Delivery trip...

....and so to the delivery which as usual with me was not without it's surprises, joys, and mistakes...! 

 
Either way, first stop was at my sailing club to pick up my crew ("Coral" Paul) for the day - I guess I could have done it on my own, but it was the first trip and I (really) welcomed the company - don't think anything flusters Paul at all!

So after the pick up, we were at Bosham by10'ish and met Sparrow where she'd been left the night before...

Tractor soon came along and dragged us down to the wharf, where last nights heavy duty crane did the reverse job and dropped us into the water by the side of the jetty...  she  was already floating, but the guys gave me a chance to get on board to check and make sure the cockpit drains weren't leaking - tick - no issue, dry as a bone....

Slings off, and we started up the engine...  ran sweet as a nut....  for 5 minutes, and then stopped...  bugger....  lots of pulling on the starter cord..  nothing...  double bugger....  fuel cock off (we might have flooded it) leave it for 5, fuel cock back on and the engine started again...  success.....  and then stopped...  double bugger....  call engineer, he can't make it as he's on his own today and I'd need to take the engine to him...  if I do that we won't have time to get round...leave her there for the night? Try the engine again, it starts, and this time keeps running...... OK, let's chance it....   it's blowing a hooly by now, solid force 5 but sunny...  

After a lot of swearing while we try to get her to turn round* and face the right way down the channel we're off....

We got to the end of the Bosham channel and we'd had a good trip averaging 3.5 knots over the ground against tide, so clearly the engine was a good'un. We then turned west into the Itchenor channel and got full strength of tide and wind against us - no point putting any sails up - far too windy and a beat anyway so we knuckled down, turned the rev's up, and battled on  towards the harbour entrance - at times no more than 0.5 or 1 knot over ground. 

Past the end of Prinstead channel and half a mile further and I decided it was safe (height of tide by this time) to start bearing away for Emsworth. At this point I cracked out a bit of jib to help us, and with the engine revs down to conserve fuel the jib more than made up. We were hitting 5 kots up the channel and made double quick time as it was dead water. We got our first seal sighting of the year just before the Marker post - no more than 20 yards from the boat, and very inquisitive - male I think because it was quite big..  brilliant..!

Bearing away for the Northney channel I wound the jib back in as the wind was on the nose again, but pausing only to re-fuel as we proceeded, we were on the mooring a little less than 3 hours after we'd left Bosham ...and the engine continued to run as sweet as a nut all the way round - which wasn't surprising really, as we'd accidentally left the fuel cock "closed" when we left Bosham  

You guessed it, I'd misheard the instructions the day before and was turning the fuel off just before I started the engine - not surprisingly it ran for as long as there was fuel and then stopped - switching the cock off when we thought it had flooded allowed fuel back in, and not surprisingly it started again and ran until the fuel ran out again...  what a plank!

Brilliant trip but we had every kind of weather coming back, (lots of) wind, rain, sun, squalls, cold..  felt like we should have got one of those Arctic convoy medals by the time we got back.. 

Pausing only to christen the boat with a pint of Fursty Ferret (good slug for Neptune along with a request for fair winds this season and his blessing on the new name, a good slug for the boat, and the rest for the crew) we tidied up and Paul dropped me back in Bosham to pick my car up..  sorted..  very relieved...!

Scores on the doors:

Distance: 8.63 miles (cumulative total in the 2013 mileage tab at the top of the page)
Wind: Force 5 gusting 7 .. almost west (but Bramblemet says there was more south in it than I felt..?)
Sail Plan: Partial jib (tiny amount out) and engine..
Speed: GPS says max speed was 5.2 knots which was under sail (and low motor) as we ran up the Emsworth channel..  she's certainly fast .. average speed of 2.6 knots..

...and cheers Paul!

* trying to get this one to steer in reverse was an experience - it wouldn't - think I need to do some practising!