Boat: "Dizzy Bee" 37 foot Bavaria.
Crew: Ian Copely, Pete Bignell (For 250 yards), Paul Johnson, Bob Hayes, Jon Collet, Chris Hucker, Roy Burkill and self.
Thursday:
16th August 2007. Set off early with Roy circa 1000, stopped off at Tescos for money, milk and bread.
Journey down uneventful, talking to crew on mobiles en route.
Met Stewart White, Georges new partner, in the office, he was taking some strange looking guy for a power sailing course. Stewart said the boat was dirty but we agreed to take it over then rather than wait until 1800. Roy deep in conversation with strange guy!
Shifted a ton of kit onto the boat. First impressions not favourable, door catches falling off and a general tired look about the whole boat. But we are roughy toughy sailors and can cope with these minor details.
Roy forgot his towel, not that roughy toughy, so went into town for a bargain.
Paul forgot his sleeping bag. Dementia is definitely setting in with this lot!
Nigel Bright out in "Venturas" watching Red Arrows at Tynemouth, said we see him later. Nigel Lambert and Becky in Spain/Portugal with George, bringing "Endevour" home.
Team progressively arrive and consensus is to sail to Dartmouth.
Dizzy Bee moored on F pontoon right at the end and facing forward, so easy leave. Engine at least, started and ran well.
Excellent lunch of corn beef and Tuna Sandwiches, with cheese and pork pies, very nicely presented, by Ian and Jon.
Crew attempted a tack, which was so inept that we never did another all weekend.
Later that afternoon at least 3 crew members threaten suicide if Marigold and Prostrate didn't stop talking about caravan gadgets, camp site toilet blocks and the advantages of silk duvets!
Sailed to Mew Stone then engine on into Dartmouth. Nice evening and the approach was lovely.
Rafted up against a Moody with an old couple and a dog on board.
Went to the Castle for a drink then to find somewhere to eat. The Spinnaker was not serving food so decided on Chinese and that's when we found Tsangs restaurant and met Irene!
Irene was our waitress, heavy Scottish accent but native of St Ives (Imagine 7 wives like her) ex-military nurse, quite a slapper! Christ! Copers made a joke and she whacked him round the head with the menu. This set the pattern for the evening, for as soon as anyone got out of order she clouted him. The only people to escape permanent brain damage (How would we know?)was myself and Chris, who wisely kept our mouths shut and our backs to the wall.
Paul must have made a good impression as she let him borrow a sleeping bag for that night. Sleeping bag was lo-cost rental; she received the largest tip ever from the crew, who she thought looked liked 40 year old men with German mums who liked rugby in their youth...
Some of the food consumed was half Peking crispy duck, ribs, egg fried rice, noodles fried with prawn, pork, beef, chicken, prawns, with assorted veg and sauces.
Friday morning:
0530 Woke to a huge bang then another, realised something was hitting our boat hard. When I got on deck there were two boats secured by their bow lines only, swinging with the tide on to the stern of us. Our crew try to hold off with fenders as I woke the drifting boats crew. The skipper of Pegasus, the nearest to us, started screaming at the French, for some reason or another and then at the world in general. I got both boats to start their engines and cut a mooring line linking them.
It would seem that a boat inside them, "Prime Suspect", had tried to slip out and lost control due to strong flooding tide. There explanation "We told them we were going at 0500 but nobody got up!" Damage to us was a scrape on the hull and Pegasus had a cracked sugar scoop.
Got names and addresses.
Alf Fresco's was a great success as usual for breakfast on Friday morning: nothing to do with pretty young accented waitress looking wistfully over the group and calling out first names with arms outstretched. The power of fantasy.
Motored sailed to Salcombe as wind SW and picked up a buoy off the fairway.
Pete rang and I met him in main car park. Brought his gear around and he joined the boat. Jon C picked up a friends rubber duck after we made an abortive attempt to collect it in a freshening wind and clouted the parent boat.
Wind was now swinging round to the S and getting stronger. Forecast S 5 to 7 for 24 and 48 hour periods.
Sometime later, told to move as it was going to get bouncy later. We were told it was the weather but we think they wanted to clear the fairway for the Crabber Boats race. Pete helmed and did a nice job of coming alongside. Unfortunately this was as far as he was going to sail.
Crew taken ashore by Water Taxi and Jon went to find his kids at the Salcombe Hotel. Stayed on board for ZZZZZZZZZZ.
Yacht Club with the boys, rubbing shoulders with Sir Clive Woodward.
Paul announced that tonight he was going to prepare his gourmet meal and would we all go out for a drink until it was ready. I am going to marry him one day!
He not only produced a magnificent gourmet meal for eight on a dodgy stove but insisted we stay out a half an hour longer so he could light the candles and import the violinist.
Rocky night on relatively sheltered mooring, rafted against a centre cockpit family boat. Resisted the invitation to move into the Bag by the Harbour Master.
Blowing a hooly straight down the estuary, the bar looks formidable. Forecast looks bleak for next 24 hours so moved to plan T which was... do nothing!. Salcombe v busy, breakfast outside of Captains Cabin. Decided to watch rugby, Wales v Argentina I think, but could not concentrate!, at The Fortescue then stay to watch England v France at 2000.
Walked up to the Sailing Club a couple of times to look seaward of The Bar, I thought the conditions had somewhat improved. Forecast was still force 5 to 7 for next 24 hours. Felt I should encourage Pete to drive home in the morning as there was no gain by dropping him off at Dartmouth then for him to return to Salcombe for his car. Also Mary would give me hell if I drowned her first born.
Problem with engine! Temperature buzzer on continuously. Topped up oil and fresh water also check exhaust water, all OK. After an hour, whacked the panel and it stopped!!!! Engineering as taught to me by Rolls Royce.
Found Fore cabin door on floor it had broken off with the rolling.
Decided on fish and chip supper on White Strand, as restaurants v busy.
Walked to club again and thought The Bar and beyond had settled down a little. There was also an added incentive to go as the forecast for Sunday was poor and some guys had work issues with travelling Monday.
1730 Decided to go and rang team. Pete would drive back, rest of team were wondering if he could fit 7 others in his car.
Started to prepare boat and crew for sea and got a bollocking from the harbour master for gilling about on his mooring with the main up. Dropped the main.
Approached bar and it was very smooth, then into Prawl and its reflected waves.
Pete rang and just as I said to him, "Tell your Mum it's like a mill-pond" we hit the rollers!Whoops.
Start Point was a pussy cat and after that auto helm to Brixham, moored up at 2330, knackered.
Boys cleaned boat and I wrote list of faults and produced diagram of "Prime Suspect" collisions for office. Could not contact Stewart so left a phone message about boats location E13 and where keys were.
Rog Bignell 22 August 2007
