Definite signs of a change to more seasonal weather this morning. Cooler, windier and cloudier.
A chandlery raid procured a bow fender and clips to attach it to the pulpit rail when required. Although Erbas has a stainless steel protection strip on the stem I still want some protection up there when coming into marina berths.
Once back aboard, we soon got under way. With the breeze blowing downriver there'd be no sailing today, too much to do to muck about taking hours to tack upriver when it can be done in an hour under motor.
Arriving at Fambridge we tucked Erbas into the one remaining spot inside the pontoon (looks like the usual scenario, the inside is going to be permanently occupied by big boats for the winter).
Glen and Rik headed off to execute the car shuffle whilst Jane sorted out below decks and I set to tidying up up top and scrubbing the decks.
With all our kit offloaded, Rik and I motored the few yards to our mooring. We tried using the cunning mooring line device left on board by the previous owner but it didn't work too well - it would work with a solid ring but the buoys we're on have a soft strop which is too bulky for the device.
No matter, after a bit of a faff we were tied onto the buoy and we set about sorting out the mooring lines. I'd already been head scratching about this. Brigantia was moored to the buoy (by the yard) with a single strop over the bow roller. However, her anchor stowed on deck out of the way. The anchor on Erbas stows on the bow roller and removing and refitting it at the ends of each outing would be a serious hassle.
The obvious solution seemed to be two strops led to the fairleads either side of the bow (which is how Brigantia used to be moored until last year) however a second strop was nowhere to be found and nobody was about so we used the one strop and a mooring line as a temporary measure.
However, we found that the starboard line (the anchor stows on the starboard side of the stem) fouled the anchor and rubbed against the edge of the blade. Chaff city! In the end, we lifted the anchor clear of the roller with a line to the pin rail on the pulpit which improved matters although its only just satisfactory and will be a nagging worry until I inspect the lines for wear next time we're down
All that remained was to shut down, switch off and close up. Then it was a short dinghy excursion to the shore and our first cruise aboard Erbas was over
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