Allan
Well-Known Member
Yet another great weekend on Cobby girl. After working in south Wales for a few hours on Wednesday, I went to CYC and enjoyed a couple of pints before spending the night on the pontoon. After fitting a new radio/CD player (£50 from Aldi) I got the 5pm lockout and headed up to Portishead. The winds were light but I did have the engine off for a hour or so on the way. After an uneventfull trip through the lock and mooring on the pontoon it was nice of Damo to pop over. Some usefull advice from him helped on my later trip up to Bristol. On Friday evening I was joined by my crew, SWMBO and Lilly. Saturday morning dawned foggy so we took the 07-30 lockout and anchored in the hole and waited for it to clear while listening to VTS. At 09-00 it had lifted a little so we set off for the Avon, in the channel the visibility was fine and we enjoyed a nice motor up to Bristol. Bristol harbour had a music festival so we had music all day on Saturday. We were on the pontoon outside the Arnofini and enjoyed the buzz of all people sitting around enjoying the atmosphere and music. We headed down towards the Cumberland basin at 11-00 Sunday and took a slow trip down the Avon coming the other way was a small mobo called Bush baby with a forum burgee. The wind was again light in the channel but we were able to turn off the engine at Denny spit. As the wind was nice and light we were able to use the cruising chute for the first time. As we were enjoying the sailing so much I dicided to head down towards Monkstone and push the tide up to locks from there. The 16-15 lock was full up so we had to raft against a small mobo. I wish the barrage people would get organised! a little organising would have made the whole thing more civilised. The trimaran Gem was a little worried when my anchor was hanging over their transom, caused by the mobo moving forward and seemingly not realising we would move too! After settling back onto the mooring and having a nice pot of tea we set off home, well satisfied with a nice weekend.
Allan
Allan