Quote: What happened to your prop at the weekend, Pete?
A little story.
Well, whilst I was launching the boat from the Haslar slip on Saturday, the wind, which was 'fairly brisk', tried to push me onto the rocks beside it!!! It did actually spin me about 60 degrees as I backed off & I must have hit the rocks on the other side of the slip (these are underwater & couldn't be seen).
I didn't at that point know I'd hit anything - 'honest officer'!!!
Then went past some great big ship with the navy on top having a parade & getting fairly damp (saps!) I waved at them, wearing a black diving suit & ski goggles in a totally black boat at 20+ knots.
I'll swear someone waved back!
At this point Paul was trying to inspect his anchor whilst Kathleen was doing 20 knots! - Kathleen mentioned ballast to me later
However, on the trip out to the Cafe (don't know where it is) I was getting a bit of cavitation & was losing drive over some waves.. this was making the journey quite interesting!! Good thing it was only a little choppy
Still got to the cafe fine...
Took a quick look at it in the harbour whilst moored up & I was 'missing' bits of it - quite large bits.
Suspect it started to break up a touch on the way?
Still back home we go & whilst still in the harbour (behind the lock) it was sounding funny & then cut out
Quickly got it restarted, & let it warm up a bit then went into the lock.
Paul jumped out (needed the toilet I believe due to his age) &
smooth talked (gift of the Irish) us all out of the lock without PAYING!!! - Think the man (harbour master) said to him something about meeting us at a place with bed, 3 square meals & nurses there?
Oh, also mentioned the weather thingy was saying F8, gusting F9.
What tosh, Kathleens hair dryer is more powerful
Setting out of the lock it seems for some reason I was getting a'lot' of cavitation heading into the seas. This meant that staying at 10-20 knots was fairly difficult (6-10Kts being about my limit - must be slowing down in my old age)
Anyway eventually got back to the marina after a few waves had gone over my boat (hurrah for a bilge pump) Thanks Richard & Paul for shadowing me on the way back!!
Thats my little trip with Blue Ice (is nice) & Zebedee (bounces quite well)
Pete