Get us to the Bridge on time!!!

What a week it’s been… The weather was not our friend earlier in the week, holding us up in Dover for a couple days. But, we put the bad weather to good use, and used it as an excuse to go to Dover Castle, including a tour of the tunnels. The RNLI also welcomed us on board the Lifeboat for a tour – it’s amazing what they are capable of, and they are there purely by charity… I am really impressed with the service they provide, with most of the crew being volunteers, willing to risk their lives at sea to help others in distress. Thank you to Stewart for inviting us! Hilary Lister and her crew joined us for tea, and somehow managed to get me to jump into the harbour water to help them out on a retrieval drill…. Must have been Lottie’s charm!
So another frustration day of decision making for me… we were running out of time to get to London…. Get me to the bridge on time…. And adly the wind was a bit too strong and the forecast was not looking too pleasant. So, we had to send the boys off the boat to a hotel for a night, while Karen, Dan and I went sailing round the corner and into the Thames Estuary. Things always seem to go wrong at very inconvenient times, and as we came up to Queenburough at about 4am, we got the engine started and dropped our sails only to have the engine die on us! So a bit of sailing onto a mooring was required (in the dark-always fun J).
An early morning call to Andy at SYS alleviated some of the worry, after describing to him what the problem was (water in the fuel tank) he thankfully said that although the engine had cut out, we wouldn’t have gotten water into the injectors so all that was need was to drain the water out of the system and bleed the engine… Thanks Andy!! But, our luck was with us as it just happened that Chris Livitt (the Thames Water Man) was dropped off by his engineer, Tracey. Tracey was a legend – he turned back and put the rest of his day on hold to help us with our engine, Thank you so much Tracey!!
What an experience sailing up the Thames was – the boys were fresh and well fed and we did have perfect sailing conditions, with 15kts from the East giving us some great reaching, running and gibing practice as we wound our way up the river. Chris was fantastic and it was such a relief to be able to enjoy the sail, with some awesome sights along the way. Chris also worked his magic, and when we had to motor up to catch the West India Dock he managed to get the bridge to open a little late. The whole London experience is all thanks to Chris!
Today was another roller coaster day. I got up early to change the filters again (and drain off a bit more water) only to discover that my engineering skills were questionable…. But, knowing that he would already be sipping a coffee in his ‘office’, an early call to my great friend Haig (Afloat Marine Services) got the problem sorted – I had basically been working against myself trying to prime the engine, but in his great way Haig managed to talk me through exactly where I had gone wrong… so 30 mins later and a mass improvement to my engineering skills, we had an engine again!!! Thanks Haig, and sorry for the early call…
Ellen, Maxine and Emily joined us for the day for our super adventure up to Tower Bridge. Chris was with us again, and worked his magic and stopped traffic in London – JUST FOR US!! Emily did such a great job driving the boat under the bridge – it was quite impressive. The rest of the day was just such a great relief- we made it to the Bridge on Time!!!
And now – I’m going to rejoin the crew for Scarlet’s all time favourite game – UNO.
Good Night J