Not so smug now...

C08

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About this time of year I switch from being pleased that I have a cheap sheltered trot mooring up the creek from Portsmouth to dreading a call from someone in the sailing club calling to tell me the boat has gone "walkabout"!

*****Happy Christmas everyone-hope all boats are secure through the windy weather-good health and safe sailing for 2014.*****

keith
 
About this time of year I switch from being pleased that I have a cheap sheltered trot mooring up the creek from Portsmouth to dreading a call from someone in the sailing club calling to tell me the boat has gone "walkabout"!

*****Happy Christmas everyone-hope all boats are secure through the windy weather-good health and safe sailing for 2014.*****

keith

My boat is hopefully on her mooring at Christchurch. I notice that Hurst Castle ( http://www.weather-file.com/hurst/graph.htm ) is holding 50 knots wind on average from the south.
 
I can remember helplessly watching Avocet bucking and rolling gunwhales-under, on a mooring near Beaumaris on Anglesey in a bad blow once! (Didn't seem to do any harm though, just terrifying to watch at the time)! In fact, less damage than one nasty blow in Whitehaven Marina with a beam wind where she managed to roll far enough to hook the leeward gunwhale udner the pontoon (which wrecked a few stanchion bases). Luckily the shrouds held.
 
About this time of year I switch from being pleased that I have a cheap sheltered trot mooring up the creek from Portsmouth to dreading a call from someone in the sailing club calling to tell me the boat has gone "walkabout"!

*****Happy Christmas everyone-hope all boats are secure through the windy weather-good health and safe sailing for 2014.*****

keith

Jissel's mooring is in the wind tunnel off Quay Lane. I'm a bit concerned that the mooring's due a service, I've ordered it, but it hasn't been done.

In the last blow, I kept her on the Hardway pontoon, but I was a bit slow today. By the time I could get down from London, I reckon the wind would be enough to make getting out to her potentialy dangerous, so my baby's on her own tonight :(
 
Steve, you have no chance of getting out to her, peeps are struggling to walk down Gosport high street at the moment and doesn't look like much of a change until breakfast tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Pete
 
For Steve, wind has now died down, its just pissing down in Gosport now, the garden furniture which has gone walkabout will have to wait until tomorrow.

Pete
 
Thanks for the timely reminder. I must pop down and double up the lines tomorrow. Luckily I'm very sheltered in Haslar Creek, but a drop of prevention is always better than a ton of Cure.
 
I remember being phoned by Dolphin Marina at Poole at 0530 just before one Christmas. They informed me that my yacht had been rescued by the Poole pilot as it tried to escape down the entrance. It was now at their marina

The weather was benign. The ground chain had worn through. My mistake was trusting a cruising 'friend' that the mooring was in good condition. The guy responsible for checking the private mooring later told me that he had told the owner that the mooring was only fit to hold the mooring buoy .... 12 months prior.

I have never forgotten the help of the wonderful Poole pilots and the staff of the Dolphin Marina. I have never trusted moorings since ..... and have seen many fail whilst in service.

I must also say that club moorings tend to be much more worth of trust than a lot of the private/commercial moorings.

Good luck to you all up there.
 
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