Salsa af Stavsnas - Stuck in the mud

Stuck in the mud

Salsa af Stavsnas

Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde

Sat 11 Aug 2012 15:06

Last week was great and hard. We had a great trip to Bath where we both got to see one of Englands finest cities, with a roman architecture in a beautiful valley and to buy bicycles from what we thought would be the best store in foldable bikes. Avon Valley Cyclery that makes themselves known as the best in foldable bikes was in a way a real downturn. It was a tired store with a few bikes in stock and they where really not good in helping out. Brompton is something they could not sell at all and even as we drove for three hours to get there they would not sell the bikes they had in the store. Very frustrating even though it is a luxury problem, we know. Bath itself was worth the trip and that made up for even staying a night. And yes we got some bikes in the end.
Getting back to Salsa in Falmouth, it had been a big workplace, and there was still a lot of work to be made next day. Everybody involved is very passionate about making it all good and that is great.
Yesterday we moved up river to a cheaper berth (thank you Mary!), and that was an adventure for navigators not used to sail where the chart says: NO WATER!
What you do is wait until the tide is 4 meters above depth of chart, this means you can pass places that say they are 2 meters above the water ( a chart tells you the depth when the water is at the lowest). Once we got to the place we are staying now, we turned Salsa hard to port and drove her in place where she got stuck in the mud. We where told first night might be funny and well, it was…
As the water left the river with the tide, we woke up at three with our boat leaning 15% to starboard. Might not sound like much but think of our mast being the dial on a clock, pointing at half past two!
I had to move to another bunk not to fall out of bed. Ellinor and the kids where already leaning against the walls...
In a couple of hours it will be dry again and hopefully we can get a picture. We have been told that second time the boat will be more straight as she has digged a hole in the mud, we will see.
Our plan is now to make some installations ourselves, a new bilge pump(the one we have does not work automatically, which means that Salsa could sink while we are away if something start to leak)), an antifouling system (that works with ultrasound), new hot water pipe to the kitchen etc. It is amazing how busy a boat can keep you! At the same time the kids keep us busy, Erika has some fever now, not serious. There is always food to be made, dishes to be cleaned, washing to be done, engine to be serviced, people to socialize with.
By the way Mary and Kelvin from Deltamarine take so good care of us it is like being at home in Falmouth. They took care of Salsa when we bought her here and they prepared her last summer. Now they are helping us with cleaning a diesel tank, get hatches watertight etc etc etc.
We are now waiting for a weather window to Madeira.