A fun day was had going to Southampton and then Hythe by bus though. In the 30 degree heat the average service bus is a little warm. When you fill it with NFG folks (NFG=normal for Gosport, a tag used in hospital records etc locally!) it gets even better. At least the buses that let you escape to Fareham are OK:
and the drivers have a suitable sense of humour. In Southampton we visited Seawork 2018. This is a commercial marine show and way way more civilised than the leisure boat offering in September although inside the big marquees it was roastingly hot.
Why did we go? Are we thinking of buying a pilot boat or a hard as nails commercial RIB? Nope. It was the best way to see the new Furuno gear. We need to replace the original B and G wind / depth / speed kit as it is showing its age. The buttons on the pilothouse display work albeit reluctantly - luckily you don't really need them. However the LCD display on the flybridge is starting to break up making reading it harder. It was replaced a couple of years ago thanks to Andrew (Zephyros, the N43) who found one on eBay but that unit is now giving up too.
The dilemma is - do we replace these and interface new kit to the old Navnet and NMEA 0813 system or do we go big and swap out the 3 Furuno plotters and radar too. Eye wateringly expensive of course but the kit is now over 11 years old. Tough decisions ahead.
What else? Well, we borrowed the toddlermobile and used the 4 wheel mobility to visit the Nordhavn Europe office to collect a very lovely new anchor swivel. The Ultra 13 is a seriously engineered bit of kit:
designed to ensure the anchor retrieves the right way over. It is much better than our old one for handling sideways forces when the anchor is set too. Most impressed with it:
We sourced it via Nordhavn Europe because Phil Roach, one of the Nordhavn directors, knows the company that makes them (in Turkey of all places) and so they can supply at good prices. If you want one, email Sandie in their office. Cracking kit!
The crew was most busy with the World Cup football and tennis on TV of course. The captain was much less interested did a few little jobs and generally amused himself. Mainly trying to book a ticket with Hovertravel it seemed. Their website didn't allow us to use a voucher code and their call centre didn't want to talk to us. Really poor IVR and call centre processes - as an example a message "all our agents are busy so we cannot answer your call now" and then the system hangs up on you! Or as you dive into the (far too many) IVR options the message about using "www.hovertravel.co.uk" is repeated at least 4 times before you get to talk to a human being. We had tried to do it on-line.......
Why book a hovercraft? Well, the poor underprivileged captain had never been on one and we wanted to visit the Isle of Wight to see John and Tina (anyone remember his knees?) We were duly delivered by this craft:
and spent an excellent day with J and T catching up, feeding and watering to our hearts' content. Actually alcohol might not be entirely good for the heart. We prefer the reports that say it is.
The wonderful weather meant some interesting views from the aft door during the late evenings of the Haslar Marina lightship, the Spinnaker tower in Portsmouth and the moored yachts - sometimes almost like a painting:
Escape from Gosport beckoned after completing the painting chores - but we only planned a little run up to Port Solent where we could berth in calm waters and hence polish and seal the port side of the hull which was in dire need of some TLC after all the sun. It did allow us to continue our social whirl though - meeting up with Carl and Julie who we know from Penarth and watching England's exit from the world cup with them. Normality was then restored.
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Thanks for your ideas / cheek / corrections / whatever! They should hit the blog shortly after the system checks them to make sure they will not put us or you in jail.....