Fw: Drunken Sailor News I - March 2009

Symphony
Fri 25 Jun 2010 13:51


Subject: Drunken Sailor News

Well hello y'all
 
Just thought I would drop you a line to inform you of our progress....or lack of it in getting our brave new life underway.
 
We have finally sold the house in Stonehaven for more than we budgeted for last year but less than the estate agent told us to expect. Bastards!
 
It's a big relief..especially knowing that the back wall is boss and needs reharled, the sarking on the roof is on the way out and the balcony railings are shot and mostly made of polyfilla covered with Hammerite. Not to mention the weed preventing plastic and six tonnes of slate I laid in the garden through which the daffodils, thistles and every other weed known to man is now growing.
 
The Edinburgh flat is now furnished and Catriona and Linz are becoming increasingly confident that they are not going to be mugged by the "jakies" on the street outside. We have added some steel panels and extra locks to the front door....and lied about our address to get contents insurance. 
 
We are currently on board Symphony at Saxon Wharf in Southampton, conveniently located between a giant scrapyard and a disused warehouse......St Tropez beware!!!!!!
 
We are spending most of our time working our way from one end of the boat to the other.
 
- looking for faults
- trying to understand what the bits do
- listing spares we will need
- arguing
- cleaning
- reading the manuals
- researching the internet to find out what the words in the manual mean
- having long moments of terror
- going to the chandlers with vague descriptions of what we want
- being very grumpy
 
Anyway you get the picture.....if any two people were less ready to cross Biscay at the end of May it would be us.
 
I spend the evenings trying to figure out the HF radio and how to tie it into internet comms because it is cheaper than using the sat system....then spend more time trying to tune the freeview aerial cos Sharon can't watch "Location location".....for fuck's sake we just went through the nightmare of selling a house in the greatest depression since the Black Death hit the UK and people watch television progs about it....buying houses, I mean not the Black Death. Personally I would find programmes about the latter infinitely more interesting, especially if they were set in Copenhagen.
 
Anyway, today was the big day.....yes we finally took Symphony out to play. (you may already know this if you have watched the news.."Mystery Yacht Causes Havoc in Southampton Water - Supertanker Ablaze - Three Ferries Aground - Casualties Expected to be High"
 
It was scary stuff......we had to time our departure to go under the Itchen Bridge which is about a mile downriver. The clearance is about 80 feet and our mast is about 76. So you have to make sure you get bang in the centre of the arch. You also have to look for falling objects as it is the main suicide venue in the area...I kid you not, bang on the centre of the bridge on both sides is a direct hot line for the Samaritins. I had visions of getting wedged underneath as the odd body splatted itself on the teak decks that we had spent most of yesterday scrubbing. "Go through its pockets then kick it overboard, Sharon".
 
Anyway, we got through with me shouting "Is it OK Sharon?" only to find that she was stowing warps (technical term) and not looking up as she said later "under any ****ing circumstances.
 
We then proceeded to romp our way gaily down to the Solent without a care in the world. Unfortunately we were in the company of giant car transporters, scary giant containerships and small jet propelled ferries. Thankfully they must have heard about Sharon's temper cos they gave us a wide berth.
 
As it turned out, it was an uneventful day......we pressed buttons and the chart disappeared and was replaced by something that turned out to be a radar plot...but by using the John Springer rule of switching it on and off we eventually found out where we were.......and got back on the correct course.....the rude people sounding their horns and gesticulating didn't help in my opinion....I think perhaps most of them were Danish.
 
We also played with the sheets (technical term) and winches and made the big flappy things go in and out...personally I prefer the engine as the flappy things just obscure the view. 
 
It was very pleasant on the whole...We had a couple of beers and sausage rolls and we made the return trip...............up the narrow Itchen River on a 4 knot ebb tide where we had to swing the  54 feet boat around and reverse into the tide and try to park in a space into which you couldn't park a Smart Car. Worse the space was between two very expensive, shiny yachts. However our team talk and in depth risk assessment (Sharon: " Dave, how are we going to do this?". Dave, sucking on a cigarette and wishing for a glass of whisky: " Not a fu**ing clue") served us in good stead.
 
Well it went as planned. We narrowly missed a large jetty and a superyacht whilst spinning out of control, but happily our jolly intercrew banter had alerted the occupiers of neighbouring yachts that the McGinty- Browns were arriving and all hands turned out to grab ropes and help a good day end well.
 
As I write this Sharon is in bed with post traumatic stress syndrome and I am getting pissed.
 
Hope you are all well
 
 
Dave and Sharon