Three weddings.. err.. Two deliveries and a lift out..

Two deliveries, a lift out, and one post..

Clearly the end of the season as it's all lift outs and deliveries currently...  first one out was AmiLy last Thursday..

A bitter sweet moment really as I'm still not 100% sure whether she'll still be with us next year - totally up to the skipper, but as a group we have had some cracking times on her so there's some emotional attachment for sure..

Either way, a simple delivery from her home pontoon to Port Solent where she'll spend the winter.. didn't take very long, just under an hour and that included the locking in at Port Solent, but my oh my it was chilly - a very brisk northerly with some teeth in it on a bright day - the seasons are a changing...

Left her on the lift out pontoon ready for first thing Friday morning, and went up to the pub to cheer ourselves up.. 😏

Log:

Distance: 4.2 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction):  F5 gusting F6 ; N
Sail Plan: n/a
Speed (Max/average in knots): 5.5 / 3.5

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..and then on to the lift out, which was mine..  fairly pain free to be honest - no major issues., and at this point largely all done and dusted. Just have to retrieve the top tackle from the mooring which I'm hoping to do this afternoon (as I write).

It was a 13:23 HT and a massive 4.87m but true to form most of the skippers were in the yard waiting by 10:00... despite the near constant heavy drizzle..😏

Bloody miserable day..

Cups of tea and chats followed as we watched the rain - I pretty much don't see most of them from one end of the season to the other as most of the time we're all off sailing our own boats and doing 'stuff', and me especially despite being a member of one, I'm not really a very "club-able" person so I don't do the social stuff... 😁

😁

Anyway - managed to get a lift out to Sparrow to save having to discombobulate the tender, and then according to the club cameras I came under the bridge around half eleven, and squeezed into a Sparrow sized gap on the pontoon waiting my turn - which came about an hour and a half later..

Last year the club is made moves to meet new environmental requirements that are being discussed/mooted/suggested at Harbour Board level - both harbours are SSSI's, and also a whole load of other acronyms (Ramsar site/Special Protection Area/Nature Conservation Review sites/Special Areas of Conservation) and the bottom line is that biocide based antifoul is becoming increasingly unpopular so the club started power washing boats on lift out to contain the wash off. Last year was very basic, and just to prove the concept worked (we have 80+ boats coming ashore so any process we put in place can't slow down the lift too much, or the crews end up lifting boats all month) this year it has been improved with a sheltered wash off area with sand bags to contain fluid...  next year I think they were talking about separator tanks..

From my perspective as an owner it was great - my boat gets washed with some seriously powerful jet washers so I don't have to grovel in the mud doing it with my trusty Black and Decker - this year though, they also expect owners to help with the pressure washing so it was also seriously messy.

Other good news?? I think the Tiger Xtra was marginally better than the previous one I was using so the extra money was well spent..  barnacles are the killer on a mud mooring, but this year the spread was significantly less - the inside of both keels, the hull between the keels, and also slightly forward were festooned, but the rest of the hull expect for the water line and rudder were just slime - good result.

Not a bad spot in the yard either.. the problems will come next year as the way they're stacked it'll be first in, last out.. 😁

Took the engine off while I had the chance to get the car near (as of yesterday she was already behind another line of boats) and gave that a rinse through early the next morning - the weather had taken a turn for the worse and lift out that day was cancelled anyway so I could have stayed in bed another hour..

So - as of this minute - everything is either done, or planned to be done, that is needed to put her to bed for the winter..

• new battery is waiting to be fitted
• engine is rinsed and home
• sails and boom are home and stored
• she's pressure washed
• top tackle is recovered, been pressure washed, and is hanging in the garage

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Which then brings us to the second delivery - Dave's boat is the same side of the bridge as me but is considerably bigger and he chooses to sail round the (Hayling) island for lift out. So it was that most of the Jolly Boys went for their last sail of the season on a day considerably different to the one before! Sun and warmth in mid October, madness!

14:31 HT and at 4.56m, less than Monday but still chunky..  we met on the hard at 11:00, and went out to Dave's in his rub a dub finally dropping the mooring at about quarter to 12..  wind was a SW'ly and I suspect F4 gusting F5. Due to the fact we needed to get round pronto to meet the lift out we knew it wasn't going to be an amble but the tide conspired to make much of the first leg exactly that..  at the top of the harbour the angle was good enough to get the jib out to an extra three quarters of a knot, but by the time we'd gone past Marker the angle was bad so it was rolled away and we slogged on out of the harbour - we went past HISC doing 1.1kts SOG! The one bright spot was picking up some speed by going inshore of the moored yachts leading to HISC - think we picked up a back eddy..  definitely speedier.

Turned west just after the Bar Beacon and headed across Hayling Bay where we picked up some real pace - jib was out again and that was where we were seeing a succession of 5's and 6's..  cut the corner on the Winner as the tide was up, headed through the harbour entrance, and a little over 3.5 hours later we were along side the pontoon waiting for our slot...

Which wasn't long - the team asked Dave to nudge her into the slip as the tide was dropping and they'd pick him up from there - seemed only polite for Smithy and I to wave bye bye to Dave while we headed to the clubhouse for a much needed tea... 😁

..and that was pretty much it - before we knew it he was out, washed off, and parked two over from me..

What a cracking way to end the season that trip across the Bay was though! 😊

Log:

Distance: 15.14 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction):  F4 gusting F5 ; SW
Sail Plan: Engine and jib
Speed (Max/average in knots): 6.7 / 3.8