50 42.699’ N 001 58.979 W
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Date: Monday
31st May 2015 Position: 50 As the more perceptive of you may have realised by now
my recent round robin email said I was leaving on Thursday 28th May and
yet in my first blog I posted on Saturday my position was given as Poole Boat
Haven, which is all of four miles away from where I started. You are not mistaken and this was not an
error on my part. By the time I had
finished some admin and caught up with household paperwork I did not get down
to the boat until mid afternoon on Thursday so I decided to stay on my moorings
overnight and leave the next day. After
weeks of perfect weather I woke up on Friday morning to near gale force
winds. Looking at the weather forecast a
series of lows were coming in from the Atlantic with winds increasing from 6 to
7 Beaufort and up to gale force 8 in the areas of Dover and Wight so I was not
going anywhere on Friday. There was a
short window of opportunity on Saturday before the next low came in but it
would have meant leaving for St Peter Port at 2300 hrs. on Friday night. I decided against this because firstly I had
a few more things to do on the boat and secondly, not having been on the water
in nearly two years, I did not want my first outing to be a quick port hop in
unsettled conditions. So instead I left
Ridge Wharf Yacht Centre and made my way to Poole Boat Haven to wait for a
suitable weather window. At least it
gave me the illusion of having got underway even if I had not gone that far. So I have been sitting here in Poole Boat
Haven weather bound since Saturday. At
the moment the wind is registering 23 knots in the marina so in the Channel it
is probably higher. Looking ahead there
is worse to come tomorrow so I am going to be here until Wednesday morning at
the earliest when a period of settled weather is on its way. But that is sailing for you. You can never be absolute about times and
dates because the weather and tides will always have different ideas from you. However, these little setbacks can sometime have an
upside. I popped into the Jolly Sailor
on Poole Quay to use their Wi-Fi. A
couple of pints later I went to the bar for a top-up and the landlady asked me
if I have been offered any raffle tickets.
They were doing a fund-raiser on behalf of Macmillan. I said I hadn’t and thought to myself I would
just give her my spare change as a donation rather than buy a raffle ticket, as
I was never that lucky. I looked in my
hand and worked out that after paying for my pint I had about seventy pence
left and I felt a bit mean so I dipped into my pocket and brought out a
fiver. The tickets were as pound each so
I brought five and thought no more of it.
Around 2000 hrs. that evening I got a call from the pub to say that I
had won the prize and when would I like to pick up my new canoe. You could have knocked me down with a
feather. I never usually win anything on raffles but now I am the proud owner
of a new canoe, see the picture below. It is just the right size to lash down
on the foredeck so I will take with me on my expedition. Funny how things work out sometimes! Bye for now. Signing off Ted. PS Just
going back to pub to see if they have any more raffles on.
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