Landlubbing - why do people do that??

We actually had a couple of days ashore, getting the crew's gnashers fixed (for the non-native speakers, she went to the dentist for a filling) and generally preparing to head off after the completion of the various bits of work that we have already reported on. This meant a hire car and trip to Essex too.

We have just got to complete the claim form for the flood damaged furniture now. Do you recall how much your stuff cost and exactly when you bought it??| And how on earth can you work out a current market value for it? We had no kids so our stuff is in pretty good condition no matter what the age. the only worn out things are the two human beings. At least the flood brought some amusement. To get the Captain's childhood stamp collection valued, we found a "stamp collectors shop" in Enfield, sort of on the way back from the dentist:

The interior and staff / customers were a caricature of everything you would expect in a stamp shop. Hence, we can leave the rest to your fertile imaginations!

In case you think owning a cruising boat is one long round of maintenance interspersed by a couple of days at sea, well, it isn't that bad. Often you get 3 days underway.....

More seriously, most of the work we did / had done was standard stuff. Some annual activities like new anodes etc, expected tasks like a a main engine mount swap, heating boiler service etc. The captain also did the last diesel filter swap needed this year, replacing the main engine primary and secondary filters. The only real repairs were the aforementioned messy holding tank pump job and surgery for the aged built in navigation PC.

So, all ready to go exploring a little, just later than expected as it was so hard to get an earlier lift out this year and then we had some unexpected dental delays (NB it is normally the Captain who needs fillings....)

Dropping the hire car back to Southampton airport involved two little train trips. Out of 4 trains, two were delayed of course....  Hamble station isn't really in the village at all but is quite cute for a bit of countryside with 2 platforms. Here is the train that brought the Captain back:

The surroundings are suitably rural too, foal and all:

The day finished with another unexpected discovery. We still get the weekly update emails from Penarth Marina and it looks like Patrick has been sneakily reading them when we are not about. We reckon that we have upset him somehow because he saw that Steve, the waterbus man, was looking for a skipper to train up who could work on the boat during the busy summer months.

Patrick sat looking very guilty at the PC:

and we found this in sent items:

Dear Steve

I read in the marina weekly email that you are looking for a new skipper for the waterbus and that you wanted a mature type who you could train.

Well, I think that I am an excellent candidate. Although relatively young (1.5 years) I already have extensive boating experience and have covered about 3,400 sea miles on powered craft during my short life. So far there have been no incidents, close shaves or sinkings that I have been implicated in.

I am an excellent swimmer, fast too when needed,  so could be useful should there be any passengers who get lost overboard. I would not need a uniform as I already have a natty black and white little number. Finally, I seem to have an excellent relationship with Bron and would be happy to take her with me on the days that I would be skippering the Princess.

Please let me know when you would like to interview me. As I am currently en route to the Channel Islands (more sea miles) I suggest we use Skype for the initial contact.

Thanks for your time and I look forward to working for you

Patrick

Patrick is pretty unhappy right now - firstly because he was found out and secondly because he hasn't received a reply from Steve. This boat isn't big enough to share with an unhappy penguin...