dk
Well-Known Member
So there I was thinking the season had started, the sun was shining and there was a good, warm sailing breeze coming up. Car rammed to the gunwales with gear taken home to avoid the mould and the boat jumble stockists. First job, pump up the dinghy. Hmmm, the air seems to be coming out quicker than I can put it in. Faint hissing sound from an old patch, which the winter garage frost had encouraged to peel off. Still smiling I go for the repair kit - ah! One thing I did leave on the boat. No dinghy no repair kit. No repair kit no dinghy.
Considerable Sikaflex and gorilla tape later dinghy is holding air for 10 minutes. Should be enough to get to the boat I convince myself.
Tide going out fast now, a couple of days off a spring ebb. The mild breeze from the south seems to have got up a tad too. Load dinghy with tools, fuel cans, provisions, clothes, newly washed running rigging, sailing kit, life jackets etc. That’s just the first load. Dinghy launch trolley has puncture and all my kit plus outboard renders it useless. Put half the gear back into the car, pump the dinghy up again then drag knackered trolley to waters edge. Hmmm - wind now gusting 30knots-odd, so beach very choppy. Drag dinghy off trolley into the water. Fill both boots. Dinghy blows off towards Launceston, rapidly. Luckily it snags on a lump of tree washed up in the last gale. Run back up slipway dragging knackered trolley with feet squelching inside boots. Run back to rescue dinghy, now taking on much water whilst losing air at a similar rate. Jump in ready for quick outboard start (pre-warmed in the water barrel), making a good 5knots in the opposite direction to my boat, only to discover the kill cord is in my other jacket...in the car. Row madly back to shore, grounding on mudbank. Fill boots with mud getting back ashore. Get cord, return to dinghy now firmly grounded some 5m further up the mudbank. Drag it back to the water and finally start heading in the right direction. Now, though, it’s full ebb and my mooring is the furthest out, right at the point of maximum tidal flow and open to the southerly wind. 4ft waves can fill a small dinghy pretty quickly - especially one on which the bow section is deflating as quickly as my enthusiasm for an early season sail. Discover ‘fixed’ outboard won’t do left turns, only right, so have to do several 360s to avoid other moored boats along the way. Finally arrive, but just clinging onto the boat takes all my strength. I grab the painter to quickly tie her onto a cleat, forgetting it now had an anchor tied on the end after the mudbank incident. Anchor could’ve simply banged on the deck if the Gods had been on my side. But, no, instead it embeds itself into the coaming as if I was planning to scale a 10 storey building. Coinciding my jump with the tallest wave just enabled me to get on board. Then, while I was contemplating just how to get the gear out of the dinghy, the problem was miraculously solved - thanks to the biggest wave yet the dinghy joined me on board!
It’s now too windy to put the sails on and too choppy to bring the main outboard out. Beer and a long sulk seem the only option left. Early season sail...pah!:mad-new:
Considerable Sikaflex and gorilla tape later dinghy is holding air for 10 minutes. Should be enough to get to the boat I convince myself.
Tide going out fast now, a couple of days off a spring ebb. The mild breeze from the south seems to have got up a tad too. Load dinghy with tools, fuel cans, provisions, clothes, newly washed running rigging, sailing kit, life jackets etc. That’s just the first load. Dinghy launch trolley has puncture and all my kit plus outboard renders it useless. Put half the gear back into the car, pump the dinghy up again then drag knackered trolley to waters edge. Hmmm - wind now gusting 30knots-odd, so beach very choppy. Drag dinghy off trolley into the water. Fill both boots. Dinghy blows off towards Launceston, rapidly. Luckily it snags on a lump of tree washed up in the last gale. Run back up slipway dragging knackered trolley with feet squelching inside boots. Run back to rescue dinghy, now taking on much water whilst losing air at a similar rate. Jump in ready for quick outboard start (pre-warmed in the water barrel), making a good 5knots in the opposite direction to my boat, only to discover the kill cord is in my other jacket...in the car. Row madly back to shore, grounding on mudbank. Fill boots with mud getting back ashore. Get cord, return to dinghy now firmly grounded some 5m further up the mudbank. Drag it back to the water and finally start heading in the right direction. Now, though, it’s full ebb and my mooring is the furthest out, right at the point of maximum tidal flow and open to the southerly wind. 4ft waves can fill a small dinghy pretty quickly - especially one on which the bow section is deflating as quickly as my enthusiasm for an early season sail. Discover ‘fixed’ outboard won’t do left turns, only right, so have to do several 360s to avoid other moored boats along the way. Finally arrive, but just clinging onto the boat takes all my strength. I grab the painter to quickly tie her onto a cleat, forgetting it now had an anchor tied on the end after the mudbank incident. Anchor could’ve simply banged on the deck if the Gods had been on my side. But, no, instead it embeds itself into the coaming as if I was planning to scale a 10 storey building. Coinciding my jump with the tallest wave just enabled me to get on board. Then, while I was contemplating just how to get the gear out of the dinghy, the problem was miraculously solved - thanks to the biggest wave yet the dinghy joined me on board!
It’s now too windy to put the sails on and too choppy to bring the main outboard out. Beer and a long sulk seem the only option left. Early season sail...pah!:mad-new:
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