TheBoatman
Well-Known Member
It all started with a phone call from a good friend of mine that had bought a new Grand Soleil 45. The boat having been to the SIBS was to be returned to her mooring on the Medway. A delivery crew would bring it as far as Ramsgate after that it was up to the two of us to take her to her final resting place.
All was arranged with the hand over in Ramsgate last Tuesday night. My friend duly made all the normal arrangements i.e if you drive your car here and abandon it I’ll get X to pick you up and take you there, then you change cars and come here etc. He informed me that the boat would be in Ramsgate at 20.18 hrs according to the delivery skipper (yer right). On the way to Ramsgate a quick mobile call to the skipper informed us that they were at least 1 ½ hours behind schedule, so it’s into the RTYC for a couple of beers, with constant trips out to the balcony to view the dark horizon.
After 2 pints of the black stuff the boat arrived and because of the hour it was quickly moored up and all 4 of us went ashore for something to eat, at that time of night in Ramsgate it was the Indian that ended up with our trade. Copious amounts of beer and wine were consumed before we finally went back to the boat, having arrived back the scotch bottle was attacked with vigour.
Next morning I awoke to a very stiff southerly breeze and the promise of more wind and rain. The delivery crew left to return whence they came leaving us to get on with it.
I programmed the route into the CP and told the skipper there was no way I was leaving port with any main up that we should go under genny alone. With the skipper driving I cast off and contacted port control for permission to leave, this was granted and we disappeared round the corner of the west pier head and promptly run aground. Having got ourselves off we returned to the pontoon and sat for 1 ½ hrs until we had enough water (I must brush up on secondary ports) By the time we left the wind had shifted more to the west so motor sailing was the order of the day. We flew up past the N. Foreland in 35 knts of wind heading for E. Margate when we were suddenly hit by a gust, which registered 52 knts over the deck. The boat took off on her own for a couple of minutes with us hanging on for dear life. Control was regained but our composure took a little longer. We then headed for the Princes Channel which on Wednesday was like heading for the M25 on a Friday night. We had ships of all types coming and going down that channel, crossing a TSS is not half as bad as running with shipping in a narrow channel, we had bulk carriers, ferries, tugs, coasters and container ships, what we didn’t see were any other yachts. I would have to say that all those commercial guys were very good to us and gave us as wider berth as they could (they probably were so surprised to see 2 lunatics out in a yacht in those conditions that they felt sorry for us, everyone that passed us gave us a wave that was returned).
Despite the copious amounts of water that was coming over the decks we still managed to heat a couple of pies and make a brew which kept our sprits up. I must admit that for the first time in a long while I actually started to feel queasy with all the rolling motion the boat was doing, but I hung on as we were travelling at a reasonable pace and I believe that part of feeling “off” was because I wasn’t skippering the boat and had relaxed into crewing mode.
Once inside the Medway everything went quiet so we made more tea, turned on the Erberspacher, dried out and tided up.
Will I crew again, yes, but preferably not in those conditions, If I had been skipper I don’t think I would have left port but as crew it wasn’t my decision to make. The boat is fully kitted out and has all the latest electronics all inter connected so most of the trip was done with the auto helm on. We averaged 9.4 knts (SOG) with max wind gust of 52 knts, top speed was 12.8 knts all this with just a genny with 4 turns taken out. Apart from our little wind gust I actually felt quite safe for all the trip.
Signed
One very wet, but now dried out Boatman.
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All was arranged with the hand over in Ramsgate last Tuesday night. My friend duly made all the normal arrangements i.e if you drive your car here and abandon it I’ll get X to pick you up and take you there, then you change cars and come here etc. He informed me that the boat would be in Ramsgate at 20.18 hrs according to the delivery skipper (yer right). On the way to Ramsgate a quick mobile call to the skipper informed us that they were at least 1 ½ hours behind schedule, so it’s into the RTYC for a couple of beers, with constant trips out to the balcony to view the dark horizon.
After 2 pints of the black stuff the boat arrived and because of the hour it was quickly moored up and all 4 of us went ashore for something to eat, at that time of night in Ramsgate it was the Indian that ended up with our trade. Copious amounts of beer and wine were consumed before we finally went back to the boat, having arrived back the scotch bottle was attacked with vigour.
Next morning I awoke to a very stiff southerly breeze and the promise of more wind and rain. The delivery crew left to return whence they came leaving us to get on with it.
I programmed the route into the CP and told the skipper there was no way I was leaving port with any main up that we should go under genny alone. With the skipper driving I cast off and contacted port control for permission to leave, this was granted and we disappeared round the corner of the west pier head and promptly run aground. Having got ourselves off we returned to the pontoon and sat for 1 ½ hrs until we had enough water (I must brush up on secondary ports) By the time we left the wind had shifted more to the west so motor sailing was the order of the day. We flew up past the N. Foreland in 35 knts of wind heading for E. Margate when we were suddenly hit by a gust, which registered 52 knts over the deck. The boat took off on her own for a couple of minutes with us hanging on for dear life. Control was regained but our composure took a little longer. We then headed for the Princes Channel which on Wednesday was like heading for the M25 on a Friday night. We had ships of all types coming and going down that channel, crossing a TSS is not half as bad as running with shipping in a narrow channel, we had bulk carriers, ferries, tugs, coasters and container ships, what we didn’t see were any other yachts. I would have to say that all those commercial guys were very good to us and gave us as wider berth as they could (they probably were so surprised to see 2 lunatics out in a yacht in those conditions that they felt sorry for us, everyone that passed us gave us a wave that was returned).
Despite the copious amounts of water that was coming over the decks we still managed to heat a couple of pies and make a brew which kept our sprits up. I must admit that for the first time in a long while I actually started to feel queasy with all the rolling motion the boat was doing, but I hung on as we were travelling at a reasonable pace and I believe that part of feeling “off” was because I wasn’t skippering the boat and had relaxed into crewing mode.
Once inside the Medway everything went quiet so we made more tea, turned on the Erberspacher, dried out and tided up.
Will I crew again, yes, but preferably not in those conditions, If I had been skipper I don’t think I would have left port but as crew it wasn’t my decision to make. The boat is fully kitted out and has all the latest electronics all inter connected so most of the trip was done with the auto helm on. We averaged 9.4 knts (SOG) with max wind gust of 52 knts, top speed was 12.8 knts all this with just a genny with 4 turns taken out. Apart from our little wind gust I actually felt quite safe for all the trip.
Signed
One very wet, but now dried out Boatman.
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