First preparation days season 2015

March 26, 2015

Monday 23 March Wonsome was launched.

Tuesday Leen and Jan de Graaff (Cornelis Jongkind) travelled to Lymington. WINSOME  looked perfect. Jan did what he was supposed to do i.e. check all electronica. The B&G masthead unit appeared to be full of water and had to be replaced i.e. to be ordered from Belgium (!).

Leen fixed in the meantime hallyards etc.

Wednesday I arrived myself and we checked with Robin the to-do’s prior to our leaving for Cowes. Since the B&G masthead unit supposedly is to arrive Thursday, we decided to return to Cowes by LUNA.

First we paid a visit to RORC Rating Office in Lymington.

We proceeded from there to Cowes. The fuel cauges were not working properly, but Leen felt we could  reach Cowes easily. Mind you last year we travelled with LUNA and WINSOME simultaneously to Cowes when we had two fuel starvations. First on LUNA, which was then towed by WINSOME, and thereafter on WINSOME.

This time it was not much different. Fuel starvation occured near Gurnard. The tide was going West, the water was 25 meters deep.

We called first Don Hume who chartered Hamo Thornycraft with ex-Luna, but Hamo had not enough fuel on board and all fuel stations were closed already. Then we called RYS, but their RIBs were not commissioned yet. So we called the Solent Coast Guard. They reacted quite strange and said uncomprehensible things.

In that hour we were nearly pushed into Newtown. The tide was still quite strong.

And then all of a sudden Dominic May passed us in the direction of Yarmouth with his entire family on board. It was nearly dark by that time.