Newtown Creek, fabulous weather and a slight hiccup (pics)

[kcrane]

With the promise of fabulous weather business took a back seat, we slipped away at lunchtime Friday, only to find everyone else had done the same thing, only they'd done it Thursday.

Arrived at Newtown to find it pretty crowded. Following some sail boats through the entrance an F42/5 did us a favour as he left, he told us which bouy he'd just vacated, No18.

It would be rude to push ahead to secure the spot, but the time it took the sail boats to push throught the 4 knt ebb tide was painful, but our patience was rewarded. They turned left to look for a space and we sneaked off to the right to our waiting buoy.

A word. On or near springs No18 is borderline when the tide goes out.

I don't think the pic does it justice, at the bottom of the tide you could spit onto that mud. We waited for an hour's rise of tide before starting the gennie to cook dinner to make sure we didn't suck in gunge instead of cooling water.

We were rewarded with a lovely evening.

The mud still had me worried...

We swung OK as the tide came up and this morning it was glorious. We moored in Newtown in April in hot sun and couldn't believe it could be like that so early in the season (the photo will be on the form somewhere) and now here we were in October, same spot and even warmer.

That warm that son #1 and SWMBO went for a swim (in UK waters, in October).

The best laid plans however came adrift as I didn't wait long enough when leaving and the pick up buoy disappeared under the boat and did not re-appear. Ooops.

Seastart were very good, Two hours later on a very busy day they turned up with a diver who took 20 secs to unwind a couple of turns and we were away again.

If anything Yarmouth was busier than last weekend and for the first time in 5 years we were turned away. Realising we were beat we headed back to Swanwick to fill the tanks. 0.9mpg over 260 miles. Horrific if you don't have a boat, doesn't seem bad for two D9's if you do.

 

[[2068]]

Great pix!

Anything near 1mpg is good for a big boat.
I struggle to get better than 2.5mpg on a titchy 28 footer.

 

[z1ppy]

Looks lovely! great pics. our weekend didn't quite go to plan either and sea start and the guys at Mdl Hamble point saved us!

Needless to say I am not happy tonight, sometimes I hate boats!!!

 

[U4]

Looks lovely! great pics. our weekend didn't quite go to plan either and sea start and the guys at Mdl Hamble point saved us!

Needless to say I am not happy tonight, sometimes I hate boats!!!

Oh dear, what happened?

 

[lisilou]

one word...idillic.

 

[kcrane]

one word...idillic.

It was, you are right.

Even had one of those rare evenings where the 20 something son relaxes with his Dad and chats away for hours. It was dark, so we were able to lie on the back spotting stars and trying to identify satellites ( we failed ).

 

[kcrane]

Looks lovely! great pics. our weekend didn't quite go to plan either and sea start and the guys at Mdl Hamble point saved us!

Needless to say I am not happy tonight, sometimes I hate boats!!!

The Seastart guy ( Billy? ) said he'd just come from Hamble, around 2:00pm, was that you? He was also called to another boat just outside Newtown at about 3:00pm.

What happened, ignore the question if it's too painful!

 

[z1ppy]

Yup,

Pretty sure Billy was down to us also, great guy and had us on our way within 20 mins.


Melted gear selector cable meant as we were nosing into totland bay to anchor for a spot of lunch, into reverse to check speed before dropping anchor and it wouldn't go back into nutural! Extracted ourselves out into space without hitting anyone and cut the engine. No power steering!!!

Dropped the hook and waited. Billy managed to get us into forward but no gear selector so all or nothing! When nothing we had no power steering either! Ran back to hamble and into hamble point ready for a lift next week.

Would like to say publicly, sea start were outstanding! And hamble point Marina were also outstanding. Found us a berth when they were full and clearly with limited manoeuvrability they sent their launch out to meet us in the fairway and help us in! Not sure how I would have managed without their assistance!!!

Boats..... They are not my favourite things at the moment! Thinking about taking up stamp collecting!

 

[kcrane]

Yup,

Pretty sure Billy was down to us also, great guy and had us on our way within 20 mins.


Melted gear selector cable meant as we were nosing into totland bay to anchor for a spot of lunch, into reverse to check speed before dropping anchor and it wouldn't go back into nutural! Extracted ourselves out into space without hitting anyone and cut the engine. No power steering!!!

Dropped the hook and waited. Billy managed to get us into forward but no gear selector so all or nothing! When nothing we had no power steering either! Ran back to hamble and into hamble point ready for a lift next week.

Would like to say publicly, sea start were outstanding! And hamble point Marina were also outstanding. Found us a berth when they were full and clearly with limited manoeuvrability they sent their launch out to meet us in the fairway and help us in! Not sure how I would have managed without their assistance!!!

Boats..... They are not my favourite things at the moment! Thinking about taking up stamp collecting!

Sounds like you did a good job getting back and I'll add to your vote for Seastart, there was no charge for the diver they ferried over to IoW for us, apparently fouled props are included in the cover.

 

[volvopaul]

I or you could take a look at the engine strainers soon?

Cracking weekend all round just cannot believe its October we were in Lymington over weekend there was no room anywhere as far as I could see.

0.9 mpg from 1000hp, now im after some of that!

 

[kcrane]

I or you could take a look at the engine strainers soon?

Cracking weekend all round just cannot believe its October we were in Lymington over weekend there was no room anywhere as far as I could see.

0.9 mpg from 1000hp, now im after some of that!

When we couldn't get into Yarmouth I called Berthon. They said no berths, they'd been full since Tuesday, so you were lucky to get in.

Consumption figures vary (I suspect depending on whether I fill right up, or chicken out before dumping overflow diesel into the marina) but I did work out the average over the last 2 years and have of course forgotten the result. It was somewhere north of 0.8mpg I think. Probably an advantage not being as wide or heavy as a modern 48ft'er would be.

The boat will be out of the water for a week or two from Wednesday if you are around.

 

[volvopaul]

Ok yes I will be south coast from wed this week till the weekend, are you having a spuce up and antifoul?

 

[kcrane]

Ok yes I will be south coast from wed this week till the weekend, are you having a spuce up and antifoul?

Yep, I'm waiting for Clive to confirm when he can do it.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

0.9mpg over 260 miles. Horrific if you don't have a boat, doesn't seem bad for two D9's if you do.

Thats very good. I had a Targa 48 a few years ago and at best it did around 0.75mpg and worse with some sterngear fouling. Do you think that's improvement in engine technology or hull design? Great pics btw. Brings back memories of our 12yrs in and around the Solent. We picked up a buoy in Newtown many times but I don't remember seeing it quite so dry as in your pics

 

[kcrane]

Thats very good. I had a Targa 48 a few years ago and at best it did around 0.75mpg and worse with some sterngear fouling. Do you think that's improvement in engine technology or hull design? Great pics btw. Brings back memories of our 12yrs in and around the Solent. We picked up a buoy in Newtown many times but I don't remember seeing it quite so dry as in your pics

We were up the top of the right arm, towards Shalfleet, so on pretty much the last visitor's buoy. The tides are quite extreme at the moment, so I think that contributed to the expanse of mud.

 

[jfm]

Fantastic pics K. you've been doing that iPhone stitch-together thing again methinks? I would have been very worried if I'd been in all that mud and I'm glad all turned out ok for you. I need to lift the abeam image of your boat onto a med shot in photoshop to "keep up the pressure" though I agree this weekend in UK would take some beating. I was in the UK this weekend, south coast roads, visiting people, and all the little roads to places like the witterings, dell quay etc were jammed up solid, and the A27 itself was pretty slow too. I reckon everyone took to the coast for a final late summer weekend

 

[kcrane]

Fantastic pics K. you've been doing that iPhone stitch-together thing again methinks? I would have been very worried if I'd been in all that mud and I'm glad all turned out ok for you. I need to lift the abeam image of your boat onto a med shot in photoshop to "keep up the pressure" though I agree this weekend in UK would take some beating. I was in the UK this weekend, south coast roads, visiting people, and all the little roads to places like the witterings, dell quay etc were jammed up solid, and the A27 itself was pretty slow too. I reckon everyone took to the coast for a final late summer weekend

Yep, all the photos from the iPhone. Pano rather obviously for the wide-angle and an app called Camera+ for regular shots (it allows you to choose where to focus and where to expose for, and then let's do some tweaks and add borders).

Funnily enough we were sat in the heat saying "if only you could get in the water the same way you can in the Med..." which led to pushing out the passarelle and jumping in anyway. Flipping cold tho.

Rita and I drop to a 4 day week as of today, so we're getting closer. We'll take a long weekend and come and buy you dinner ;-)

 

[mjf]

Hi

We did the same - in the Ancasta (ex berth holders) car park at 1400hrs Friday after a fast run down the M3 in blazing sunshine were underway at 1415hrs.

We tootled over to Newtown having seen many empty berths at Swanwick and thought it was either going to be quiet or like hell! We anchored at 1600 on the dot and I have never seen so many boats up in the lake. 30+ mainly sail boat round the bend.

We found what was we think the last of two spots suitable for us which had the benefit of having 'protection' around us as no-one else would get anywhere close. No wind and spring tides saw to that.....

I have been on 'your' buoy and on springs - when we approached i was within half a boat length of aborting as 0.4m under keel was showing. I did not know until then how shallow it is at the end of the buoy run! It was on that occassion that on the ebb both my shafts auto rotated!


Like you no genny, bog or engines run at LW!


We had two wonderful nights - a three cigar w/e and did the star gazing bit too. Three sats seen and a shooting star to boot. The F/B was very damp by 1930hrs but oddly the overhang kept the ccockpit seat dry - it was lovely bring the saloon table outside and enjoy 'silver- service' dinner with such wonderful sunset skies in that wonderful peaceful place. Soooo luckly we have that.


Yesterday - it was a zoo at lunchtime as the incomers kept up with leavers - we even had the yarmouth lifeboat off the entrance to tow a raggie.

 

[kcrane]

We had two wonderful nights - a three cigar w/e and did the star gazing bit too. Three sats seen and a shooting star to boot. The F/B was very damp by 1930hrs but oddly the overhang kept the ccockpit seat dry - it was lovely bring the saloon table outside and enjoy 'silver- service' dinner with such wonderful sunset skies in that wonderful peaceful place. Soooo luckly we have that.

Yep, don't think I'd use those last few buoys again unless at full neap tide.

Darn, we could have come over in the dinghy so you could point out the satellites

There was a very heavy dew, I thought it had rained when I saw the sunpad, dried off quick enough in the sun.

 

[mjf]

Forgot - saw seastart on saturday and three times yesterday!

Also - on sat morning No 2/3/4 bouys all came free and No 4 right behind me was empty from 0700 to 1130Hrs - shouting 'come and take me' SWMBO and I both agreed after the last times WNS eposide that we were safe as nil wind. In fact a friend motored in at lunchtime and went straight onto No 3 no problems.

Coming out I had a scare though firstly a bloker did anchor too close at sunday lunch and when we swung his chain was 1/2 boat length off my tender. He was asked to extend his scope which he did - his anchor was under my boat and i wondered how he was planning to leave as he had no idea of our plan to 'escape' mid afternoon. He had zero idea how much cable he had out when i enquired.

Then upon departure just as i passed a yacht a small boy dived into the water and appeared right in my path - emergency stop both! Luckily I did not hit him! Many red faces on the yacht however!