Elemental
Well-Known Member
We decided to visit Fambridge last weekend - they were having their river festival and it sounded like fun. I rang and requested a berth (they were full) so agreed we'd take a mooring buoy for the night.
Apart from 25+ winds on the nose and horizontal rain, our trip from Pyefleet was uneventful if a little arduous.
However, when we arrived at Fambridge we spent 20 mins jilling around trying to hail then on ch80 (as agreed when we rang and as per published data) to determine which buoy to use but apparently, no one was keeping a listening watch - nor was anyone answering the phone. When we finally gave up on that we tried a couple of buoys - none had anything other than single short rope loops to pick up and thread a line through. We were at the top of a big spring tide and I suspect that was what made it impossible to lift the buoy at all to thread a line.
After 20 mins and some seriously hazardous hanging off the boat attempting to reeve our line I finally succeeded. Just as we were shutting off the engine, the buoy riser parted and we were adrift.
Another round of buoy hunting/VHF activity and agility testing took a further 20 mins and we were finally moored. All this in heavy winds and rain. Having no-response on ch80 didn't fill us with confidence in the water taxi, and using the tender was a non-starter due to the weather. We decided to cut our losses and leg it back down river to Burnham Yacht Harbour where at least we could go ashore, dry out and get some food. Just as we were preparing to leave an FYH workboat arrived and politely but firmly charged me £5 for a lunch stop (we were tied up 40 mins) and blamed the inability to lift the buoys on our freeboard (Beneteau 351). I calmly gave him the broken riser rope, a £5 note and we made our exit.
We won't be back.
Apart from 25+ winds on the nose and horizontal rain, our trip from Pyefleet was uneventful if a little arduous.
However, when we arrived at Fambridge we spent 20 mins jilling around trying to hail then on ch80 (as agreed when we rang and as per published data) to determine which buoy to use but apparently, no one was keeping a listening watch - nor was anyone answering the phone. When we finally gave up on that we tried a couple of buoys - none had anything other than single short rope loops to pick up and thread a line through. We were at the top of a big spring tide and I suspect that was what made it impossible to lift the buoy at all to thread a line.
After 20 mins and some seriously hazardous hanging off the boat attempting to reeve our line I finally succeeded. Just as we were shutting off the engine, the buoy riser parted and we were adrift.
Another round of buoy hunting/VHF activity and agility testing took a further 20 mins and we were finally moored. All this in heavy winds and rain. Having no-response on ch80 didn't fill us with confidence in the water taxi, and using the tender was a non-starter due to the weather. We decided to cut our losses and leg it back down river to Burnham Yacht Harbour where at least we could go ashore, dry out and get some food. Just as we were preparing to leave an FYH workboat arrived and politely but firmly charged me £5 for a lunch stop (we were tied up 40 mins) and blamed the inability to lift the buoys on our freeboard (Beneteau 351). I calmly gave him the broken riser rope, a £5 note and we made our exit.
We won't be back.
it was worth it. Funny thing was that I was actually a BH there!
:encouragement:
