Abandoned ship

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Had to call off French sortie on Sunday weather problems as usual . Not totally put off though, didn't want to waste planning permission from her indoors decided to go to Pompey instead from Brighton. White knukle ride all the way but we made it to Gun Wharfe , we lost tender . TV busted , Pot pourri everywhere, 1st officer got a nice shiner hitting head on bunk ! Half a dozen broken glasses , reduced speed to survival conditions and damage limitation.
Arrived Pompey Large (sorry huge) Scotch rations to get our sea legs back . Lunch in the Tapas bar plenty of Rioja and Gypsy Kings. Then our final leg up to Port Solent via the mud flats and firing ranges , By this time Laurel & Hardy would have been better at the helm ploughed some nice furrows into the mud though !
I have never been so pleased to see lock gates, any port in a storm ! With the help of anybody in shouting distance we managed to berth after taking out the sunsail flotilla The Captain of the Nimitz class aircraft carrier would have been proud of our destruction in one sweep of the marina.
Now down to the really hard work drinking and eating all night with a 10.30 curfew.
Drunk marina dry sleep 3am. Wake up breakfast in yacht club decide can't face return leg so ship abandonded in Port Solent back home on the rattrler (connex)
ship to be collected when hangover and wind dies off. At least the boat sees some action and we are not afraid of the winter weather .
 
Err..........

Was it wise to set off in the first place? What was the forecast?

As my regular crew always say it's supposed to be pleasure not endurance, there will always be another day.
 
Alan Priddy told me the danger with doing this is next time you do the same planning and the weather turns out to be bad where do you stop yourself from saying ah well we made it ok last time lets go for it.

Did this last summer with bad trip to dielette awful trip to Alderney from Dielette and nightmare trip that scared all on board from Alderney to Guernsey, the weather kept getting worse but you end up going and testing it all to the limit.

The question is where does that limit stop?

Dom
 
Sounds like quite a trip - I hope the insurance will cover you for the bits that "fell off". Should have come to Chichester Marina - its a Premier one and you could have got your free nights away instead of paying another marina.

Got to say though - I would have turned back. Or just got drunk in Brighton on board <G>

Barry D.

"No, No, no - come off the plane before entering the lock..."
 
Must say. I've found my self in loads of crap many times. Even caught a whisky bottle once, at arms length as it came up the companion way. But cant say I've ever set off knowing it was going to be rough. There's two many things that can go wrong, to risk it on purpose.

Haydn
 
Ever though of moving it to the med.....

...but even then had a bad crossing back from Ibiza to Mallorca to get a flight, and believe me, you really don't feel like it after 18 hours solid partying in Ibiza!!!
 
Re: lessons learned

Everyone else did that - all he did was take a calculated risk - which most people do from time to time, then he made a calculated decision, based on his experiences of the day - I rather admired his honesty in making public that he was a wee bit shaken by it all - after all, those are the personal experiences which help us formulate our future decisions. don't understand why all the posts were negative.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by claymore on Tue Feb 26 12:38:48 2002 (server time).</FONT></P>
 
Mark I am suprised at the response from some of the forum cos if the replies to my recent post
regarding (english channel V the med) are any thing to go by, you were being a real man. I refer to
some of the replies which said "If cant stand 3-4's then I should stay in marina and leave it to the real men"
They do not appear so brave now, upon hearing your story.

cneighbour
 
Well mate, that makes me a wimp because I am a gale force 1 moderating man. But! Maybe a quarter of a century as an Auxiliary Coastguard has taught me to be so.

ô¿ô
 
To be honest Sunday morning wasn't too bad F3-4 increasing later in the day , i have free mooring at Port Solent for up to 12 days so wasn't a real problem to leave boat until conditions improve . Anyway the Princess salesman told me that they haven't lost a Princess at sea other than on the back of a container ship. So i have plenty of faith in the old girl. I never felt worried at anytime other than it being a bit uncomfortable .
 
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