Nick2
New member
Having replaced our trusty but very much river based Birchwood 25 last November with a Fairline Corniche at the end of last year we were keen to broaden our cruising horizons beyond the non-tidal Thames.
We both completed our Dayskipper theory at Bisham Abbey which further inspired us to venture to sea. However there was snag to the rapidly forming plan namely that the boat was out of the water at Marlow and the Thames was running fast and high - so the obvious thing to do was to arrange for the boat to be put on a truck and taken to the coast - well obvious until I spoke to Clive aka Sun_Coast who said "You don't want to do it like that you want my pal Phil Cool to come with you and bring the boat round by sea". Umnn now we are talking, especially as Phil is a yachtmaster qualified RYA instructor who could help us with our Dayskipper practical course too.
The plan was gaining mommentum fast - pretty much in line with the ever rising River Thames and a date for the weekend of the 15th March was confirmed. The Thames continued to rise.
The boat was serviced by Terry at Bray, wipers replaced, flares and lifejackets purchased as well as as many spare fuel filters as the boat could carry. I also religiously continued the Soltron dosing and a new RIB was also aquired (Depsol was present via a phone link at its birth which I believe makes him some sort of Godfather)
Much polishing and cleaning of the boat was undertaken the weekend before to make her shipshape before the Sun Coast boys arrived and Joanne even managed time for a dozen or so shopping trips to John Lewis to by things that match other things that had been recently bought.......
Thurs 13th March - The day before the first leg of the trip......
Confirmed a mooring with the very helpful people at the Thames Motor Yacht Club at Hampton Court for the following night. 3.30am couldn't sleep as so excited and got up and guess what ? Yes surfed about on forum until dawn and it is suprising how many are there at that sort of time ....don't think i'll make a habit of it though.
Fri 14th March - Joanne dropped the girls of at school and nurseryand I was collected by business partner and taken to Bray Marina to collect boat and meet other crew. We left there at 9.30am and had the first and thank goodness only mishap before leaving the marina - we were convinced that we would get under bridge with radar arch up and ......we didn't quite make it. Fortunately no real damage done but I hoped it wasn't a bad omen for the trip.
Soon after leaving Bray (we will miss Mike_Gates and his merry MDL men) the mobile rang and it was Boatone saying that he and Forbsie would try to come out to meet us on Tahoe at Shepperton which sounded fun. We made good progress being the one and only boat in all the locks that day and upon reaching Sunbury lock the lockeeper and his mate looked vaguely familiar - it was Boatone and Forbsie operating the lock for us. At the same time MarkC happened to be passing by car so we had a rather impromtu Forum meet until being moved on by the real lockeeper who was not quite so impressed by the meeting of the men from the internet at his lock.
We continued dowstream for some time with Tahoe taking pictures of each boat (Tony's are so much better than my rather blurred efforts). It was really good to see this little band of forumites.
Despite the howling wind and my insistance on using two hands on the engine controls we made TMYC by about 3.30pm and my Friday crew departed. We were made very welcome by the TMYC commodore and his wife and enjoyed our stay there.
Sat 15th March - woke up at 7.00am and readied the boat for the Sun Coast boys who arrived accompanied by Boatone and Bosun. Clive and Phil made us both feel very relaxed and we just knew that this was going to be a good trip. Boatone and Bosun bade a teary farewell and Phil started to check over the safety equipment on board and we were soon under way. Phil was concerned about the weather forecast and suggested that we should make for Chatham and then review the situation from there. Good plan.
We made good progress into the tidal Thames until we had "our collars felt" by a PLA launch which prevented us from going much below Kew Bridge because of some regatta (I agreed with Byron's comments on this). We were instructed to tie up to a really naf PLA barge thing covered in bird droppings (Joanne was not impressed) from 1315 until 1545 which was a pain although gave Phil and Clive a chance to go over some basics with us and some ropework - it brought home to me just how much I needed to learn from this trip.......
Once the regatta finished we headed downstream through London with the light failing as we went through the barrier - we had to telephone barrier control as the VHF was not working properly but they didn't seem to mind.
The night passage down the estuary and into the Medway was a real adventure . Without the Sun coast boys we would have been terrified as the sea started to get a bit lumpy by now and it really was very dark. However with Phil and Clive on board we had no worries whatsoever and learnt so much that evening and realyy enjoyed the experience. I was not sure what was quicker - Clive's laptop and software or Phil Cool - it was a close run thing.......
We followed a huge container ship into the Medway and tucked into the smooth water behind the ship and then headed into Chatham at about 2300. Joanne cooked up some pasta whilst I put the covers on the boat and Clive remonised about his beloved Broom. Soon after midnight we were tucked up in bed to awake to a clear and cold morning with a layer of frost on the boat. Oh yes and the showers were first class.
Sun 16th March. A relaxed start and much checking of weather forecast etc. We were unable to breathe life into the VHF and we needed to buy a handheld at least. Problem was whilst Chatham is a splendid marina there is not a chandlery there.........cue tr7v8 who lives close by and so kindly came out in his car to pick me up and take me to a chandlery about 10 miutes away where a handheld VHF was purchased. Thank you Jim.
As we returned by car Phil had again treble checked the forecast and was having the boat refueled with diesel. Clive had booked a taxi and was soon on his way home (he had only been able to join us for the ride for a day and a night). As the forecast seemed to be improving it was agreed that we should edge out to sea with a fall back plan to go into Ramsgate or even return to Chatham - we were always impressed by Phil's safety first policy.
As it happened the weather was good with slight seas all the way to Dover. I found it exciting entering the port which I had only ever been to courtesy of P&O before. Phil was getting us to do more and more chartwork along this leg and things were really falling into place for us. I was also pleased that the engines were doing well (yes I use Soltron) and no new filters were required during the trip at all.
We spent a fun evening in Dover mainly taking the mickey out of Clive via the forum and even managed to log onto B1s lounge.
Phil then got us to plan the course for Hythe for the next morning which started a bit foggy but that was soon to change for the better........
Joanne took Cast Off out of the marina under Phil's guidance and we started our final leg with blue skys and flat seas which was wonderful. Even our course worked and we diverted to Brighton for fuel at lunchtime. It was a glorious day and we are sorry that time did not allow us to look up the Brighton forum gang.
The best bit was a high speed blast to the solent and it was quite moving when we reached the forts. From there to Hythe was a doddle and we were greeted in the Hythe lock by a loud "Welcome to Hythe - we have been expecting you!"
We were there and had arrived safely with no mishaps having had so much fun, learnt lots and increased our confidence levels. We cannot thank Clive and Phil enough for thier help and care ...... we are sure that Sun coast Marine will do really well in Spain .
However I am also grateful to so many forum folk who supported and encouraged us as well as those good enough to offer practical help as well as MDL who made the tranition from Bray to Hythe so easy.
I am sorry to have wittered on for so long here but felt that this should go down on the forum in recognition of all the help and support that we received via it.
Phil is going to complete our dayskipper with us on Monday which for me just can't come soon enough.......
Thank you
Nick
<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://arweb.co.uk/argallery/Nick2>http://arweb.co.uk/argallery/Nick2</A>
We both completed our Dayskipper theory at Bisham Abbey which further inspired us to venture to sea. However there was snag to the rapidly forming plan namely that the boat was out of the water at Marlow and the Thames was running fast and high - so the obvious thing to do was to arrange for the boat to be put on a truck and taken to the coast - well obvious until I spoke to Clive aka Sun_Coast who said "You don't want to do it like that you want my pal Phil Cool to come with you and bring the boat round by sea". Umnn now we are talking, especially as Phil is a yachtmaster qualified RYA instructor who could help us with our Dayskipper practical course too.
The plan was gaining mommentum fast - pretty much in line with the ever rising River Thames and a date for the weekend of the 15th March was confirmed. The Thames continued to rise.
The boat was serviced by Terry at Bray, wipers replaced, flares and lifejackets purchased as well as as many spare fuel filters as the boat could carry. I also religiously continued the Soltron dosing and a new RIB was also aquired (Depsol was present via a phone link at its birth which I believe makes him some sort of Godfather)
Much polishing and cleaning of the boat was undertaken the weekend before to make her shipshape before the Sun Coast boys arrived and Joanne even managed time for a dozen or so shopping trips to John Lewis to by things that match other things that had been recently bought.......
Thurs 13th March - The day before the first leg of the trip......
Confirmed a mooring with the very helpful people at the Thames Motor Yacht Club at Hampton Court for the following night. 3.30am couldn't sleep as so excited and got up and guess what ? Yes surfed about on forum until dawn and it is suprising how many are there at that sort of time ....don't think i'll make a habit of it though.
Fri 14th March - Joanne dropped the girls of at school and nurseryand I was collected by business partner and taken to Bray Marina to collect boat and meet other crew. We left there at 9.30am and had the first and thank goodness only mishap before leaving the marina - we were convinced that we would get under bridge with radar arch up and ......we didn't quite make it. Fortunately no real damage done but I hoped it wasn't a bad omen for the trip.
Soon after leaving Bray (we will miss Mike_Gates and his merry MDL men) the mobile rang and it was Boatone saying that he and Forbsie would try to come out to meet us on Tahoe at Shepperton which sounded fun. We made good progress being the one and only boat in all the locks that day and upon reaching Sunbury lock the lockeeper and his mate looked vaguely familiar - it was Boatone and Forbsie operating the lock for us. At the same time MarkC happened to be passing by car so we had a rather impromtu Forum meet until being moved on by the real lockeeper who was not quite so impressed by the meeting of the men from the internet at his lock.
We continued dowstream for some time with Tahoe taking pictures of each boat (Tony's are so much better than my rather blurred efforts). It was really good to see this little band of forumites.
Despite the howling wind and my insistance on using two hands on the engine controls we made TMYC by about 3.30pm and my Friday crew departed. We were made very welcome by the TMYC commodore and his wife and enjoyed our stay there.
Sat 15th March - woke up at 7.00am and readied the boat for the Sun Coast boys who arrived accompanied by Boatone and Bosun. Clive and Phil made us both feel very relaxed and we just knew that this was going to be a good trip. Boatone and Bosun bade a teary farewell and Phil started to check over the safety equipment on board and we were soon under way. Phil was concerned about the weather forecast and suggested that we should make for Chatham and then review the situation from there. Good plan.
We made good progress into the tidal Thames until we had "our collars felt" by a PLA launch which prevented us from going much below Kew Bridge because of some regatta (I agreed with Byron's comments on this). We were instructed to tie up to a really naf PLA barge thing covered in bird droppings (Joanne was not impressed) from 1315 until 1545 which was a pain although gave Phil and Clive a chance to go over some basics with us and some ropework - it brought home to me just how much I needed to learn from this trip.......
Once the regatta finished we headed downstream through London with the light failing as we went through the barrier - we had to telephone barrier control as the VHF was not working properly but they didn't seem to mind.
The night passage down the estuary and into the Medway was a real adventure . Without the Sun coast boys we would have been terrified as the sea started to get a bit lumpy by now and it really was very dark. However with Phil and Clive on board we had no worries whatsoever and learnt so much that evening and realyy enjoyed the experience. I was not sure what was quicker - Clive's laptop and software or Phil Cool - it was a close run thing.......
We followed a huge container ship into the Medway and tucked into the smooth water behind the ship and then headed into Chatham at about 2300. Joanne cooked up some pasta whilst I put the covers on the boat and Clive remonised about his beloved Broom. Soon after midnight we were tucked up in bed to awake to a clear and cold morning with a layer of frost on the boat. Oh yes and the showers were first class.
Sun 16th March. A relaxed start and much checking of weather forecast etc. We were unable to breathe life into the VHF and we needed to buy a handheld at least. Problem was whilst Chatham is a splendid marina there is not a chandlery there.........cue tr7v8 who lives close by and so kindly came out in his car to pick me up and take me to a chandlery about 10 miutes away where a handheld VHF was purchased. Thank you Jim.
As we returned by car Phil had again treble checked the forecast and was having the boat refueled with diesel. Clive had booked a taxi and was soon on his way home (he had only been able to join us for the ride for a day and a night). As the forecast seemed to be improving it was agreed that we should edge out to sea with a fall back plan to go into Ramsgate or even return to Chatham - we were always impressed by Phil's safety first policy.
As it happened the weather was good with slight seas all the way to Dover. I found it exciting entering the port which I had only ever been to courtesy of P&O before. Phil was getting us to do more and more chartwork along this leg and things were really falling into place for us. I was also pleased that the engines were doing well (yes I use Soltron) and no new filters were required during the trip at all.
We spent a fun evening in Dover mainly taking the mickey out of Clive via the forum and even managed to log onto B1s lounge.
Phil then got us to plan the course for Hythe for the next morning which started a bit foggy but that was soon to change for the better........
Joanne took Cast Off out of the marina under Phil's guidance and we started our final leg with blue skys and flat seas which was wonderful. Even our course worked and we diverted to Brighton for fuel at lunchtime. It was a glorious day and we are sorry that time did not allow us to look up the Brighton forum gang.
The best bit was a high speed blast to the solent and it was quite moving when we reached the forts. From there to Hythe was a doddle and we were greeted in the Hythe lock by a loud "Welcome to Hythe - we have been expecting you!"
We were there and had arrived safely with no mishaps having had so much fun, learnt lots and increased our confidence levels. We cannot thank Clive and Phil enough for thier help and care ...... we are sure that Sun coast Marine will do really well in Spain .
However I am also grateful to so many forum folk who supported and encouraged us as well as those good enough to offer practical help as well as MDL who made the tranition from Bray to Hythe so easy.
I am sorry to have wittered on for so long here but felt that this should go down on the forum in recognition of all the help and support that we received via it.
Phil is going to complete our dayskipper with us on Monday which for me just can't come soon enough.......
Thank you
Nick
<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://arweb.co.uk/argallery/Nick2>http://arweb.co.uk/argallery/Nick2</A>
