Gales, Peace and Kite Surfers

The wind was howling from the East, cold wind that made the boat stays sing. I found one of the mooring ropes snapped, it had been at a weak point.There were still 3 more warps attached and a loose chain, but it showed that Sadaf was still getting a battering at the end of April! The tide had been low barely lifting her off the sands. I spent some time fixing the warps making them as one so to add strength to the whole. I went for a walk beside the harbour and sat on the sand out of the wind. Another climate was there, warm sunshine, birds diving and singing, the lapping of the waves that were blown in by the gale, i closed my eyes and rested. Cycling home the ebbing tide was full of white-tops, wind-with-tide...just wait until it was wind-against-tide then it would be a mass of white-horses and crashing waves. I noticed a kite in the distance and nearing I saw kite-surfers bounding over the surf, it was the first time I had seen it close up, good fun!

Making a Scottish Small Pipe Chanter

My need to play indoors in Spain requires me to have a quieter chanter that has a flattened 7th note. My Northumbrian Small Pipes have a sharpened 7th and my Border pipes have both but they are too loud for a small room with neighbours. So I bought a hard wood called "Santa Rosa" a deep red wood, beautiful colouring that slowly turns a darker colour as time passes. I began by boring the wood end to end with the lathe, and achieved nearly a perfect bore with only slight wandering of the drill bit.
Then put it in the lathe and turned it down to a workable size.

Turned piece of Santa Rosa Hardwood

Single Axle Trailer

I came across a single axle trailer that belonged to a static caravan, I thought perhaps to convert it into a trailer for my Hurley Felicity. It needed some work of course, but the trailer was in good condition. It had the base of the caravan still fixed a floor of thick ply wood this would need to be removed as the sea would use it as a rudder and perhaps tilt the trailer with the fast tides races we have. There was lights connected but no jocky wheel and I was not sure about any brakes! The trailer was about 20ft the same size as the boat. In the end I decided I did not need it yet, perhaps after the sailing season is over and perhaps a single axle is not the most stable, but I think it would be good enough for pulling the boat to/from the mooring twice a year.

My Hybrid Bagpipes

If Organology is a study of musical instruments then musical archaeology is a piecing together of facts about a time and place of that instrument.

My newly made bagpipe would tell of many layers of musical history, and as it stands today, a history that travels continents.

If we start with the oldest first:

The Drones, then we will find out that they came from India, the Punjab. I bought a set of Highland pipes in a small town in 1995. They cost me 18 UK pounds, with it I got several drone reeds and chanter reeds, in fact I bought what there was in his shop. I suspected the chanter would not be in tune but the rest of the pipe I could use for other things. In fact teh reeds fit well in my Border pipe too.
The 3 drones were in a rubber bag, very small, easily inflated but leaked a lot.
The blow pipe had a metal mouth piece which fell off after several years.
With all its faults it did play, and I did use this set of pipes for experiments over the years.
The pipe is made from wood, the chanter is conically bored and not dissimilar to the bore of my Border pipe.
I used the Indian Bass drone in my Hybrid Bagpipe, it plays in 'Bb' as well as in 'A' and by changing the drones around (removing the middle section) I can also play in 'D' with the same reed.
I use the cane reeds I bought in India and they are very good and reliable after so many years.
I use all stocks from the Indian bagpipe too, as well as mouth piece. I have made a few mouth piece tips to replace the metal one I lost. The 'crack value' i have replaced recently to make it more air tight.

The Bag I bought in Spain in 2011 from a shop in Madrid, it is a synthetic bag which is in a 'pear drop' design, not my favourite to hold, I think in the future I would buy/make a bag in the Highland style.
The cover was made by myself and Leila with fabric bought in Madrid and Zamora.

The Chanter/s I play are a mixture of traditions. Originally I got it to play with my Sanabresa Chanter in Bb, I turned a stock for it and connected it to the bag.
I also made a stock for my Border pipes chanter and if I tuned the drones down to 'A' I could get a good sound with the same reed
I also turned a stock for my Galician chanter in D, I removed the middle section of the Drone and it played a D drone to go with it.

The beauty of mouth blown pipes over bellows blown is the less time to 'pick up and play'; and less time in tuning the drones, also with these pipes I have been able to add a Galician reed in all of them, where as to obtain a Border reed or Sanabresa reed is quite difficult.
Another advantage with this system is that I have 3 chanters and 1 bag, which saves space when transporting them and costs a lot less to buy.

Hoisting the Mast Single-handed

On my 3 previous years I have had help in hoisting the mast, but this year I was alone and I was not even sure if I could do it successfully. It took me a long time to prepare the rig, halyards and stays to be connected and fitted correctly and it is amazing how quickly one forgets!

The lee shore had turned the boat so it sat on a bed of sand and with me trampling over it turned it into a quicksand..going was slow as I had to pull my boot out of the soup underneath me.

After 5 hours of of checking and rechecking the rig in case I had forgotten anything it was time to hoist the mast. I did a trial run and found that stays had lodged themselves under all manner of things, after freeing everything I connected the wooden pole/lever that I had fixed to the pivot axle where the mast rotated. This wooden pole had rope either side of it to stop it tilting too far over. The stay was fitted into a groove at the top of the pole and tied so it would not slip out. The end of the stay was tied to a rope and fed though the a pulley at the bows.

I hoisted the mast onto my shoulder and walked towards the cabin slowly edging the mast high as I walked and taking the weight with the rope. When I could not go any farther I tried to pull on the rope and hoist the mast by using the pole and stay...it did not lift due to the angle of the pole. It was vertical but the mast was not high enough.

I dismantled the rope and fitted another pulley to the stay end, so i could thread the rope through two pulleys so halving the strain on the rope. I repeated the process and when it came to the point where I could not walk any further and support the mast I pulled on the rope and the pulley system enabled me to hoist the mast vertical. It was up, I pulled tight and as it slotted into the base I threaded another bolt into the lower mast section, she was secured.

I jumped down, tightened the stays to the boat and made everything tight.

 

Broken Mooring Chain

As the weather improves I am preparing to put the mast up once more. I was down there today enjoying a coffee in the sun. I realised it is less of a yacht than a cottage by the sea where I can go and relax, do some maintenance and enjoy the nature. I like being there...I prefer being there.

I arrived at the boat the other day to find the mooring chain cut in two. It must have worn through with the high winds and just sheered off leaving the chain slack. Luckily, I had fastened two lengths of nylon rope just in case this happened so Sadaf as the chain was wearing thin, so it was still there and had not floated away with the tide. I have added an extra length of chain over the broken piece until I can buy a new mooring chain of about 25ft.