Tuesday 11 July 2017

A trying day

My plan had been to spend today getting Pagan sorted ready to go. But work got in the way and more than half the day was gone before I got back

Fortunately, I'd moved Pagan onto the river pontoon yesterday in anticipation of not getting back in time today

That gave me the time to go and do the departure fresh food shop on the way back.

Then I set about transferring the passage plan for Wednesday to the chart plotter. That went fine until, just as I'd entered the last piece of info, the plotter crashed. Now it won't even power up!

It's not so much the loss of the chart plotting and nav that's annoying, we have alternative means, it's the loss of the radar, AIS overlay and vector information (which I find very useful for getting the best out of the boat)

It's not a show stopper by any means and I may be able to organise getting it repaired and back to us part way through the trip.

Finally, I got to sit down and put my dinner on and dial up the weather for the next 48 hours. Drat!

Looks like a moderate gale on Wednesday. If so, it's a no go. We do not sail if there's a gale forecast. End of. Apart from the increased risk factor, and inevitably there is more risk, it's not going to be much fun bashing into the teeth of an F8 for 12 hours or so. We don't need to do it so we won't.

The forecast for Thursday on looks pretty reasonable so we should still make Portsmouth on Sunday which is fine. I don't have to be in Portsmouth until Tuesday lunchtime and Glen can, if necessary, jump ship wherever we've got to on Monday morning as there's railway stations handy at every potential port of refuge

So tomorrow morning it's on with the final sort out and tidy up then I'll run round to the marina early afternoon for a lift and scrub so we have a nice clean hull (it can make a lot of difference to both the speed and the economy). Once Glen arrives around 6-ish (traffic permitting) we'll decide whether to head downriver or stay put for another day at Fambridge

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