A combination of holidays, visitors, general household maintenance crud, weather and more weather; has kept me from Crunluath for over four weeks. I only had a day to assess water ingress after the launch and then had to trust my workmanship and the state of the boat batteries to keep the Clyde out of the boat. The trusty little Rutland 503 wind generator has done its job and bilge water level is normal, house batteries are up to charge but the starter battery has taken a hit, lets hope it has recovered from a booster charge today and input from the 503 which is now switched to both battery banks. When I left it was setting up a steady howl, normally it’s a pretty quiet little beast. My mast head wireless wind speed indicator has lost touch with its base station so I could only guess the gusts were around force seven.
More mileage in the yachting press is devoted to battery maintenance than perhaps any other topic and it is a source of  some anxiety for the wooden boat owner. Of course I could always plug into the marina mains supply but why pay for power when you can make your own? (My brother-in-law always claims us Yorkshire men are like the Scots, but not so generous)
The Clyde is not often short of wind but recent days have seen some very high wind speeds for the time of year so even a tiny power source like the smaller Rutland model is whacking out quite a few watts. The extreme winds haves taken a toll on some boating areas in Scotland as Ewan Kennedy shows in his Scottish Boating Blog .
Inside the boat most of the weather has been kept on the outside but rain has found its way in through the ventilators and the usual leak sources. The rot found last year has reoccurred to a limited extent and there will have to be more remedial work this season but it has not spread widely. Good ventilation helps of course even if the rain does sometimes get in through the mushroom vents. The main ingress area, a deck leak seems to have been sealed but a close eye will have to be kept on the problem.
With the weather coming from the west my berth is quite well sheltered and lack of sails on the boat have helped keep trouble to a minimum, marina staff were struggling to get a freed roller genoa under control as rain gave way to a hint of hail….it’s May for g..s’ sake! Only three weeks ago we were basking in cloudless sunny skies…on Skye!
Another lesson well learned was from Adrian Morgan who earlier urged me to get the boat afloat, wise words O’ Master!!