Marmalade
Well-Known Member
Came across to Oostende on Tuesday. Wednesday saw a full blown NWly gale which made Montgomery Dock a very lumpy place indeed.
After a night of very little sleep and still with 6s blowing this morning we moved into Mercator. With hindsight we should have done that to start with. Last night saw us destroy two dock lines and with 40knots of wind coming right up the chuff where we were moored and as big a swell as I've experienced there, we were tripled up on lines and springs.
Anyway; we arrived to find that Robert retired on Monday - not even a chance to say "cheerio" and thanks for all the early morning wake ups. We will not miss him hammering on the hull at 0800 the morning after an 11 hour sail. We will, however, miss pretty much everything else - the comedy shouting at boats who tried to moor or raft where they wanted (rather than where he wanted). We'll miss the sarcasm ("cheap for a 2 day stay in paradise") and the succinct appraisal of everything from the economic situation across Europe to the weather tomorrow. Susanna won't need to pack an extra box of PG tips in future. We'll miss that too. Apologies if this has already been covered somewhere here by the way.
Also (I'm in essay mode you can tell) we were visited on arrival by the immigration police. Two very polite and chipper guys who explained that they were to be audited in 2015 and so have been ordered to ensure that all the paperwork is in order. They admitted that prior to this they hadn't really bothered. They checked our passports, filled out a schengen form for us, checked our ship's papers and, before someone asks, didn't arrest us at gunpoint for the colour of our diesel. They didn't even mention it - as you'd expect since they weren't customs men.
RNSYC is in the capable hands now of Simon (pure coincidence of course) and his oppo whose name I forget. They seem like a capable pair and there's a spanking new office where you go to pay (at the time of your own choosing) and where they accept plastic. They're still riding around in a beaten up old rib with "Berbertje" written on the side. Plus ca change...
After a night of very little sleep and still with 6s blowing this morning we moved into Mercator. With hindsight we should have done that to start with. Last night saw us destroy two dock lines and with 40knots of wind coming right up the chuff where we were moored and as big a swell as I've experienced there, we were tripled up on lines and springs.
Anyway; we arrived to find that Robert retired on Monday - not even a chance to say "cheerio" and thanks for all the early morning wake ups. We will not miss him hammering on the hull at 0800 the morning after an 11 hour sail. We will, however, miss pretty much everything else - the comedy shouting at boats who tried to moor or raft where they wanted (rather than where he wanted). We'll miss the sarcasm ("cheap for a 2 day stay in paradise") and the succinct appraisal of everything from the economic situation across Europe to the weather tomorrow. Susanna won't need to pack an extra box of PG tips in future. We'll miss that too. Apologies if this has already been covered somewhere here by the way.
Also (I'm in essay mode you can tell) we were visited on arrival by the immigration police. Two very polite and chipper guys who explained that they were to be audited in 2015 and so have been ordered to ensure that all the paperwork is in order. They admitted that prior to this they hadn't really bothered. They checked our passports, filled out a schengen form for us, checked our ship's papers and, before someone asks, didn't arrest us at gunpoint for the colour of our diesel. They didn't even mention it - as you'd expect since they weren't customs men.
RNSYC is in the capable hands now of Simon (pure coincidence of course) and his oppo whose name I forget. They seem like a capable pair and there's a spanking new office where you go to pay (at the time of your own choosing) and where they accept plastic. They're still riding around in a beaten up old rib with "Berbertje" written on the side. Plus ca change...
