The work goes on

We are  now almost at the end of March, Summer is just round the corner and we still had a list of jobs to do in between the rain and high winds. This Saturday we got 3 of them out of the way.

First, we replaced the fuel filter, then the fuel water separator and fuel tank was drained of a small amount of water, better safe than sorry!



Then the engine oil was replaced and oil filter changed, we used a pump to empty the contents of the engine sump. The engine was started and run for a few minutes then the oil level checked with the dipstick before a final top up.



The gas heater was serviced a few weeks ago and I took the opportunity to replace the 4 flexible gas pipes from the bottles to the metal pipes in the gas locker.

 



With Wye Invader Two currently out of the water at Sharpness Dock, working on her most weekends we get to see some interesting vessels arrive for maintenance.  This weekend "Pelican of London" a sail training ship and former Arctic trawler, originally built in 1948 was in at Sharpness, for more info see https://www.facebook.com/adventureundersail/ 

Sharpness Dock - Out/In with Wye Invader Two

Messing About on The Severn - Sharpness Dock

Over the last 3 years, Wye Invader Two as been out on the River Severn around 4 times a year from Sharpness to Tintern via Chepstow, or to Portishead and then on to Bristol. Most of the times we have chosen Spring Tides, simply because we’ve needed the extra tide height to enable us to get up the River Wye to Tintern and Brockweir.



On more than one occasion we set out an hour before high water, on other occasions we left 2 hours before to see if we could get as far as Tintern on one tide.

What we’ve noticed was, if you left half an hour before high water on a Spring Tide and you poked your bow into the oncoming tide, it was not possible to make headway but if you left one and half hours before you could get out and well on the way towards the second Berkeley power station.

Having spoke to some people who live locally, the feeling was that the tide on a Spring Tide increases in the last 40 minutes or so, I decided to speak to the Local Harbour Authority about the matter.

6th October 2016 - The day we went out from Sharpness Dock

17th October 2016

The Gloucester Harbour Trustees are the Harbour Authority for this part of the River Severn and I spoke to Mike Johnson who is the Manager and Harbour Master, he confirmed that this was the situation and he was happy to forward 2 tidal curves, one for a Neap Tide and one for a Spring Tide, the curve for the Spring Tide shows this increase of water volume very clearly, the Neap curve showed no increase, so food for thought the next time you venture out on the River Severn!

Look out on our website wyeinvader.uk for our new video - A short trip out and in of Sharpness Dock - coming soon.  NOW LIVE ONLINE!