Parker Baltic 900 with 2 x 275hp Verado's - Page 9

Nauti Buoy · 13 November 2006, 10:13

Well, the weather forecast was not quite accurate, the high winds were supposed to be at their peak at midnight dropping to Force 3-4 NW for Sunday Morning, when we all got up ready to depart it was pretty obvious that it would be completely stupid to set off in the conditions that we woke upto which were Force 7-8 Winds approx SW. We decided therefore to wait until 2pm to depart giving time for the winds to drop, which thankfully they did.

So 2pm arrived....... eventually, and off we headed to the Marina all in our gear, just got the rib packed and ready for sea, when 8 Customs "Duane" officials make us empty the boat, all our gear, unpack all our bags, ID checked, SSR etc checked, ICC checked, sniffer dog had a walk around the rib. All as we expected was fine and verified, and allowed to carry on as we were. Andre did his best to sell them a rib, they went away happy complete with Parker Rib brochure......

.

We managed to get under the road bridge, notified Calais of our departure and headed over across to Dover to hug the coastline to try and shelter from the winds, being NW 4-5 helped out. The seas off of Calais were HUGE, 2-3'm cresting swells, the rib was outstanding, we were doing a reasonably comfortable cruise across the top ranging from 24-35 knotts. After we got across the TSS we tucked in and managed to cruise back averageing 30 to40 knotts across the top. The Baltic absolutely loves the chop, Andre said it would eat it and would come into its own element, and true to his word it did. Everyone on board was in agreement how solid it was. The only time we slowed down was across Brighton to L'Hampton where we really lost the light and could not see the dips swells from the sea so that last leg put us at an average of 14 knotts which just seemed to take forever.

After I eventually got used the the lightness of the Verado throttle box and just how trigger happy those engines are, I relaxed. They really are amazing engines, with the Super Charger running constantly you get sooo much torque, which just surges the Rib forward. Big Grins all round.

Soooooo, we arrived at Littlehampton, thank you to Tony, Steve & Lukasz from Pontoon Talk Ribsters, who came out and welcomed us just off of West Pier the pictures below are from Lukasz, much appreciated, and off we went upto L'Hampton Marina. Think the the phrase of the night was when I asked Andre what the speed limit was to be told 6 knotts but you are ok at this time of night, (I was doing 8 knotts) and that there was no-one patrolling and would be fine........literally 2 mins later, this Delta Customs Rib Customs, pulls up alongside my Rib, customs officials climb on board. Looking up in the sky we had 2 Helicopters hovering above, there was also 4 police cars up on the quayside, Police Spotter Plane...... WOW!!! At least our customs guys are doing their job, keeping Pirates, Drug Traffickers, Illegal Imigrants at bay.

Again, boat was stripped down, all our luggage searched, all our paperwork was looked at, YES THE VAT WAS PAID ON THE RIB, checked and verified of my SSR No, my new company business was checked at Companies House, and VAT ref for the company checked. Sarah my otherhalf who had driven over to collect us as it was our intention to go to Port Solent but we were too tired and worn out, had her car impounded, mobile phone taken away, they even phone her DAD to verify who she was as it was the last number dialed on her phone, whilst they searched the car and questioned her.

I notified Port Solent Marina that we would not be arriving as planned and that we had stopped at L'Hampton for the night.

Fuel used was very good, taking into account we were throttling a lot on the way back, we used 148 litres of fuel per engine to cover 129 miles so that is 1.147 litres per mile per engine.

I have probably missed out some other great highlights of the trip back, thank you to Paul, Kathleen, Andre, Mike C and Simon, great bunch of people.

Hoping to bring the Rib back tomorrow to Port Solent, hopefully without air cover and ground support crews

BogMonster · 13 November 2006, 10:30

That is a very very nice looking boat Richard

Ostroda · 13 November 2006, 10:42

Sounds like a brilliant trip, wish i could have joined you guys!!!!
Richard , Glad you are pleased with your boat. She's a real beast that can handle some pretty rough weather ;-)

Phil Chitty · 13 November 2006, 11:01

Sounds like a great trip and I'm looking forward to meeting up with you all soon to hear about it all!!!

Glad you made it back safely and the RIB looks fantastic.

jwalker · 13 November 2006, 11:06

Wot an adventure. Cool.

Nauti Buoy · 13 November 2006, 11:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ostroda

Sounds like a brilliant trip, wish i could have joined you guys!!!!
Richard , Glad you are pleased with your boat. She's a real beast that can handle some pretty rough weather ;-)

Chris, I would like to thank you too, it truly is a superb Rib, very very pleased with it. It for sure took a pounding on the weekend and came up trumps.

when you are next in the UK we'll go out for a blast.

Jimbo · 13 November 2006, 11:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nauti Buoy

Hoping to bring the Rib back tomorrow to Port Solent, hopefully without air cover and ground support crews

There was me, comfortably sitting in Lloyds last night awaiting your arrival (well, it must be confessed, that was a very small secondary reason for being there!) - it has to be said I was really rather beveraged, but I made everyone stop off at the marina office so that I could ask if you'd come in!

First thing I did when I got back was check RibNet, and see you'd decided to stay in Littlehampton, glad you posted that otherwise I'd have been sending out search parties

Mike C · 13 November 2006, 11:24

I made a comment earlier about how much better a big rib would take rough sea.... Well yep. They certainly do! Even in the roughest water outside Calais, we were doing over 20 knots!

Superb vessel... and in the words of all good Ribbers everywhere. WANT ONE

Seriously, a great trip. Many thanks to you Richard for the opportunity... and I look forward to seeing Nauti Buoy around the Solent next year!!!!

(Bet it would have outrun the Customs Delta too - We could have wellied it to Arundel). Not sure about the helicopter though!!!

See ya,

Mike C

Nick Hearne · 13 November 2006, 12:35

Excellent, I do look forward to reading about this in Rib Int.

codprawn · 13 November 2006, 13:06

Sounds like poor Sarah had the worst time of it - was her treatment REALLY justified???

Looks like they pick on RIBs - thousands of yachties make such trips with no hassle at all.

Nauti Buoy · 13 November 2006, 14:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

Sounds like poor Sarah had the worst time of it - was her treatment REALLY justified???

Looks like they pick on RIBs - thousands of yachties make such trips with no hassle at all.

She was OK about it, think she was more concerned about what was going on down at the quayside with us lot. As annoyed and tired as we were at the time, at the end of the day they have a job to do, and give them credit, we had no idea they were tracking us either by sea or air and they were polite and friendly, all had quite a good laugh in the end, they came and sat and looked at the Rib with interest, so all's well that ended well.

Would hate to think how much lasts nights operation must have cost, and there was me thinking we'd used £240 worth of fuel to get back.

I'm trying to work out how to get the Rib back from L'Hampton now to home at Port Solent, so if Customs are following this thread, next time if they could use a Chinnook Helicopter, as I have lifting straps perhaps they could haul it over for me

Jimbo · 13 November 2006, 14:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nauti Buoy

I'm trying to work out how to get the Rib back from L'Hampton now to home at Port Solent, so if Customs are following this thread, next time if they could use a Chinnook Helicopter, as I have lifting straps perhaps they could haul it over for me

Possibly consider hiring a large flatbed trailer, and chocking the rib on?

Re-reading the thread when Codprawn brought his boat back, he borrowed a trailer from Quinquari, so could be worth giving them a bell?

Hugh Jardon · 13 November 2006, 16:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimbo

Possibly consider hiring a large flatbed trailer, and chocking the rib on?

Re-reading the thread when Codprawn brought his boat back, he borrowed a trailer from Quinquari, so could be worth giving them a bell?

might be easier to use the wetstuff between littlehampton and portsolent!

Nauti Buoy · 13 November 2006, 16:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh Jardon

might be easier to use the wetstuff between littlehampton and portsolent!

Speaking to Paul, our plan at this moment in time is to leave Littlehampton at 9am and come back by sea. The Rib will take what it gets thrown at it, just more of a case if we will. Ok the seas will be choppy but doubt they will be much worse than what we went through from Calais. Will watch and make a descision first thing in the morning.

Tony · 13 November 2006, 16:49

Congrats on reaching this far! The rib looks fantastic

You could of stopped off and gave Guernsey customs something do do!!
lol
I reckon your new rib will need some tlc by the time its gets home

Nauti Buoy · 13 November 2006, 16:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tony

Congrats on reaching this far! The rib looks fantastic

You could of stopped off and gave Guernsey customs something do do!!
lol
I reckon your new rib will need some tlc by the time its gets home

Yes, think you are correct, it certainly is going to get a good clean, assuming we get it back tomorrow, Dave from Boatcare Uk is coming to give it a thorough clean over as it was quite grubby after it's tow across from Poland, from all the road salt etc. Ready for the photo shoot for Rib International, got to have it looking it's best.

codprawn · 13 November 2006, 17:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nauti Buoy

She was OK about it, think she was more concerned about what was going on down at the quayside with us lot. As annoyed and tired as we were at the time, at the end of the day they have a job to do, and give them credit, we had no idea they were tracking us either by sea or air and they were polite and friendly, all had quite a good laugh in the end, they came and sat and looked at the Rib with interest, so all's well that ended well.

Would hate to think how much lasts nights operation must have cost, and there was me thinking we'd used £240 worth of fuel to get back.

Yes they have a job to do but does it REALLY need 2 helicoppers? At the end of the day it's our tax money we are talking about. I mean did you lot REALLY look like terrorists???

As to getting it back I would gladly offer my services - it's a stunning looking boat!!!

Phil Chitty · 13 November 2006, 17:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

Yes they have a job to do but does it REALLY need 2 helicoppers? At the end of the day it's our tax money we are talking about. I mean did you lot REALLY look like terrorists???

As to getting it back I would gladly offer my services - it's a stunning looking boat!!!

I dunno Codders, I've just had a look at Lukasz's photos again and they look like a right dodgy bunch!!!

Nauti Buoy · 13 November 2006, 17:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

Yes they have a job to do but does it REALLY need 2 helicoppers? At the end of the day it's our tax money we are talking about. I mean did you lot REALLY look like terrorists???

As to getting it back I would gladly offer my services - it's a stunning looking boat!!!

Thank you for the offer, after all we were a bit inconspicuous in a Bright Yellow Rib

but there you go, what can you say. And do you know what Kathleen was most disappointed that none of them had a box of Milk Tray to give her!!

The Jackeens · 13 November 2006, 17:23

Well I did try

K

Hehehe we looked far too slick an operation all things considered; all suited and booted, colour co-ordinated and zipping across on a twin-engined RIB! It wasn't really the weather for a leisure pootle!!!!

(And don't panic, ya couldn't move for waypoints and passage planning, all checked & re-checked beforehand (Mike C was faithfully clutching his printout the whole way/ we had friendly & interesting discussions with the French Authorities before departure!

) and the compass was the size of a football so we were all charting progress.One of our best & most enjoyable crossings, Skipper Nautibuoy!!!)

All smooth as silk...is that what worried the boyos? Or was it 'spookier' than that?

Kathleen & Paul (crew report will follow)