Saturday
11th November… We’ve returned to the coast after 4 days at
home to squeeze in a late autumn holiday aboard our beloved Thesee.
It seems our last blog entitled ‘Bonfire Weekend’
didn’t have any mention of Bonfires or Fireworks. Whoops a daisy! Thanks Wendy for
your excellent observation skills, and we’re happy to hear you’ve been keeping
your eye on us and our exploits. We’ll try not to miss any important details
about today’s blog entry, lol 😃
Dean’s been suffering with man flu for almost a
week now, but he’s been putting on a brave face. Today boosted his morale no
end, putting his ‘finely tuned’ ebaying skills to the test. On the way down here
in the car, we watched on his phone as he won his bidding for an external fuel
tank for the new dinghy. This, after someone tried to outbid him with just 10
seconds to go!
On reaching Fareham, we called in to pick up a
special second-hand boat hook for a mere £16 which he found online. Pictures of this gadget tomorrow.
We arrived at the marina and got settled in,
greeting Thesee with a big cuddle as always. Dean’s attention soon turned to
scrubbing clean the new Avon dinghy. Then we launched it, attached the new
outboard engine and Dean went for a test run. He was very pleased and obviously
it will take some getting used to. Hopefully this week we get chance to get a
lot of practise in. After all this excitement we used the davit to hoist the
outboard engine back on to Thesee. Then we lifted the dinghy on deck. It’s a
bit more awkward and slightly heavier than the old one, but we still managed to
do it by hand.
.
Looking spick and span
Boys and their toys
Getting technical now with a dinghy pressure gauge
And not forgetting the new dinghy wheels (yet to be attached)
After Saffy’s walk it was almost dark. Dean went
for a shower in the marina’s lovely new shower block, and Linda decided to
begin reading the RYA Radar handbook. During the evening we had ANOTHER ebay win, securing the M45 Tuscan Archipelago chart! We think we will stay put for a couple of
days and plan to venture out somewhere possibly Tuesday. There’s a bit of a
blow coming through tomorrow.
Sunday
12th November… It's Remembrance Sunday today and we heard the gun
salutes from across the harbour whilst watching the cenotaph events on TV.
It was a day of bits and bobs for Dean....
Job 1 - Adjusted the carburettor on the outboard
engine, and checked the oil (after the service/oil change he did the other
day).
Job 2 – Fitted the polished anchor bracket and
pin. This job is now complete and seems to be working well. We’re looking forward
to trying the anchor out for real, sometime this week hopefully.
Job 3 – Spliced a stainless steel thimble into the
end of a line. It looks brilliant, clever boy.
Meanwhile Linda was caught posing with the new
boat hook, which she intends to practise with once this cold wind has passed
by. No more radar reading today.
Monday
13th November… Not a great deal going on today. The weather
has calmed as predicted, but we’ve lost the sunshine now and it’s still chilly.
After visiting the Southampton Boat Show last
September, we’ve decided to get a new mattress made for our bed in the
forecabin. Well if you’re going to cruise the Med you might as well do it in
total comfort. Today the man from the bed company came to see us and mark out a
template for our new super duper pocket sprung mattress. We also ordered a
mattress protector, two sets of fitted sheets plus pillowcases, and a dry mesh anti-moisture
layer to go under the mattress. Our bed is rather an awkward shape and ordinary
bedding just doesn’t work ….. Oh, and we also ordered a bespoke fitted sheet
for the very awkward sized bed in the aft cabin. So anyone out there thinking
of coming to stay you will no longer have to fight with the sheet from now on!
We just need to win the lottery now to pay for it all.
This afternoon we had a little play with the
dinghy again, this time lifting it on deck using the spinnaker halyard. It
worked really well, think this will be the way to go.
Tomorrow we’re planning an early start to catch
the tide up the Solent and into the River Medina at Cowes. Seems we will need
to do some tacking as there is a westerly wind forecast.
Tuesday
14th November… Well today was a great sail up
the Solent, and we did it in 3 tacks instead of the 5 tacks we were expecting.
This was because the wind was WSW instead of W for most of the morning. And we
arrived at 11.00 hrs instead of noon.
Today's track from Gosport to The Folly (we're in the red box)
We entered the River Medina and stopped
at the fuel berth to fill up before continuing to Folly Reach, the fuel attendant
happy to accept a slice of lemon cake from us.
Dean says it’s advisable to keep your tank full throughout the winter to
stop condensation.
We moored up on the Folly River pontoon, unloaded
the dingy and outboard, then we both went for another test run up and down the
river to get used to it. Wow, it can certainly get some speed on! In fact Linda
wanted to ‘slow down a bit’ as she put it.
Late afternoon, we had a walk along the riverside
paths and then ended up in the Folly Inn for dinner and drinks. The food and
drinks were great, it’s a shame we were a bit too early for the quiz night.
Anyway, by 6.30pm we were back onboard Thesee chillin’ and watching TV.
Wednesday
15th November… Folly departure at 9am this
morning, and we passed Bladerunner on the way out of the river. If you remember
we mentioned Bladerunner in a previous blog….. the transport vessel for wind
turbine blades, but this time it was minus the blade.
It was real calm weather and we motored west
towards Newtown Creek. On the way Dean noticed that the batteries weren’t
charging and subsequently ascertained that the (new this year) alternator wasn’t
working properly. Oh no! We turned the engine off mid Solent so he could have a
fiddle, but nothing improved. So we headed into Newtown Creek as planned and
picked up Buoy number 2 in Clamerkin Lake. Oh beautiful Newtown Creek, as
serene as always. Lucky for us, Dean (Mr Spares) had kept the old alternator
and immediately set about changing the alternators over. More will follow on this issue in due course.
Cupboard doors are off again....there's engine work going on
Mid afternoon we took the Saffy ashore in the new
dinghy, with the new wheels this time. Everything went perfect and the wheels
worked a treat. Good job really as the dinghy and outboard together are too
heavy to carry up the beach above tide height.
Safe and sound while we go for a walk
This evening the couple of boats that were here
have left and we are all alone, that’s apart from the resident seal family of
course, who have been keeping us entertained throughout the day.
Here's some more photos that we took today.....
Here's some more photos that we took today.....
Cloud or hat?
Mr Seal... he's not really that shy
Saffy enjoying herself on deck....looking for Mr Seal again
Low water views from Thesee... the sail boat's in the Solent
Mirrored Thesee all alone in the lake
Thanks for the wine utensils Yasi
Thursday
16th November… A lie in today and then cheesy scrambled eggs on toast
for breakfast, yum. We decided to leave our overnight mooring in the creek and
head off to Hamble River.
I told you Mr Seal wasn't shy
The wind was in our favour but not the tide, and for
about 2 hours we just drifted under genoa going nowhere at 0.5kts in the beautiful sunshine.
We didn’t mind though and it gave us chance to put the radar on and familiarise
ourselves with the blobs on the screen. It was quite interesting to match them
up with what we could actually see for real.
Chart and Radar screens in sync
Eventually we had to turn the
engine on and motor the rest of the way or we’d still be out there now! We
arrived in the Hamble River at 3pm, finding plenty of space on the river
pontoon and mooring with ease.
Yes we can definately see you on our radar screen
Red sky (and sea) at night over Hamble Point marina
Unusual sight...the Warsash Sea Survival practise station
Bunny Meadows
Friday
17th November… A beautiful sunny day, and there’s lots of
photos so we’ll let the photos do most of the talking today. We took a morning
ramble to Holly Hill Woodland Park, this is our 3rd attempt at seeing
this place and we made it this time. After lunch we moved Thesee upstream to
Universal Marina for the night, then this evening we dinghy’d across the river
to Mercury Yacht Harbour where we attended our first Cruising Association
meeting and met some new yachties.
Strolling along the Hamble...
...where we spotted Dean's previous boat (Jasmine - the yellow one)
Some of the paths we walked today
Entering Holly Hill Park from the Hamble Foreshore
Linda at the lake
We chose a great time of year to visit
Redwood Tree, lovely setting
Garden of Palms
Great garden gate
Back on the river, Linda reckoned she could sail this tiny boat by herself!
Passing Charlie's yellow water taxi....and the pink ferry
Thesee at Universal Marina....where's the tide gone?
Saturday 18th November... So today we left Universal Marina at 12.30pm, the earliest we could really to get a fair tide with us back to Gosport. The forecast was rain with a force 5 wind. The journey turned out to be quite challenging with the wind coming over the stern quarter along with a moderate swell, making the trip quite rock and rolly for the most part. It was a little difficult to keep Thesee going in a straight line, having to correct the steering one way and then the next each time a wave passed us by. Anyway we made it back safely and without incident, which to us means it was a good trip.
This evening we ate dinner at The Victualler here in the marina. It's our first time at this place for a meal, having only been there once before for drinks on its opening night. It's a lovely rustic place, with good food and drink. We returned to Thesee with full tummies and didn't last long until bedtime. That's probably all the sailing done for this year as we are staying put tomorrow to do the chores.......get your marigolds out Saffy dog.
Sunday
19th November… Well today Dean spent his time cleaning the
new dinghy (again) and spraying it with UV protector. I must say he’s got it looking
a treat. He removed Thesee’s shiny name from the old dinghy and transferred it
onto the new one. It’s a fiddly job to do correctly and took a good while. Here’s
the finished product.
Dean’s multipurpose Hydrovane cover (the old burst
fender) also doubles up as a container for flushing fresh water through the
outboard engine. Here it is in action.
Meanwhile Saffy was keeping a very close eye on
the fan heater, and Linda was enjoying herself dustbusting. Later on we all went
for our usual walk to Forton Bridge and back. On the way back we saw Sir Robin
Knox Johnson, it looked like he was about to do a TV interview.
Tonight Linda made cherry shortbread stars, and we’ve
found out that HMS Queen Elizabeth is due to arrive in port tomorrow morning.
How exciting.
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