Rigging and sails were all in good condition as was the hull. I got a couple of spare sails with the boat but the storm sail will need replacing, it is the original 1965 one. She has a slab reefed mainsail, furling genoa and a spinacker. The cockpit is deep and a good place to be in bad weather. Although all sheets and the furling genoa run to the cockpit, you still need to go on deck to raise, lower and reef the main sail, running at least the main halyard to the cockpit and investigating lazy Jack’s and single line reefing options are on my list of jobs. I want at least enough control from the cockpit to get the mainsail down if I get caught out by high winds, ideally reefed from there as well. I will seek expert advice from a rigger for this.
She has two anchors, the original Danforth in a factory fitted deck locker plus a plough anchor mounted on a bow roller with 40m of chain and an electric winch.
The interior retains much of the original teak and is in the original mark V layout. This includes a galley, nav station and 3 bunks in the main cabin, a heads area and two v bunks up front. Eventually I want to improve this layout by converting the two bunks on the port side to be a wide single with storage over the top. The existing bunks are very narrow which is fine on a passage but not good for livaboard. The forward v cabin is where I sleep but condensation is a problem here. In time I want to improve the insulation and ventilation and move the chain locker and winch further forward and seal it from the berth area. Sleeping next to a smelly chain is not ideal.
The galley has a sink, gas cooker and there is a fridge under the nav station. I want to improve the cramped storage here by putting in a cupboard above the sink.
The heads has a jabsco hand pumped toilet that uses sea water to flush. There is no holding tank so I need to do something about this before visiting places like the USA where you must have either a holding tank or a composting toilet. I have heard a lot of good things about composting toilets but these are expensive. I can get the special seat to make one fairly cheaply so I may end up making my own that is built specifically for the space. The hull rise and the mast make it a difficult place to fit factory produced toilets. The sink now has running fresh and salt water, as does the galley sink, these are fed by pressure sensitive pumps. The taps have a shower attachment so showering in the heads area and using the bilge as a drain is possible. I do use it over the sink to wash my hair to minimise soap in the bilge.
