Anna Crane New Year Cruise 2004

When: 30 December 2003 to 3 January 2004

What: Anna Crane, 33' gaff (smack rigged) Bawley (44' with bowsprit)

Where: Tollesbury - Burnham-on-Crouch - Roach - Pyefleet - Tollesbury

Who: Andrew Challis (skipper), Julian, Catherine, Peter, Flic, Kathryn, Shona, Jonathan, Andy (not all at once)

These photographs are all from the first full day, new year's eve, as I ran out of film after that.

	As seen by Katie from the dinghy.
	The gaff quietly falls apart in a light breeze. Bits of rotten wood rain down on the foredeck.
	Some make haste to lower the mainsail before it gets torn, while others record the event.
	Is there a carpenter on board? Why, yes, there is. Peter cuts out the rot.
	Catherine dismantles the gaff jaws.
	Flic keeps an eye on things.
	Peter saws new angles on the spar, and then saws the correct angles :-)
	As we sail into the sunset, the gaff jaws are about ready to be re-fitted. Not having a big enough drill bit to make the bolt holes, Peter had attacked a large screwdriver with a sharpening stone and turned it into a reamer, and someone (Flic?) had enlarged the holes by hand.
	Fog surrounds us as we continue to motor-sail up the river Crouch. For a while we could still see the river banks.
	This nutty cormorant landed on the top of the jib, but couldn't get a grip and slid off, landing in the water, shaking its head and drifting off astern. After a minute or two it returned and did the same again ... and again ... and after maybe a dozen repeats, perched briefly on the cross-trees, and then made a clattery touch-down on the companion-way hatch just in front of me, but straight away jumped overboard again. I took this picture through the mist while it swam along beside us for a minute before finally departing.
	When even the nearer bank is lost in the fog, Catherine blind-navigates by depth alone. It's a good thing Andrew got that echo sounder installed yesterday: it would be awkward without it. I take the helm and obey the zig-zag instructions: "turn right onto 280," and then, when the depth decreases to 4m, "left to 190," and so on.
	The gaff is almost as good as new by tea time ... except three feet too short. Tomorrow we need to find an extension.