Babylon
Well-known member
3 straight weeks in July/Aug in and around Solent with Pup as crew. Had planned to go west, but realised early on that Pup is in fact an elite athlete masquerading as a rocket-ship design inspired by a lightening-bolt who needs a phenomenal amount of daily exercise - rather than having to endure long (for him) Lyme Bay crossings or being stuck at anchor somewhere! So in the event our adventure was a more prudent but sometimes very crowded one, ranging between Swanage and Itchenor.
Many barbequed chicken bones were stolen from families on the beach and vomited up as splinters on the cabin floor late at night. Rotten fish carcases snaffled on an Isle of Wight foreshore also helped to fully liquify diarrhea to enable it to leak rapidly through the gaps in the floor-boards onto the flexible water-tanks below. Pontoons were quickly cleared of any soiling with of a bucket or two of seawater (the only complaint came from a middle-aged carcass off a large yacht with a curious, very big white flag on the back, who didn't know that salt-water is an excellent cleaning agent - the male of the species prudently kept out of it!). Pup got his first ride on an open-topped bus, and made great friends with a trio of severely disabled people and their carers.
Most of all, he quickly learnt to spot that, viewed from seaward, the thin horizontal strip of yellow above the blue wet stuff but below the green/brown/grey earth stuff meant BEACH !!!!!!!!
As to his skipper, when it got very hot the absence of shower facilities (e.g. Itchenor HM had closed theirs) exacerbated my heat-rash on my back, but a flannel regularly doused with cold water from the foot-pumped spout in the heads helped soothe things.
Every year is different....
PS - When he ate the straps off his orange buoyancy aid for the second time, I realised that it was making him very uncomfortable. By that point it was clear that he could swim very well, so I binned it and he just wore his florescent walking harness (complete with recovery-hoop) all the time except when below at night.
Many barbequed chicken bones were stolen from families on the beach and vomited up as splinters on the cabin floor late at night. Rotten fish carcases snaffled on an Isle of Wight foreshore also helped to fully liquify diarrhea to enable it to leak rapidly through the gaps in the floor-boards onto the flexible water-tanks below. Pontoons were quickly cleared of any soiling with of a bucket or two of seawater (the only complaint came from a middle-aged carcass off a large yacht with a curious, very big white flag on the back, who didn't know that salt-water is an excellent cleaning agent - the male of the species prudently kept out of it!). Pup got his first ride on an open-topped bus, and made great friends with a trio of severely disabled people and their carers.
Most of all, he quickly learnt to spot that, viewed from seaward, the thin horizontal strip of yellow above the blue wet stuff but below the green/brown/grey earth stuff meant BEACH !!!!!!!!
As to his skipper, when it got very hot the absence of shower facilities (e.g. Itchenor HM had closed theirs) exacerbated my heat-rash on my back, but a flannel regularly doused with cold water from the foot-pumped spout in the heads helped soothe things.
Every year is different....
PS - When he ate the straps off his orange buoyancy aid for the second time, I realised that it was making him very uncomfortable. By that point it was clear that he could swim very well, so I binned it and he just wore his florescent walking harness (complete with recovery-hoop) all the time except when below at night.
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