Haslar Boat Jumble Weekend

Saturday 18^th  February… It was a foggy start at home this morning, but WOW it’s sunny and warm on the South Coast!  Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but for the time of year it’s a super day. Not a cloud in the sky and plenty of people about in the Marina.  It’s the first boat jumble of the year tomorrow at Haslar Marina, and as always we’re looking forward to finding some bargains to walk away with. 

Anyway, we were happy to find Thesee’s new lazy bag waiting for us. Unfortunately the wind (albeit slight) was from the South East and so we had to turn Thesee around before we could put the main sail up and fit the lazy bag. Everything seems to be fine now that the canvas maker has added an extra piece. (You may remember in the last blog, I talked about it being too small to enclose the sail and zip up). 

Putting the batons into the new lazy bag

Let’s see how we get on with it next time we go for a sail (tomorrow afternoon fingers crossed). Don’t forget you can track us on our travels at www.vesselfinder.com or www.marinetraffic.com 

Dean fitted the new serpentine belt, so that’s all sorted until he can get to fit the new alternator. I’m not even going into the ins and outs of this because it’s way past my thought process. Let’s hope Saffy does the blogging that weekend.

The old alternator with new belt and adjuster

Sunday 19^th February… Up bright and early after a really cosy sleep last night. We set off to the boat jumble at 9.15am giving ourselves plenty of time to amble across to Haslar Marina, walking Saffy through the model boating lake park on the way. There was a fairly long queue to get in, much longer than last year. We managed to find a couple of things to buy, the biggest bargain being a spare electric plug-in cable for a fiver. It’s so long Dean reckons it’ll reach the Isle of Wight!

We got back to Thesee about lunchtime and went with our plan to sail across to Priory Bay (near Bembridge). Yippee, finally we can do some sailing…the first since New Year. En-route we called up Gosport NCI (National Coastguard Institution) for a radio check on Channel 65. The NCI is an entirely voluntary organisation keeping a visual watch along UK shores. The yachting magazines are always reminding us to use this channel for radio checks and weather information, instead of calling Solent Coastguard on Channel 67. 

Making our way out of Portsmouth

There's a posh hotel inside here

It was a good sail and only takes about 1.5 hrs, and we had decided if we felt happy we would stay overnight. It’s not easy to sleep at anchor because you are always on edge, listening to the creaks and wondering whether all is well. The weather is calm tonight so it’s a good opportunity to get some practise in. 

Monday 20^th February… It was a night of broken sleep as expected. However we’re glad to report no mishaps at anchor, just 3 weary crew today. We were up at 6am as daylight broke and ready for the off by 8am. We had the Solent to ourselves apart from a couple of ferries, one hovercraft, one dredger and HMS Blazer. Arriving back at base, Linda was feeling brave and took the chance to practise berthing Thesee in the calm conditions.

Not many photo opportunities today, so the best thing I can show you is Dean’s latest project. 

These are low friction rings which he picked up at the boat jumble yesterday. They’ll be used instead of blocks (pulleys to me and you) when rigging the parasailor. I don’t know how he thinks it all up. 

Linda spent half an hour organising the waypoints on the Chartplotter. Wikipedia states, "A waypoint is a term used to refer to an intermediate point or place on a route or line of travel, a stopping point or point at which course is changed". Next time we're here we hope to sail to Portland, so as Navigator she's added some appropriate waypoints to head for.

It feels good to get out sailing again. Unfortunately the marine growth on Thesee's bottom is looking rather grim. Maybe time for another jet-wash?