With a mid-day high tide it began to look even better, and so it was that when I got up in the morning I was more than chuffed to see that the sunshine was there as promised - but unfortunately the wind wasn't... 'go to the boat anyway', said the current Mrs Steve-the-Wargamer, "you can sit and have a coffee'.. job done...
On the way I picked up 5 litres of fresh fuel as one of the jobs I had in mind was to change the outboard fuel (which had been in the tank at least two months).. my outboard engineer - who I trust implicitly (30+ years in the business, and regularly consulted by the UK agents for the main brands on technical queries/issues) - once told me that the new fuel constituents (ethanol and the like) are contributing to a shorter and shorter shelf life, he reckoned you're better off changing any old fuel every couple of months rather than risk it causing a problem to the engine - he also advised buying cheap fuel (from supermarkets and the like) better to buy from a branded petrol station.. so I've followed that advice ever since - any old fuel I chuck in the car where it's mixed with 20+ litres of fresh and isn't going to cause a problem - in this case it was four litres of fresh replacing two or litres of old, and all good, and suffice to say the outboard started first pull despite having lain int he bottom of the boat for the last two weeks...
Fuel swapped it was time to scrub the waterline - she's growing some weed but two transits of the boat with the stiff bristle broom braced against the dinghy thwart and sawed backwards and forwards saw streams of weed and clouds of blue anti-foul drifting off down tide.. she's now much cleaner and there's less anti-foul to get off when she comes out...
Climbing back on board I was contemplating a coffee when I noticed a very slight breeze had come up while I was busy.. north-westerly/westerly.. sod it quoth I, lets go for a drift... it was an hour after HT so I was only planning to go to the end of the ditch and back... got everything ready, raided the bar for a beer, got the fishing rod out as I thought it might be an opportunity, dropped the mooring and headed for the channel... pulled the main up by the bridge (or rather did after I noticed there was still a sail tie on at the mainsheet end!
) and gently motored off down the cut while I got the rod ready.. engine off and up by Northney and then gently sailed with tide as I trolled with the rod over the side, when bugger me if I didn't get a bite.... most unusual - a nice 10" mackerel which was returned to the briny after it's photo opportunity...
..a most excellent day - the sun shone, the rain stayed off, the beer was good, and I caught a fish...
Back ashore and I found that the lift out schedule is published - Sparrow comes out of the water for the winter on the 21st., I'm on lift out duty on the 22nd... looks like we need a countdown counter to concentrate the mind.... never mind, Southampton Boat Show this weekend!
Log:
Distance: 4.83 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind: Both ends of a F2, occasionally bottom F3; SW going W
Sail Plan: Full main
Speed: Max 4.7 average 2.2
