The Bosun, a.k.a. my brother Glen, picked me up after finishing work at lunchtime and we hightailed it down to Essex via Tescos in Braintree for supplies and coffee.
Arriving in Fambridge about 4-ish, I hauled the tender off the dock and down the pontoon, pulling the foredeck screws out of the hull in the process. Drat, add another job to the maintenance list.
The ebb was running strongly and it took me three goes to get hold of Brigantias stern during the process of which I dropped an oar and had to frantically paddle downstream after it with the other one and nearly capsized the dinghy trying to get a grab hold on the boat from too far off! Dignified it was not!
On board at last, I fired up the untrusty outboard, sorted out fenders and lines and motored gently up the inside of the pontoon to ferry glide into a space just big enough for us between all the big boys toys. Helpful people grabbed lines (although maybe it's churlish to wish that people would listen when you hand them a line and say "drop it over that cleat and hand the end back to me" rather than just pull the bow in leaving the stern to swing round - I'd got a long line rigged from the bow to the cockpit for a flippin' reason!)
After transferring our kit from car to boat, we had a coffee then loaded up the fuel tank and jerry can for a trip to Asda for petrol. With that back on board, it was off to the pub for grub and beer before retiring at a reasonably sensible hour.
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