FullCircle
Well-Known Member
I invite my work team out for a day on the boat each year, and so they all tramped down the pontoon at 9am on Saturday. Puffy bits of wind not strong enough to move the heavy rump of Full Circle meant that we spent the majority of the day motoring, but took advantage of a large tide to go into the Roach and down the Middleway, Narrow Cuts round Rushley Island, ending up next to Havengore before heading back to Wakering, and through the Potton swing bridge, anchoring in the Rochford end of Paglesham for lunch.
Fantastic spread laid on by all, with a bottle or two and comparing wildlife photos. As the ebb flowed out, we upped sticks at 1.7m and went back out of the Roach past Paglesham and back to Bridgemarsh late in the afternoon with just about a foot to spare on the bar going in.
After attaching ourselves to the pontoon, we spent more time relaxing in the cockpit, and then headed up onto the grassy BBQ area in Briidgemarsh.
This area is a complete credit to Biff & John, as it has several benches and seating, 2 barbecues (although we brought our own) and the whole area is in neatly trimmed grass with interesting shrubs and borders, all of which looks out over the Island and the pontoons. It was a lovely evening and finished around 9pm. We waved off our 6 guests and went back for a night cap, when we were joined by Paul & Sue of Roaring Forty II, who we hadn't seen since Full Circle was sat in the water awaiting the rigger to finish before it was commissioned back in 2005. So that was lovely too, although I was having trpouble not dribbling red wine by this time.
A splendid nights sleep brought us the dawn streaming through the boat into the forecabin at 0545 and Lynn went off after breakfast to collect our Daughter and Grandson for the day.
I set up MiniBoat, the Walker Bay 8, and it was a light airs morning so I had little Jamie (4) in the dinghy for the first time.
He got the steering bit straight away, and had no trouble at all steering a course with a bit of nudging. Excellent, and a proud Mum, Nanny and Grandad. Then we put the Mercury cake mixer on the back and set off under motor. Within minutes he was also controlling the throttle and steering the dinghy very accurately, and understood the need to go slowly in the area of moored boats.
Lynn and Chatting Lil jumped in Miniboat, which was hilarious, very funny to watch. Quite how they could do so many 360 degree turns in such a short bit of creek will always remain a mystery.
Black magic had some special guest crew, and they set off , but managed to snag the inflatable painter in the prop on departure (or not departure) which held them up for a while.
A grand lunch on Black Magic and then a suggestion to take here out for a spin, which we all agreed was a good idea. So we set off making sure dinghy painters were out of harms way, but then Lynn managed to snag the aft line on the pontoon cleat which ,meant that Black Magic was intimate with both adjacent boats, but no damage.
Off for a couple of hours sail in Black Magic, and then a float back downwind against tide home. Then the third thing (for there are always three things). Go to start the engine and nothing, nada, not a sausage, no power, no wheeing alarm noise, oh bugger.
No problem, so we devised a plan to sail back onto the pontoon, and that was what we did. Guest rock star crew tried the engine again when we were only 50 yds short of the Fairway entrance, and it magically fired up (dunno why), but we carried out our plan to sail.
Even if I say so myself, we did a perfect tect book landing on the pontoon with best use of tide and wind strength/direction and did not crash the boat at all. Chuffed we all were.
So we celebrated with a jug of Pimms in the cockpit of Full Circle.
Packed up quite late and headed off, picked up a kebab from Ali Babas in Southend and watched the last half hour of Top Gear.
A brilliant, brilliant weekend.
Fantastic spread laid on by all, with a bottle or two and comparing wildlife photos. As the ebb flowed out, we upped sticks at 1.7m and went back out of the Roach past Paglesham and back to Bridgemarsh late in the afternoon with just about a foot to spare on the bar going in.
After attaching ourselves to the pontoon, we spent more time relaxing in the cockpit, and then headed up onto the grassy BBQ area in Briidgemarsh.
This area is a complete credit to Biff & John, as it has several benches and seating, 2 barbecues (although we brought our own) and the whole area is in neatly trimmed grass with interesting shrubs and borders, all of which looks out over the Island and the pontoons. It was a lovely evening and finished around 9pm. We waved off our 6 guests and went back for a night cap, when we were joined by Paul & Sue of Roaring Forty II, who we hadn't seen since Full Circle was sat in the water awaiting the rigger to finish before it was commissioned back in 2005. So that was lovely too, although I was having trpouble not dribbling red wine by this time.
A splendid nights sleep brought us the dawn streaming through the boat into the forecabin at 0545 and Lynn went off after breakfast to collect our Daughter and Grandson for the day.
I set up MiniBoat, the Walker Bay 8, and it was a light airs morning so I had little Jamie (4) in the dinghy for the first time.
He got the steering bit straight away, and had no trouble at all steering a course with a bit of nudging. Excellent, and a proud Mum, Nanny and Grandad. Then we put the Mercury cake mixer on the back and set off under motor. Within minutes he was also controlling the throttle and steering the dinghy very accurately, and understood the need to go slowly in the area of moored boats.
Lynn and Chatting Lil jumped in Miniboat, which was hilarious, very funny to watch. Quite how they could do so many 360 degree turns in such a short bit of creek will always remain a mystery.
Black magic had some special guest crew, and they set off , but managed to snag the inflatable painter in the prop on departure (or not departure) which held them up for a while.
A grand lunch on Black Magic and then a suggestion to take here out for a spin, which we all agreed was a good idea. So we set off making sure dinghy painters were out of harms way, but then Lynn managed to snag the aft line on the pontoon cleat which ,meant that Black Magic was intimate with both adjacent boats, but no damage.
Off for a couple of hours sail in Black Magic, and then a float back downwind against tide home. Then the third thing (for there are always three things). Go to start the engine and nothing, nada, not a sausage, no power, no wheeing alarm noise, oh bugger.
No problem, so we devised a plan to sail back onto the pontoon, and that was what we did. Guest rock star crew tried the engine again when we were only 50 yds short of the Fairway entrance, and it magically fired up (dunno why), but we carried out our plan to sail.
Even if I say so myself, we did a perfect tect book landing on the pontoon with best use of tide and wind strength/direction and did not crash the boat at all. Chuffed we all were.
So we celebrated with a jug of Pimms in the cockpit of Full Circle.
Packed up quite late and headed off, picked up a kebab from Ali Babas in Southend and watched the last half hour of Top Gear.
A brilliant, brilliant weekend.
a few interesting minutes had things under control except that my hat blew off and is currently heading towards Southend Pier 
Hey ho.
