East Coast pirate weekend - The story!

Phoenix of Hamble

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Well,

What a weekend!

An early start Saturday, and we arrived at the anchorage to find no one there, other than Vreny hanging off a buoy further up the river. The Anchorage wasn't straight forward, with the wind dominating, and straight across the river, entailing anchoring well into the fairway in order to stay off the shore!... we took a couple of goes to get the right spot, and then watched a series of entertaining attempts by other boats.....

By 10h00, we were beginning to worry that no-one was going to come, but slowly they started to arrive.... one of the first being CentaurPipeDream.... a ship full of pirates, complete with scars and swords sailing by.....

By midday we had a good turn out, (in the end 9 boats turned up)...

We abandonded the trip round the island due to a stiff breeze, hitting 25kts in the gusts... not ideal for kids in a small dinghy round the island... so everyone chilled... visited other boats... and by 17h00, made their way ashore

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Full Circle wasn't at this stage yet in attendance, and the mystery was resolved via VHF.... as the boat nominated to tow the small sailing dory Duvel round, he'd had the painter part in the shallows on the way over, and had spent the best part of an hour trying to round her up.... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

By the time the kids had noisily chased down their treasure, the BBQ'ing started in earnest...

First we met the delightfully dressed CentaurPipeDream
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And just a few minutes later, in a burst of raging BBQ fury (don't put it in a pit next time /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif) we were given a demonstration of his culinary skills...
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As it started to get dark, the fire was lit..
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And general piratical consumption ruled... or actually, the kids ruled... with EVERY kid dressed as a pirate, it was a treat to see them enjoying themselves... with lots of 'pieces of eight' and 'jim me lads' going on... but this pair of the youngest pirates stole the evening, when they retrieved Jims 'Jolly Roger on a pole', and made a two man attempt to stand it.... lots of ahhhhs.. they were ultimately unsuccessful, but it sure was a grand sight....
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And to finish off what had been a fabulous afternoon, the sun decided to treat us to the most spectacular sunset
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Everyone stood and looked on in awe.

All that left was for the Rum and Bourbon to be drunk, and much booze fuelled discussion on the important aspect of sailing.... such as what the 'eck is this flag
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Sunday events were abandoned as we arose to a cold wind, and fairly steady rain, accompianed by thunder and lightning.... but it didn't matter.... everyone had a fabulous time.....
 

LymingtonPugwash

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"All that left was for the Rum and Bourbon to berunk, and much booze fuelled discussion on the important aspect of sailing.... such as what the 'eck is this flag"
Clearly somebody in distress..... did they want rescuing? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 

Heckler

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Am jealous, just a little aside, when i were a lad the crusty old teacher taught us that the broad white bit on the union jack went to the top.
Stu
 

ccscott49

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Looks like you had a good "Do" good on you all, by the way, that's a "pilot jack" in yer 'ands! upside down I might add.
 

FullCircle

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A Brilliant weekend. Nuff said.

Oh alright, a little more then. The sea of Jolly Rogers had all passers by wondering, and we got more than a few grins, and everyone waved at us. We had guest pirates with us who hadnt been before, they were amazed.

I left Burnham on Saturday morning in 25 nots solid up the chuff, and towing Duvel. All Ok till the line parted just shy of the Sunken Buxey, and the boat drifted rapidly toward the Foulness bank. After 6 attempts in lumpy seas we got it back, but it got awful shallow. Postscript is that when furling the genoa to get back to the dinghy, we dropped a sheet over. I noticed yesterday that that sheet has a chewed end and is 6 foot shorter than it should be. So a good ad for the Stripper then, as I never felt a thing.
On entering Walton backwaters we went to put anchor down and.....nothing. Bloody windlass socket has developed a fault, so we picked up a mooring a bit further up.
Took the dinghy up to Titchmarsh to collect Lynn (who was working all weekend) in full Pirate outfit, and surpised quite a few folk, but they all laughed and waved.
Party party on the beach, too much food, an abundance of wine/beer/grog.
We set off back to go to bed, and saw eastcoastbernie attempting to get back to her boat by 20 tugs a minute on her defunct outboard. We offered a tow, and got her and Jenny back to Beyond Reason.
Great nights kip, and then up at 5-30 to take Lynn back to Titchmarsh to go to work. I knew I didnt have enough fuel (no Neil, its not 'only a mile or so') so fortunately the fuel ran out just after I dropped Lynn off. I rowed back for nearly 40 minutes under a gentle breeze and little tide. It was really nice, but the clouds were very low and had an intense swirly candyfloss look, so I knew it would not be long....
Thames Coastcguard gave us Thundery showers, and they weren't wrong. Guess who left the forehatch just cracked open enough to get his mattress wet?

Had a breakfast and a teleconference with the assemblage and decided to not do the beach games for the morning. Pitty, I had the 2 super soakers and 8 spare water pistols.

Rafted onto Morgana for tea and chat and then off for another rolly downwind trip going the other way. How annoying that the wind was dead aft in both directions.

Thanks to all the boats who turned up for making a real effort.

The kids were the real stars though........


Until next time then.
 

Keen_Ed

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Yes - toggle is at the top.

The flag is actually a Pilot Jack - flown from a jackstaff at the bow when a ship is moored, or alongside. Originally, it was the flag used to call a pilot - hence the name.
 

FullCircle

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/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Cant please anyone it seems.
 

Athene V30

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[ QUOTE ]
the crusty old teacher taught us that the broad white bit on the union jack went to the top.
Stu

[/ QUOTE ]

My crusty old teacher would agree re the broad white bit BUT would call it a Pilot Jack. The bit inside the white border could be called a Union FLAG. It would only become a Union Jack when worn at the JACKstaff in the bows of one of HM Warships.

Steps down from soapbox.
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