It just occurred to me that I hadn't posted an entry for "today" (only a week later but I can change the date on the post to line things up!)
Very lazy start to the day, neither of us felt like getting up early so we didn't. After bacon buttys for breakfast, we spent some time going over the systems and equipment making sure Mark knows what's where etc.
Then we fitted the new galvanised rowlocks to the tender and Mark took her out for a row to get some practice in. He learnt the hard way that it ain't easy to make progress against the ebbing spring tide at the moorings!
I hopped in to try out the new rowlocks for myself and was pleased with how much more power I could get into the oars. I could, in fact, row nicely against the ebb although it was bloomin' hard work! Unfortunately, the woodwork to which the rowlocks are screwed wasn't up to the job and the port rowlock departed company from the dinghy.
Luckily, it landed inside the boat and I was able to paddle to the pontoon across the tide with one of the oar. Bloody nuisance never the less. Really, the tender dinghy needs to come home and have all the woodwork replaced, it's all fairly manky. Trouble is, I don't want to leave the space on the dock empty since it won't be empty when we return the dinghy to Fambridge. Then we potentially have an argument with whoever has nicked our spot which isn't my idea of fun. Or we end up with the tender in a hard to get at spot or worse still sitting in the water filling up.
I'll have to figure out a repair, even if it's only a temporary quick fix, before Jane and I go down in a few weeks for our long weekend. Unless we delay arriving until Saturday morning we'll need the tender to get down to Brigantia and we'll certainly need it to get back again on the Monday when the ferry won't be running.
Anyway, by this stage the afternoon was wearing on so we dumped the tender back on the dock and tidied up the boat before motoring back down to the mooring. A neat and tidy pick up with Mark on the helm and me on the bow (more practice for the trainee skipper!) was marred only by the motor being cut before I'd actually got one of the strops secured on the samson post. That left me hanging on against the aforementioned ebb tide and it needed another pair of hands to finish the job off. No harm done and he won't make that particular mistake again. To be fair, I think we need to work on our communication between foredeck and cockpit when picking up the buoy. Hate yelling backwards and forwards so some clear hand signals would be the order of the day.
A call to the ferryman saw us back ashore and in the car by about four of the clock and we hit the road back to sunny Northamptonshire.
Not the perfect weekend by any means. Lack of sleep before setting off coupled with feeling a bit off colour all weekend didn't help and I can't help feeling we should have done more somehow. Mark would have liked to have gone beyond the river which he has yet to do and if we'd been more energetic a trip round to Bradwell would have been feasible.
That said, we did make good progress on getting Mark up to speed so that he and Heather can use the boat by themselves. With slightly gritted teeth I've said I'm happy (relatively speaking!) for Mark to move the boat between the mooring and the pontoon and potter around on the river under motor provided he watches the tides closely and takes care. Sailing maybe not quite yet. There's a limit though to how much I can teach him before he's got to start learning it for himself.
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