Crews enjoy a rest day in beautiful Dartmouth
50°21.343N 003° 34.395W
Yesterday, on passage to Dartmouth, Broom 39, Jomima, radioed Blue Fin with concerns of an alarm sounding on their starboard engine. As the problem occurred a few miles off Portland Bill, Cruise Leader Neale decided it was best to divert into Weymouth Harbour to have a closer look.
Weymouth Harbour was a hive of activity as it was the penultimate day of the Festival of the Sea, and as the harbour was limited for space we were given a 30-minute time slot on a waiting pontoon.
Neale jumped aboard Jomima and checked over the engines, and had a look at the oil and coolant levels but everything seemed fine, so we proceeded to Dartmouth in tandem, cruising at a steady 18 knots. During the two and a half hour cruise across Lyme Bay Jomina didn’t experience any further problems, until we entered Dartmouth Harbour and the alarm sounded again.
This morning, Neale boarded Jomima once more to give the engines a through inspection and as they had had time to cool down, he was able to check the fuel filters. Both filters were heavily clogged, which may be the cause of the alarm. Neale and Mike cleaned them out and then took Jomima for a seatrial where everything appeared to be running fine.
The MBM team haven’t escaped their share of problems either. With all the rain over the last week one of Blue Fin’s flybridge instruments had taken on water, and as result we didn’t have any electronics, including GPS, speed, depth, chartplotter and autopilot for the passage to Dartmouth. However, a quick phonecall to Princess Motor Yacht Sales in Plymouth and the local Raymarine dealer soon had the problem sorted – a new unit was installed and now we are up and running once more.
Although we awoke to grey skies this morning, crew participants didn’t let it stop them enjoying their new surroundings and many have taken water taxis or their tenders across the river to explore Dartmouth town centre. Alan and Judith from Sea Breeze went to the Dartmouth Museum and then caught the steam train to Paignton and back. David, Louise and Sophie from Flower Power visited Dartmouth Castle and the crew of Sea O2 explored the upper reaches of the River Dart on their jetski beyond Dittisham to Mill Reach.
Tomorrow we are hoping to move the fleet to Dartmouth. Claire and Michelle will go out on the RIB at 6.30am to assess the sea conditions.
Photos – The inner basin at Dartmouth. The crew of Flower Power going ashore in their tender. Pontoon Briefing at 1800hrs.
