An early start to the day saw me up by five in the morning making up two insulated mugs of coffee and a back up supply in a flask.
Then it was off to the big shed to pick up the ship's Purser from her labours and off we set in the dark along the A14.
After a pit stop for diesel, we arrived at Fambridge and even remembered to go straight on to the marina rather than turn right to the river moorings.
Having never been on the pontoons at the marina, I hadn't considered the fact that they have coded gates on the entry ramps! Fortunately, it wasn't but ten minutes wait before a couple of the staff appeared on scene and we were soon armed with the necessary codes.
Oh how nice it was to walk straight up to the boat without having to don a lifejacket and paddle out to her on the dinghy. One could get used to this (were it not for the bill for a year round marina berth). Actually, according to the notice above the gate, we should have been wearing lifejackets on the pontoon but we chose to be daring and rebellious!
An exterior inspection of Erbas found no evidence of serious injury. She's picked up a year or twos worth of scratches and scrapes to the upper works all in one go but nothing to get excited about. There was mud all over the decks of course and splattered up some of the canvas work but that's hardly surprising!
Down below, apart from a couple of books lying on the cabin sole, all was as tidy as we left it. Both the bilges, which were bone dry, had an inch or so of brackish water in them though.
With signs of damp underneath the vents in the heads and forward cabin, it seems likely that the driving rain and spray got in under them and made its way into the cabin and thus into the main bilge. I'm guessing that the cockpit floor hatch leaked a little of the same salty brew into the engine bilge.
A few seconds on the pumps and it was all gone bar the inevitable puddle the pump can't pick up. Item one on the things we haven't got list is a sponge!
Jane went to bed up forward whilst I dozed and did very little for the day other than hose the mud out of the cockpit and off the decks.
Come the evening, we walked down to the pub for a meal and a beer or two before staggering back in the strong breeze for an early-ish night.
We'd made up the v-berth with a king size sheet, quilt and decent pillows rather than the sleeping bags. Oh what a luxurious difference! That is definitely a permanent arrangement! Well, except when we have to tidy it away to go sailing of course.
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