Moose
New member
What a day!!!!!!
Got down to boat at about 2:00pm to leave at about 2:45. Unloaded all the stuff, when I discovered we had forgotton the Almanac, DOH. So me sends of SWMBO home to pick it up cos' I'm not paying £35 for a new one. An hour later SWMBO phones up saying she is still not home! Apparantly the traffic was really bad. So No1 Brat and I look at Chichester Tide Tables and work out that we better get out of the lock now and get to Itchenor to pick up SWMBO. So we cast off and head up to the lock, just as we are entering the lock, the Starboard engine fails, DOH closely followed by the Port engine DOH X2!. No1 Brat burns his hands on the rope trying to stop us as we are now heading towards the lock gates at an alarming speed,DOH. Who forgot to turn the Fuel Cocks on? Okay it was me, but nobody is perfect/forums/images/icons/wink.gif So No1 Brat is rushing around bleeding the fuel system as the water outside the lock is getting lower and lower,DOH. 10 minutes later all is well, fire up engines and we are off. When we get to Itchenor there is no space on the pontoon, so we pick up a buoy and start to pump up the dinghy, which is not on the davits yet because we left in such a hurry. No1 brat points out that the tide is racing past us at 5 knots and we have never set foot in a dinghy before, So SWMBO is standing on the pontoon waving her arms at us. Plan B, lets call up the HM and get him to run SWMBO over to the boat, HA HA I don't know what channel he is on, and I can't find out cos' the Almanac is on the pontoon. So we phone up SWMBO and get her to run down to the other pontoon about 1/4 mile further down where a Yacht as just come from. Right so start both engines and race down there, but the Port engine won't start, WHY?, We don't know but we did know it was an electrical fault, so frantic racing around discovers that the Master Switch as been turned off getting the Dinghy out. Both engines now work! So we nip down to the other pontoon, BUT a yacht nips in there before us,DOH!! and he wouldn't let us raft up to him,DOH. Then all of a suddon a person in a dinghy appears and offers to pick up SWMBO. Bear in mind that the car is now in the pay and display car park and it will cost £30 for the 3 days,DOH. Now we are all safely on board, just and we set off with the aim of still getting to Cherburg today. Just as we got out to the bar I thought I better just have a look at the charts, You guessed it/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif we have left the charts behind. So we can't go to Cherburg now and we cant get back to Chichester because of the Tide. We then went for a race around the Solent and pestered the Brittany ferries ferry as he was going into Portsmouth, then we decide to go to Gunwharf for an hour or so, but no there is a stupid great Sunsail meeting there, so there are full. Plan B we went to Haslar to try and sort the dinghy out, but it was after 5pm so we could not pay for a short stay, we had to pay for the night, Yeah Right!!/forums/images/icons/mad.gif So after talking the price down over the VHF! we went and moored up for an hour. Then back to Itchenor to drop SWMBO off so she can A
ick the car up and B: Go home to get the charts. Which she did, and we carried on to Chichester to moor up for the night (Cos' we are going to Cherburg tomorrow) Once we are moored up we get a phone call from SWMBO saying that she cannot find the charts,DOH!. Then I put my hand on the Chart table, well it does'nt go on the chart table it rests on the 2 charts,DOH!, so We phone up SWMBO who is turning the house round trying to find the charts and tell her to come back.
Well she has just arrived back now and we are back to square one, and we are going to leave early tomorrow morning.
What a wonderful day/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif
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Moose
Got down to boat at about 2:00pm to leave at about 2:45. Unloaded all the stuff, when I discovered we had forgotton the Almanac, DOH. So me sends of SWMBO home to pick it up cos' I'm not paying £35 for a new one. An hour later SWMBO phones up saying she is still not home! Apparantly the traffic was really bad. So No1 Brat and I look at Chichester Tide Tables and work out that we better get out of the lock now and get to Itchenor to pick up SWMBO. So we cast off and head up to the lock, just as we are entering the lock, the Starboard engine fails, DOH closely followed by the Port engine DOH X2!. No1 Brat burns his hands on the rope trying to stop us as we are now heading towards the lock gates at an alarming speed,DOH. Who forgot to turn the Fuel Cocks on? Okay it was me, but nobody is perfect/forums/images/icons/wink.gif So No1 Brat is rushing around bleeding the fuel system as the water outside the lock is getting lower and lower,DOH. 10 minutes later all is well, fire up engines and we are off. When we get to Itchenor there is no space on the pontoon, so we pick up a buoy and start to pump up the dinghy, which is not on the davits yet because we left in such a hurry. No1 brat points out that the tide is racing past us at 5 knots and we have never set foot in a dinghy before, So SWMBO is standing on the pontoon waving her arms at us. Plan B, lets call up the HM and get him to run SWMBO over to the boat, HA HA I don't know what channel he is on, and I can't find out cos' the Almanac is on the pontoon. So we phone up SWMBO and get her to run down to the other pontoon about 1/4 mile further down where a Yacht as just come from. Right so start both engines and race down there, but the Port engine won't start, WHY?, We don't know but we did know it was an electrical fault, so frantic racing around discovers that the Master Switch as been turned off getting the Dinghy out. Both engines now work! So we nip down to the other pontoon, BUT a yacht nips in there before us,DOH!! and he wouldn't let us raft up to him,DOH. Then all of a suddon a person in a dinghy appears and offers to pick up SWMBO. Bear in mind that the car is now in the pay and display car park and it will cost £30 for the 3 days,DOH. Now we are all safely on board, just and we set off with the aim of still getting to Cherburg today. Just as we got out to the bar I thought I better just have a look at the charts, You guessed it/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif we have left the charts behind. So we can't go to Cherburg now and we cant get back to Chichester because of the Tide. We then went for a race around the Solent and pestered the Brittany ferries ferry as he was going into Portsmouth, then we decide to go to Gunwharf for an hour or so, but no there is a stupid great Sunsail meeting there, so there are full. Plan B we went to Haslar to try and sort the dinghy out, but it was after 5pm so we could not pay for a short stay, we had to pay for the night, Yeah Right!!/forums/images/icons/mad.gif So after talking the price down over the VHF! we went and moored up for an hour. Then back to Itchenor to drop SWMBO off so she can A
ick the car up and B: Go home to get the charts. Which she did, and we carried on to Chichester to moor up for the night (Cos' we are going to Cherburg tomorrow) Once we are moored up we get a phone call from SWMBO saying that she cannot find the charts,DOH!. Then I put my hand on the Chart table, well it does'nt go on the chart table it rests on the 2 charts,DOH!, so We phone up SWMBO who is turning the house round trying to find the charts and tell her to come back. Well she has just arrived back now and we are back to square one, and we are going to leave early tomorrow morning.
What a wonderful day/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif
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Moose
