hot hot hot

Arriving down at Shotley by 19h00, the kids were terribly excited about spending their first night on the boat, and so, after a short time on board, had tucked themselves in for the night, with massive amounts of space to stretch out in the double berths that they now occupied....It didn't take too long for the sound of snoring to emerge from the aft cabins, and so we settled down to a coffee and a relaxed evening, and eventually retired to bed at a sensible time. I however, couldn't sleep.... I suspect I was rather full of anticipation for the following day, and finally drifted off around 02h30...Day broke, and by 07h30, we were all up and about... a fairly heavy morning haze hung in the air, making the cranes of Felixstowe appear rather strange and eerie in the distance, but as the sun came over the side of the marina, it soon started to get warm, and the haze burnt off quickly...By 10h00, we had completed our morning rituals, and added a trip to the onsite chandlery to get a few bits and pieces.... so we decided to head out to sea.... a simple and straightforward lock out was on offer when I called up, and he held the lock for a further few minutes on free flow.... so before long we were out of the marina, and headed out past Ganges, then Guard and towards open sea.... We set the sails... a little trouble with unfurling the main until I worked out that it needs no kicker, no main sheet, and a healthy tug on the topping lift, and then the main came out as easy as you like... off went the engine, and we were sailing..... perfect!.... it must have been 25 degrees, and while only about 9kts of wind, ideal for a first sail of the season to ease SWMBO and the kids back in.....We toddled off towards Medusa, and then rounded back up, and beat back into Harwich..... we had previously decided to aim to be back in the marina by 14h00, as we wanted to get a few jobs done.... I wanted to fit the plotter, and SWMBO wanted to scrub the decks...So we locked back through, with the log reading 10.7nm.... not far.. but just enough to get everyone longing for more!While SWMBO and the kids scrubbed, I set too in fitting the plotter.... a temporary mount was acheived on the steering pedestal, with a plan for a more permanent mount in hand (with a little work at home on a wooden block), and then the fun of routing the GPS cable to the transom.... I finally located the cable route, and managed to mouse it through, but it took me over an hour to get the cable in place..... next job was to drill a hole in the stern for the cable to exit to the GPS aerial.... the GRP proved to be about 10mm thick, and finally I quit when the hole was nearly big enough.... to be left until the next day.... the power proved really easy... I lifted the engine control panel off, which fortunately had plenty of spare cable to let it be moved to one side, and inside found several spare power pairs, already switched through the main panel... so a simple fuse added, and that was easy..... the plotter booted, and we were nearly there...Around 17h00, friends, David and Helen, turned up, so we drank a cold beer or two in the still beautifully warm evening, and then wandered over to the onsite bar, the Shipwreck, for a pint and a bite to eat.... David and Helen wanted to get off early, and so by 20h30, we were back on board.... the kids exhausted after a day of sea air, soon off to bed, and as I write this at 21h30, i'm about ready to retire for the night too!... more tommorrow..

Miles logged 11nm
Miles this season 187nm
Miles since this blog started 1,981nm