Take5
Well-Known Member
Hello,
I booked a Hotel near the boat for 5 days whilst the kids were on half school holidays.
1) To get some work done on the boat and 2) To possibly take her out at the weekend. As it happens I learned a hell of a lot over the 5 days. Not least just how much we need to learn.
____________________________________________________
I got down to the boat about 10'ish on Wednesday and the weather was glorious. To good an opportunity to miss we decided to take her out and leave the working on her till the following day.
Seeing as this was the first time of taking the kids out I wanted to make sure she was running OK and behaving etc (if she was going to sink I was willing to go down with her but not me kids).
So I had her launched with only myself onboard. First mistake.
We are at the end of the launch ramp, the winch as been unhooked, the safety chain removed and the engine started first time. Unfortunately, she was stone plonk cold and the second I engaged reverse the engine stalled.
This is my first solo launch, and 10 foot to my Port side is a rather large rock. The water is flowing through at 6 knots (towards the rocks) and I have no control over the boat. Did I remain calm? Did I Bo***cks. I went into a right royal panic. In said panic I couldn’t fire her back up.
One of the guys who helped launch me is requesting I throw him a line, and I be a bit quick about it. So I am up on the bow, and thankfully SWMBO is a little more organised than me and had attached a bowline to one of the front cleats. Unfortunately she made something of a pig’s ear of it as there was more line dangling down the side of the boat than there was for me to throw. After 4 failed attempts the guy on the tractor decided to take drastic measures and reversed the tractor 5 foot closer to me. I was obviously jubilant for him to do this as it would make throwing the line to his helper much easier. The helper on the other hand wasn’t so jubilant as he ended up knee deep in water as he was stood on the A frame of the trailer.
Eventually I was secured and the panic was over. It was suggested she stalled due to being cold and not being used much, so we fired her up again and this time let her warm up a bit before I successfully got her out into the open water.
Once on the water I cannot relax as I am petrified of her stalling again. Especially with the 6 knots current heading towards the Swellies and certain carnage if things do go wrong.
After a 10 minute blast up and down the straits I telephone SWMBO to say I am en route to the pier to pick them up, I notify her of the nightmare on the launch ramp and tell her under no circumstances to miss the bloody warp on my first attempt at pulling alongside the pier.
I make my way to the pier and am very happy with my approach, that is until I realise there is no warp attached on the side that I have to come onto the pier. So I abandon the manoeuvre and set off back into open water to attach a warp. I don’t want to put her in neutral as I am terrified she may stall, so I turn against the current and stick her at the lowest revs why I get up and attach a warp on the correct side. I don’t know if this should have been done and I have to say I was none to comfortable with the thought of going MOB whilst on my own.
Eventually I managed to pick SWMBO, the kids and a couple of friends of ours up from the pier and we set off for 3 hours on the water. Three hours were I am too terrified to put her in neutral in case she stalls (I know now I was being daft). I have to admit it was quite a drain and I couldn’t wait anymore. I needed to switch her off and chill out for a bit. So I suggested we pick up a buoy. Something I have not done before but it can’t be that difficult can it?
We assess the situation and decide a plan. We are going to go against the tide and SWMBO is going to get the pick-up buoy and secure us with a warp on the front-middle cleat. SWMBO gets our brand new extendable boat hook (after removing it from the wrapper) and gets herself out onto the bow of the boat. She directs me to the pick-up buoy using the hook as a pointer, all is going well until she gets the buoy on the hook and I decide to stick the boat in neutral (I had been waiting 3 hours to do so).
At this point SWMBO is dragged along the front of the boat to the pulpit as the 6 knot flow snatches the boat downstream. How she managed to hold the boat against the flow god knows. And why I didn’t go forwards god knows. (GOD: Coz your Noobs).
I can see she is really struggling and her muscles must be working overtime to keep hold of the boat hook which she is desperately trying to unhook from the pick-up buoy to no avail. I am certain she is going to be dragged overboard any second and I am shouting LET THE F***ING HOOK GO. But still she holds on. WILL YOU LET THE F***ING HOOK GO. She is still trying to hold on but eventually the hook is snatched from her grip and we hurtle off downstream. I am going mad at her for not letting go of the hook earlier and she said she thought I was saying DON’T LET THE F***ING HOOK GO.
As it happens one of our friends spotted the boat hook floating alongside us, we retrieve it and decide we have well and truly had enough boating for one day. Maybe we have had enough boating for one lifetime as we both said in unison as we were retrieved “That was anything but enjoyable”.
____________________________________________________
Having slept on it I rang Rich (Kawasaki) and tell him of our “Comedy of errors”. He offers to come out with us and we had our most enjoyable day yet. He ran through the correct procedure to pick up a buoy. We also anchored up and went through a whole host of scenarios. It was another glorious day (weather wise), the highlight for me was anchoring up for some dinner in Pilots Cove, Llandwyn Island, a stone’s throw off the sandy beach.
We learned a lot with Rich and we decided to stick at it. But are nonetheless very aware of just how much we still have to learn.
Thanks to the glorious weather we spent another 2 days after this on the water on our own, and had a really enjoyable time. Rich was a star as always and wouldn’t take anything for his time which is a measure of the man. MANY THANKS MATE.
Oh and I got to do a little bit of work on her on the 5th day. And the sun was still cracking the flags.
SECOND TIME LUCKY WITH THE WARP IN PLACE.
SUCCESSFULLY TIED TO A BUOY WITH RICH ONBOARD WITH AN EX RNLI LIFEBOAT AS A STARK REMINDER OF THE DAY BEFORE.
MOORED UP IN PORT DINORWIC.
ME AND MY SON SPORTING OUR BEST "CHUFFED FACES" WHILST ANCHORED UP IN PILOTS COVE, LLANDWYN ISLAND.
I booked a Hotel near the boat for 5 days whilst the kids were on half school holidays.
1) To get some work done on the boat and 2) To possibly take her out at the weekend. As it happens I learned a hell of a lot over the 5 days. Not least just how much we need to learn.
____________________________________________________
I got down to the boat about 10'ish on Wednesday and the weather was glorious. To good an opportunity to miss we decided to take her out and leave the working on her till the following day.
Seeing as this was the first time of taking the kids out I wanted to make sure she was running OK and behaving etc (if she was going to sink I was willing to go down with her but not me kids).
So I had her launched with only myself onboard. First mistake.
We are at the end of the launch ramp, the winch as been unhooked, the safety chain removed and the engine started first time. Unfortunately, she was stone plonk cold and the second I engaged reverse the engine stalled.
This is my first solo launch, and 10 foot to my Port side is a rather large rock. The water is flowing through at 6 knots (towards the rocks) and I have no control over the boat. Did I remain calm? Did I Bo***cks. I went into a right royal panic. In said panic I couldn’t fire her back up.
One of the guys who helped launch me is requesting I throw him a line, and I be a bit quick about it. So I am up on the bow, and thankfully SWMBO is a little more organised than me and had attached a bowline to one of the front cleats. Unfortunately she made something of a pig’s ear of it as there was more line dangling down the side of the boat than there was for me to throw. After 4 failed attempts the guy on the tractor decided to take drastic measures and reversed the tractor 5 foot closer to me. I was obviously jubilant for him to do this as it would make throwing the line to his helper much easier. The helper on the other hand wasn’t so jubilant as he ended up knee deep in water as he was stood on the A frame of the trailer.
Eventually I was secured and the panic was over. It was suggested she stalled due to being cold and not being used much, so we fired her up again and this time let her warm up a bit before I successfully got her out into the open water.
Once on the water I cannot relax as I am petrified of her stalling again. Especially with the 6 knots current heading towards the Swellies and certain carnage if things do go wrong.
After a 10 minute blast up and down the straits I telephone SWMBO to say I am en route to the pier to pick them up, I notify her of the nightmare on the launch ramp and tell her under no circumstances to miss the bloody warp on my first attempt at pulling alongside the pier.
I make my way to the pier and am very happy with my approach, that is until I realise there is no warp attached on the side that I have to come onto the pier. So I abandon the manoeuvre and set off back into open water to attach a warp. I don’t want to put her in neutral as I am terrified she may stall, so I turn against the current and stick her at the lowest revs why I get up and attach a warp on the correct side. I don’t know if this should have been done and I have to say I was none to comfortable with the thought of going MOB whilst on my own.
Eventually I managed to pick SWMBO, the kids and a couple of friends of ours up from the pier and we set off for 3 hours on the water. Three hours were I am too terrified to put her in neutral in case she stalls (I know now I was being daft). I have to admit it was quite a drain and I couldn’t wait anymore. I needed to switch her off and chill out for a bit. So I suggested we pick up a buoy. Something I have not done before but it can’t be that difficult can it?
We assess the situation and decide a plan. We are going to go against the tide and SWMBO is going to get the pick-up buoy and secure us with a warp on the front-middle cleat. SWMBO gets our brand new extendable boat hook (after removing it from the wrapper) and gets herself out onto the bow of the boat. She directs me to the pick-up buoy using the hook as a pointer, all is going well until she gets the buoy on the hook and I decide to stick the boat in neutral (I had been waiting 3 hours to do so).
At this point SWMBO is dragged along the front of the boat to the pulpit as the 6 knot flow snatches the boat downstream. How she managed to hold the boat against the flow god knows. And why I didn’t go forwards god knows. (GOD: Coz your Noobs).
I can see she is really struggling and her muscles must be working overtime to keep hold of the boat hook which she is desperately trying to unhook from the pick-up buoy to no avail. I am certain she is going to be dragged overboard any second and I am shouting LET THE F***ING HOOK GO. But still she holds on. WILL YOU LET THE F***ING HOOK GO. She is still trying to hold on but eventually the hook is snatched from her grip and we hurtle off downstream. I am going mad at her for not letting go of the hook earlier and she said she thought I was saying DON’T LET THE F***ING HOOK GO.
As it happens one of our friends spotted the boat hook floating alongside us, we retrieve it and decide we have well and truly had enough boating for one day. Maybe we have had enough boating for one lifetime as we both said in unison as we were retrieved “That was anything but enjoyable”.
____________________________________________________
Having slept on it I rang Rich (Kawasaki) and tell him of our “Comedy of errors”. He offers to come out with us and we had our most enjoyable day yet. He ran through the correct procedure to pick up a buoy. We also anchored up and went through a whole host of scenarios. It was another glorious day (weather wise), the highlight for me was anchoring up for some dinner in Pilots Cove, Llandwyn Island, a stone’s throw off the sandy beach.
We learned a lot with Rich and we decided to stick at it. But are nonetheless very aware of just how much we still have to learn.
Thanks to the glorious weather we spent another 2 days after this on the water on our own, and had a really enjoyable time. Rich was a star as always and wouldn’t take anything for his time which is a measure of the man. MANY THANKS MATE.
Oh and I got to do a little bit of work on her on the 5th day. And the sun was still cracking the flags.
SECOND TIME LUCKY WITH THE WARP IN PLACE.
SUCCESSFULLY TIED TO A BUOY WITH RICH ONBOARD WITH AN EX RNLI LIFEBOAT AS A STARK REMINDER OF THE DAY BEFORE.
MOORED UP IN PORT DINORWIC.
ME AND MY SON SPORTING OUR BEST "CHUFFED FACES" WHILST ANCHORED UP IN PILOTS COVE, LLANDWYN ISLAND.
