23 June 2008
Hilary's Blog - 23 June 2008
The phrase I've heard most often on this trip, mostly from the wet crew, excluding Sean - who is younger, fitter, and definitley leaner :-) - is "Get a bigger boat woman!". After an aborted attempt to leave Brighton in the middle of the day on Friday, it seemed to be all I heard as various crew members tried to squeeze into the narrow gap that leads below the coach roof to all my gadgetry.
Finally, I heard our second most uttered phrase "Job's a good'un " (Seans words), and we slipped our moorings quietly at 12.20 am. Night sailing through lobster pot fields in the fog on a cloudy night is an interesting experience. There were one or two close calls, but we weren't lucky or brave enough to bring breakfast home.
At the entrance to the Looe channel, in fact exactly at the marker buoy, one of my battery boxes let in some water and we had an intermittent power problem which meant that, at 5am the night's sailing was over and Arty and I had to be taken into tow. According to my own rules, this means that today we a towing me back 16 nautical miles in order to pick up where I left off.
The stay at Chichester was frustrating, as the weather forecasts refused to agree with either what was going on outside, or with what we were expecting. It was blowing a constant F5-6, occasionally 7, which was still too much for us.
On the plus side Geoff Holt, who was the first quadriplegic to sail around the coast last summer, and who has always been a friend and incredibly supportive of whatever mad plan I have had on the go, came by on Sunday morning for a few hours. To everyone's delight, he came bearing gifts of food and a book to keep me sane. Since we have the same Landrover and RIB he used last year, I think that it was a flashback for him. Andy, one of his crew, also came along and it was great to spend a couple of hours catching up.
On Saturday we had visits from the local Lions, which was great, and Helen and I went to visit Brian and Jill Pilcher, friends of mine who are Musto's PR people, who had generously offered me the use of their bath. The restaurant at Sparkes Marina then very kindly fed the whole crew.
On Sunday, I missed my neice's christening, which was hard, even though I had a long chat with my Mum and Clifford and they were in my thoughts all day. It was a tricky day all round as we planned to leave at lunchtime, then in the evening, then, when the wind still refused to drop after a couple of hours sleep, we finally gave up and went to the cinema only to find that there were near perfect sailing conditions when we got back late, and too tired to sail. I am about to get into my 'oilies' before having a quick bite to eat and then setting out once again. It will be good to be back on the boat.
Page last updated on 25 June 2008 at 16:39