Earth, Wind and Fire

Or "Mud, Gales and Barbecues" to be precise!

I have been rather remiss of late about updating the blog.

Since getting back from our mini-cruise to London things have been fairly hectic particularly on the work front (not that I'm complaining mind!) and a lot going on behind the scenes

The London trip was a great success for us both, we thoroughly enjoyed it although we have to be honest and declare that whilst we wish the good folks of Queenborough all the best with their efforts to improve the place it's not somewhere we'd consider as a destination in its own right

No sooner were we back from the London Cruise than I was back on board Erbas in anticipation of six or seven days work. In the end, that turned into 12 straight days and over a fortnight on board on my own. For much of this period, the weather was awful for the time of year with almost continuous near gales rolling in accompanied by periods of heavy rain

I had intended to live as much as possible out on our buoy rather than on the river pontoon however this was simply impractical in the conditions. Life on board would have been utterly miserable for days on end and the "commute" to and from land by dinghy wouldn't have been much fun either

I don't really like lurking on the river pontoon for extended periods although nothing has been said about me doing it. Even so, I'm aware that there have been times when I've been frustrated about not being able to get alongside due to boats seemingly taking up residence on the pontoon and annoying my fellow sailors is not desirable either from a social or a business perspective.

So that led to consideration of sustainable alternatives ...

The obvious option is to upgrade from the Summer Swing package to a permanent marina berth. However, there is a substantial cost increase in doing so, about £970 a year (assuming a boat the size of "Erbas", of which more anon). Furthermore, we much prefer life at the Yacht Station. The marina is fine, as far as marinas go, but there's no view and it's a long walk to the pub!

An off the cuff remark made by Toby almost passed me by at the time but then I got to thinking about his suggestion that we should look at one of the mud berths at the Yacht Station. The minimum charge is 15m but the rate per metre is such that it would not be a great deal more expensive than our current mooring. And, of course, the cost would remain the same even if we move up to something bigger in due course.

There were a couple of options potentially available and last Friday we moved Erbas onto the one I preferred and waited to see what happened when she dried out

What happened was that she heeled over about eight to ten degrees  to starboard and leant on the pontoon fairly heavily. I was ready for that possibility and had fenders suitable placed so no harm done but it's surprisingly hard to move around on board a static heeled boat!

I was supposed to be heading up to Kettering that afternoon but I didn't fancy leaving "Erbas" to her own devices on the next tide so stayed on board getting off to sleep as early as I could

In the early hours of the morning I was up and about in the light of the full moon checking that we settled OK as the tide ebbed.

I was pleased to find that we only heeled to about six degrees this time suggesting that the port keel was starting to settle into the mud and that given a few tides we'd come up fairly level. Better still, we were not too much down at the stern, important for comfort on board especially as the head end of all the berths is at the aft end

Happy with the situation for now, I hit the road to Kettering, picked up Jane from work and, after a brief visit home headed straight back down to Fambridge.

On arrival on board, Jane expressed herself reasonably happy with the location although she reserved final judgement and stated that the boat would have to be upright before she'd be totally happy

I reckoned that if she wouldn't come up on her own it'd just be a case of getting in the mud with a spade and digging a hole for the port keel.

However, as the tide came in that lunchtime, a twelve to fifteen knot Sou'westerly generated a noticeable swell into the bay created by the pier and the hammerhead and we were noticeably pitching on it

It wasn't, in those conditions, particularly uncomfortable but it set me thinking about conditions in a full on gale or worse still a storm from the prevailing South West.

I also had a niggling worry about the large wooden motor yacht that had just been berthed ahead of us. Once she's dug in it's unlikely she'd shift but at the moment a mooring line parting could have her sliding down the slope into us

I made a snap decision whilst we were still afloat to bale out back onto the river pontoon for the time being.

We haven't by any means given up on the mud berth idea though. There is another more sheltered option on the other side of the hammerhead although we might struggle to get her to sit upright on that one. And we might, when the new pontoons have been installed and the boats shuffled into their final positions, come back and have another look at this side.

We wined and dined in the pub before retiring for the night

Today dawned bright and beautiful and we made the most of it by doing as little as possible! A trip to the shops for supplies and a visit to our friend Lisa at Burnham was all the excitement we could stand

Into the evening, we finally had the time, the weather and the supplies to try out the disposable BBQ frame we bought before the start of the season ...

 It isn't the highest quality item of yachting gear we've bought over the years but it does the job. Minted lamb steaks, burgers, fried peppers and salad were washed down with drinks of personal choice and then we watched a passable historic drama on internet TV before retiring for the night

This morning, we were in no rush and took our time about washing up, tidying up and taking the couple of bags that needed to go home ashore. As I'm back on board again tomorrow there seemed little point in putting the boat to bed or even back on her buoy so we left her alongside and headed off on the tedious journey up the M11