Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure
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And we have moved SAKURA to her new berth. 3 mins walk from our house. and 4 mins from the office......
Suitable protection in the background....
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Paula and I like to have fixed pontoon mooring warps on our home berth. We usually moor the boat with just the two of us managing the operation, often because it is just the two of us on board, but actually, we really know what we are doing and sometimes "help" from others, is not actually help
So to make things easier on Paula, who manages the lines, having permanent warps in the right place and of the right length, makes her job so much easier. Of course, now we have moved marina's, the pontoon cleats and bollards (did not have bollards at the last place) are in totally different positions relative to the cleats on the boat. So I essentially have to make new ones, and/or modify sections of the old ones.First up is the stern warp. this is the first one that Paula attaches to the boat when we come in. Once that is on, we are attached to land and all should be good, then we can be a bit more relaxed about sorting out the rest. If I need to, I can put the port engine on slow ahead (we moor starboard-to) and we are pinned to the pontoon, which I sometimes do if we are being blown off the pontoon hard.
As a general principle, I like to have Dyneema attached to the cleats on the boat. Dyneema does not stretch, so we do not get annoying squeaking as the boat rocks about on the pontoon (waves, wakes, currents, wind etc), as there is no rope to metal movement in the cleats, but we need a stretchy rope for the main warp. This reduces the shock load on the cleats if the wind is strong and gusty.
Here is the start of the new stern warp. I use 21 or 26mm Polyester double braid for this part of the warp.
I have reused the Dyneema part of the old warp. It is faded, but is showing zero signs of wear, and sewing the leather chafe guard on was a bitch, so I'm happy not to have to do it again.
I spliced an eye in some new 26mm double braid and cow-hitched the Dyneema portion to it. I'm now going to pop down to the boat and work out what total length I need, and what size eye to splice on the pontoon-end part of the warp. The pontoon-end will go over a bollard, so I want the spliced eye to be a tight fit over the bollard head, to minimise the risk of it bouncing off. I think the chances of that tends to zero, as we are very protected where we are berthed, but no harm in belts and bracing.....
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Change of plan.
After buying a load of books and guides and getting deep into the planning for Paris, we have decided that our cojones are just not large enough to take SAKURA up the Seine to Paris. My primary concern is that the airdraft of SAKURA is 5.1m (as measured by me and P with a piece of string, a bamboo cane and a fishing weight), and the bridge under which we need to pass to get into the Parisian marina is 5.2m. No one can tell me if that is measured when the water is at the highest it can be, or the normal depth. So if there has been large rainfall upstream of Paris, 5.2m may become 5.0m. So, we risked knocking off the steaming light, I just don't need the stress.
We have a hard date when we need to be in Paris, so Paula is more concerned about the unknowns, How fast will we be able to travel, the speed limit is 10knots, but what if we get stuck behind a slower boat for ages? Commercial vessels, quite rightly have priority over leisure craft, may have to wait ages to get into locks, and there are 6 lock systems between us and Paris? It is virtually impossible to plan where we will stop overnight, because we don't know what distance we have covered etc etc. Those and a few other small details fill someone who plans shit to the nth degree, full of dread
So, the new plan is to cross the Channel to somewhere like Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue on the northen Cherbourg peninsular, spend a day or two there, then muddle our way south, stopping as we see fit, possible stops are , Cherbourg. St Malo, Port Dielette, Barneville, Carteret and Port-Bail-sur-Mer. At any of those we can leave the boat behind, and get to Paris overland and get to the party on time.
Coming back we will likely stop at any or all of Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney. Fuel is tax and duty free in the Channel Islands, so would be stupid not to take advantage of that.
We have plus or minus a couple of weeks, so should have a blast.
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Crossing the channel on Saturday, possibly could have departed on Friday, but weather is a bit better on Saturday, and anyway, P is currently running around like a headless chicken and is mega stressed (not trip related), so an extra day to run around in ever decreasing circles is apparently a good thing.
Three nights booked in St Vaast harbour. It is a tidal harbour, with a locked entrance. The lock opens at 19:12 CET, so we'll leave here at about 09:00 BST......
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