sailbad should have been aboard the glen rosa(lon

[sailbadthesinner]

but still nearly lost his glasses on his own troubled venture

so set off 9:30 am saturday morning
headed out of front door of home port. headed to sports and social club, only place in the village showing the england game

such were the conditions i found myself the only one there.
barmaid jill had braved it out to open up and turn the big screen on
she assured me others would be out later, but i was not convinced

managed to get to the bar. it was looking quiet so i headed out from the bar into the open lounge. It was eerily still and conditions were light. i hove to infront of the screen with six cans of guiness and one pint glass. was not sure the emergency services would make it out so had decided to take on this extra fuel.

halfway through game suffered first major set back. ran out of fuel. had 2 choices. head back to the bar or send out a distress signal for a refuel. decided to call for help. new fuel delivered and started replnishing tanks.

extra time. had now devloped a nasty list to port and sufferred near knock down twice on way back from toilet and nearly lost my glasses.

two more fuel stops and it was all over. however lounge was looking black. the light was failing . 'max i am closing now' i heard on the net.

i had to get accross the lounge in a hurry. i piloted my way around the numerous cans that were not there on my initial passage. made it safely through the gate but had a nav proiblem. should i try across the field to the Railway Inn or head along the rough passage to the Plough and Harrow. i had a ten minute window to get to the Plough but i knew the journey was less than five. . decided to chance the passage. made my way from the sports and social still listing to port badly. autopilot was also suffering intermittent failure and the course was weaving somewhat, every now and then manual correction was required.

i had to hold station outside the plough and harrow at the outer sandwich board marker at the Plough as the entrance could not be negotiated until midday. was just negotiating last part of the entrance and had the bar in sight when i recieved an urgent call from a vessel behind. turns out it was SS SWMBO. unfortunately the shadow of the bar was disturbing my transmitter and my response was apparently coming accross as 'slurred.'

SS SWMBO went into fast intercept mode. but i managed to get tied up safely in the plough and was replenishing my fuel tanks again. spoke to the master in the plough and he put down my fuel tank problem as 'mild acloholism.' have looked it up in my tom cunliffe book but cannot find it mentioned.

SS SWMBO came alongside and i recounted my voyage a sole navigator around the sports and social. it appeared SWMBO had taen on fuel on my account and i was forced to have both vessells replenished. list to port was gtting worse and had to be taken in tow by swmbo. i refused the tow for a few minutes but SS SWMBO made hostile boarding and secured my lines under protest.

was eventually towed back to home port. all requests for additional fuel were refused. radio silence was also in force.



<hr width=100% size=1><font color=red>if guinness is good for you. i must be very very good</font color=red>

 

[Twister_Ken]

Geography

Can't believe no-one but you turned up to watch the final. Haven't moved to New Zealand, have you?

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[jhr]

ROTFL

Sorry to hear about your problems. I faced similar navigational difficulties myself on Saturday, ultimately getting stuck in the inner passage of The Jolly Sailor, which took a bit of explaining to SWMBO, though it still sounds preferable to going up the rough passage to the Plough and Harrow.

You spoke of problems with "cans" and I wonder if there was some confusion (understandable in the circumstances) about whether you were inward or outward bound? If the latter, of course, then you should have kept them to Starboard, rather than pouring their contents down your throat. If inward bound, perhaps you thought that "Port" was a reference to their contents?



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[MainlySteam]

Re: Geography

If Sailbad was in New Zealand he would have found that we fit into two classes these days - forced teetotal as nothing left to celebrate anymore, or forced drunken bessotedness from drowning the sorrows of not having anything to left celebrate anymore.

John

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[BrendanS]

Re: Geography

Oh I don't know. You lot did invent fly by wire, one of the best rides known to mankind. Brilliant. Even Jeremy Clarkson has been on it

<hr width=100% size=1>Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo

 

[MainlySteam]

Re: Geography

Don't know which one you did but the one just down the road a wee ways from us got washed out in a flood a month or so back. I guess you did the South Island one though?

John

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[BrendanS]

Re: Geography

Did the North Island one. Washed out! Are they going to replace it? I did look at setting one up in the UK, but finding a location that would pull in enough tourists, right shape and size and could get planning permission for is a little difficult. Don't like what they did in the US where they simply put it on huge pylons - not the same as flying up a valley side with your nose a few feet from the ground

Haven't been to South Island yet. Was hoping too last month, but too busy to take time off. When is a good time to visit early in 2004, out of peak season, but weather still reasonable - end of Feb?

<hr width=100% size=1>Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo

 

[MainlySteam]

Re: Geography

Feb, Mar ok but starts getting frosts down the bottom end inland end of March. We spent 4 weeks end April beginning May this year top of South Island in the boat and was nice, and also warm. Feb, Mar are the best and most settled summer months and schools are back by then too.

We are just a wee way north on the coast from the North Island f b wire one. It was washed out from water and gravel coming down the hillside, flooded the central part of the township down the bottom and closed the main road for about 18 hours or so. Don't know if you remember the scruffy motel just below it - it had gravel halfway up the walls inside the units, and the BP petrol station on the main road had its forecourt looking like a river bed. Don't know what they intend doing regarding replacing the fly by wire but everything else has been cleaned up.

Same night, about 9 pm, an old Corsair twin engined plane carrying courier stuff crashed into the sea out from where we are - they found it days later in around 35 m of water about 3.5 nm from our house - surprisingly both my wife and I heard it hit the sea even though it was that far away. Of course, we didn't know what it was at the time but knew something had happened when the helicopters appeared in the dark. Sounded just like a big sheetmetal tank being dropped onto concrete.

All this trouble, sounds indeed like Sailbad was out here on one of his drunken adventures!

John

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[BrendanS]

Re: Geography

Sounds like I should try and go for Feb then.

Don't remember the motel, but remember the BP station - stopped there to ask directions and fill up. We had an RV, and stayed at the RV park next to the sea (that took some finding!) Funny thing is that we weren't planning on staying there..were just driving north out of Wellington when I saw the sign for the FBW sign, and having read something about it, told SWMBO that I just had to have a go. , Stopped at the BP station and was told it was too late and open in morning, and could stay at the RV/campsite minutes away. That's the best things about RV holidays, you don't need to plan anything.

That sounds like one hell of a wash out, and didn't look like the sort of area that would suffer from it. Plane crashing too makes for quite a tale.

Not sure Sailbad is the worst Jonah though, there's a couple on Mobo who could give him a good run

<hr width=100% size=1>Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo