Slept well despite the rising wind. Woke up briefly in the early hours to find she was bouncing around quite a lot! After a quick visit to the heads, I dropped off to sleep again pretty quickly. Warm enough on board with the fan heater running on the thermostat to stop things getting too chilly.
Woke up about six-ish. The usual breakfast was followed by a frosties bar and more coffee. Although I'd brought the means for bacon butties etc. couldn't really face anything more solid as yesterdays "under the weather" has turned into a definite case of a dodgy stomach.
Stirred myself about nine to remove the sprayhood as the stitching around one of the windows has pulled out along the top edge. Shouldn't be too much trouble to repair and there's some frayed edges that would benefit from some remedial work as well. Popped the battery in charge - pleased to discover that it only started charging at 4A indicating the battery was still fairly well charged. The bilge pump switch hasn't stuck again so that's a plus.
Loading the sprayhood into the car, I decided to get off the boat for a couple of hours and do some exploring by car in the hope that my upset stomach might settle down. It wasn't working so I popped into a chemists where the pharmacist doled out some magic pills which seemed to do the trick.
Back to the boat, I wandered down to the end of the pontoon to have a look at the state of the water now the tide had turned. I was hoping that once the ebb started running it might flatten the waves a bit compared to the wind over tide earlier in the day but there wasn't much sign of improvement.
Bit of a head scratcher this - conditions were definitely not conducive to rowing back up the river in the little 7' dink. In fact, I'd have been a bloody fool to try it. Whilst I could stay on board until tomorrow, the forecast is no better and it'd be an uncomfortable night to say the least.
Fortunately, Toby stuck his head out of his cabin to say "hello" as I walked back down the pontoon and by the time I'd said "I don't much fancy rowing the tender in this ..." he immediately said to leave Brigantia on the pontoon and he'll put her back on the buoy when things settle down. He's a top bloke, is Toby!
Back on board, I staggered about between the laptop and the engine well measuring up. I reckon the new outboard will fit but only just. We'll probably have to modify or replace the mounting and might have to mod the hole at the bottom of the well which is rather tight. If it has to be done, it has to be done - we need that new engine. If I'd been having some doubts about replacing it they vanished when petrol started pissing out of the carb yesterday. Enough is enough.
That job done, I packed up my kit, shut up shop and staggered back to the car to head home early in the afternoon. I'd have liked to have achieved more but there's only so much you can do in a force 8/9 gale!
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