This weekend, being a 4 day holiday, we had planned a return trip to Racecourse Marina at Windsor but the weather gods had other ideas! We had a few days of nice weather on the run up to the weekend but no matter which forecast we chose to look at they all told us the same. It was about to get very wet and windy.
We arrived at the marina mid afternoon on Good Friday and loaded our kit bags, food and wine onto Life's Too Short. Our new 'ball' fenders to go on the bow had arrived but needed to be pumped up. We had no pump so we'd wait until we could use one at the marina first thing in the morning.
It was pleasing to see our boat sitting a bit more level in the water, a quick look in the big compartment under the cockpit revealed the 10 bags of builders ballast that had been added, so that's 250 Kg as far back in the boat as it can be. It made a reasonable improvement but Life's too Short was still a bit 'bow down' and the shower tray plug was still at the highest point of the shower tray! More head scratching required then.
It was a lovely warm evening on board with a nice bottle of wine and some home cooking, very relaxing. We were too late to head out anywhere on the river, we just kept our fingers crossed that all the forecasters had got it wrong for tomorrow.
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| A beautiful evening |
We had a disturbed night, the weather front arrived and we were being buffeted about by the gusting wind. We've normally had some weather protection with Jim's big Princess moored alongside us, but it has now gone to Plymouth ahead of a trip to the Med, leaving us feeling a little exposed!
We were up a little earlier than planned, a slow start to the day. We decided to have breakfast at Boaters Bar after which we collected our fenders which Lee had so kindly pumped up for us. The weather was as forecast so we didn't go anywhere. Caroline spent the day relaxing with a good book and I continued to write 'Uncle Bryn's Guide to Boating' (the handbook for Life's too Short).
Saturday night I made a curry (well to be honest I think Mrs Patak made it, I just emptied the jar) which we enjoyed with a bottle of Champagne, an unusual combination but lovely all the same! By now we were experiencing frequent rain storms as well as gale force winds, so we had another night of disturbed sleep.
Today we awoke to sunshine and blue skies! I cooked some breakfast and checked the forecast - it suggested that by 10:00 the storms would arrive. And they did. Bang on cue the skies darkened, the thunder rumbled and the heavens opened. The cockpit canopy leaked more than usual, water comes through the stitching on the zips on the flaps that cover the roof poles and it runs out of these 'tubes' at both ends. We need to find a way to stop this but for now we just needed to catch as much of the water as possible. At least we now know why the cockpit cushions are always so wet.
It rained. Hard.
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| Water catching |
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| More water catching! |
We decided to pack away and get the boat 'ready to go' so that on our next visit we should be able to just load up and get going. No more faffing! Hoping to be back in 2 weeks time, watch this space!
I would ask for some lead ingots to ballast "life" they take up much less room. Should ballast get wet you will have a mess that will be hard to dry out. Minimum should be washed pea shingle.
ReplyDeleteI agree, lead ingots would be a much nicer idea, preferable to the bags of builders ballast they are currently using. I doubt that Viking would fund using them though :(
ReplyDeleteNormally the thread expands and seals any leaks in the canopy. A few drips on a new canopy are normal and should stop after a few wet days.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris, that's what we've been told so hopefully it'll soon be fine. It's a month old now and there have been a few very wet spells, I'd rather not have to use seam sealer if I don't need to.
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