After the spectacular lightening during the night added several awakenings to my normal Friday night sleep difficulties, I was in no mood for an early start this morning.
Once we summoned sufficient enthusiasm for the day, I nipped ashore in the RIB and fetched the liferaft from the boot of the car. It's not gong to be much use in there unless we have a flood of biblical proportions so we needed to make space in the lockers somewhere and stow it on board
To my considerable surprise, some minor rearrangement of the port cockpit locker made enough space. The locker is pretty full and getting at stuff in there is a bit of a pain in the bum cos you have to heave out the (heavy) liferaft, the (fairly heavy) inflatable and the (not very heavy) cockpit tent before you can get at all the bits and pieces stored on the shelves behind but hey ho, if it was easy it wouldn't be fun
We used the mainsheet to host the raft from the dinghy to the deck by the way. Jane can barely pick the thing up on a straight lift from the deck and the chances of her manhandling it out of the locker and over the guardwires in an emergency, even with the help of adrenalin, are slim. We need to have a rehearsal is whether she can use the mainsheet to assist although that would only work if the rig was intact.
Our electrical situation was now becoming critical. The domestic batteries were down nearly a hundred amp/hours (getting close to 50% of their rated capacity) and the voltage was a rather low 11.6v
Although there were signs of the imminent departure of the flotilla from the pontoon, there were clear indications from the ships purser that whilst a day alongside recharging batteries suited her fine, she'd prefer the alongside to be Burnham Yacht Harbour rather than the Fambridge river pontoon
That suited me well enough so we sorted out on board, tied the RIB to the buoy and bimbled off downstream into the teeth of an easterly breeze. The racing types were tacking downriver but I frankly couldn't be bothered!
With a fair tide we swiflty covered the few miles of river. Although I warned Jane it might get choppy on the lower reaches, the wind died and it failed to materialise
On a berth in BYH we soon had the shore power connected and then we wandered round to Laurin to give Karen some tips on soldering and say "hi" to Pat and the kids.
Back aboard Erbas, a hunt for the ready use backpack was unsuccessful so we emptied some clothes out of a couple of bags and grabbed those instead (we really do need a major locker diving session). Then it was off to the co-op for supplies.
It's a pleasant enough walk and not too far but crikey was it hot! Back aboard I dozed off while Jane pottered about and then got the dinner on. The beef took longer than expected so we ate quite late of a very tasty beef stew and dumplings
Then it was off to the Swallowtail for a couple of drinks and back to the boat in the rain with a borrowed umbrella (which I must remember to return in the morning)
A decaf coffee and then bed!
Once we summoned sufficient enthusiasm for the day, I nipped ashore in the RIB and fetched the liferaft from the boot of the car. It's not gong to be much use in there unless we have a flood of biblical proportions so we needed to make space in the lockers somewhere and stow it on board
To my considerable surprise, some minor rearrangement of the port cockpit locker made enough space. The locker is pretty full and getting at stuff in there is a bit of a pain in the bum cos you have to heave out the (heavy) liferaft, the (fairly heavy) inflatable and the (not very heavy) cockpit tent before you can get at all the bits and pieces stored on the shelves behind but hey ho, if it was easy it wouldn't be fun
We used the mainsheet to host the raft from the dinghy to the deck by the way. Jane can barely pick the thing up on a straight lift from the deck and the chances of her manhandling it out of the locker and over the guardwires in an emergency, even with the help of adrenalin, are slim. We need to have a rehearsal is whether she can use the mainsheet to assist although that would only work if the rig was intact.
Our electrical situation was now becoming critical. The domestic batteries were down nearly a hundred amp/hours (getting close to 50% of their rated capacity) and the voltage was a rather low 11.6v
Although there were signs of the imminent departure of the flotilla from the pontoon, there were clear indications from the ships purser that whilst a day alongside recharging batteries suited her fine, she'd prefer the alongside to be Burnham Yacht Harbour rather than the Fambridge river pontoon
That suited me well enough so we sorted out on board, tied the RIB to the buoy and bimbled off downstream into the teeth of an easterly breeze. The racing types were tacking downriver but I frankly couldn't be bothered!
With a fair tide we swiflty covered the few miles of river. Although I warned Jane it might get choppy on the lower reaches, the wind died and it failed to materialise
On a berth in BYH we soon had the shore power connected and then we wandered round to Laurin to give Karen some tips on soldering and say "hi" to Pat and the kids.
Back aboard Erbas, a hunt for the ready use backpack was unsuccessful so we emptied some clothes out of a couple of bags and grabbed those instead (we really do need a major locker diving session). Then it was off to the co-op for supplies.
It's a pleasant enough walk and not too far but crikey was it hot! Back aboard I dozed off while Jane pottered about and then got the dinner on. The beef took longer than expected so we ate quite late of a very tasty beef stew and dumplings
Then it was off to the Swallowtail for a couple of drinks and back to the boat in the rain with a borrowed umbrella (which I must remember to return in the morning)
A decaf coffee and then bed!
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