Portland life and a FAST boat trip

The bus to Weymouth beckoned, as did the beach for the little dog. We kind of like the £2 capped bus fares at the moment too. Weymouth harbour looked very deserted:

thanks to the (very) late installation of a run of new pontoon there. Still no power or water supply installed and they seem to be keeping the area clear. Brilliant planning - knowing that everything has delays these days, why not plan to do it in October or November rather than risk the obviously lost visitor revenue in the early season? The harbour is council run and we remember being told that when it fell under the control of Dorchester, the council management had no idea what to do with it as they had no other harbours in their jurisdiction. The then harbour master was told that he was reporting to the Dorchester folks who ran car parks. Oh yes, just the same challenges and capital spend requirements. Might possibly be connected to this delay?

Despite the rather empty harbour, the beach was suitably busy, especially the dog friendly bit near the harbour itself:

A very happy little dog indeed. After a good walk around town to help the doglet dry off a little, we returned to Portland remembering why we like the area so much.

The Captain had an "awayday". Together with Ray, a friend, we've acquired a slightly used Cap Camarat 9.0. What is one of those we hear you ask. Well, have a look at the Jenneau website. The idea is to park it outside the house in Hythe and use it for trips around the Solent area. A delivery run from Chichester was needed so after a bus, train and a lift, we arrived in Chichester and headed to Hythe way way faster than we could ever manage in our Nordhavn. This was at around 26 knots:

and apparently it tops out at around 47. Twin 250HP Yamaha engines on something that weighs under 3000Kg before you bolt on the engines does mean an impressive power to weight ratio. We made it to Hythe rather rapidly and we have to report that the little hull handled some choppy stuff rather well. Not quite a Nordhavn ride or Nordhavn fuel consumption but all OK, no osteopath or overdraft were needed.

Berthed in Hythe on the pontoon that comes with our house:

The return to Portland was a lift, train and bus thing, only the train happened to be the one that most of the students from Brockenhurst college catch. To say that it was infested with students is an understatement.  However, they were amazingly well behaved compared to the average teenagers on public transport. 

Alex and Gisele had arrived in Portland whilst the captain was playing hooligan on the Solent. The following day they invited us to join them on the short trip to Weymouth harbour. Up on the flybridge, you can see that it was a bit of a blowy day:

Yes, there is a Gisele under that hair. We went for a wander into town and Izzy fell totally in lust with Bear, this rather cute boy. Some unkind folks commented that he was too good looking to be heterosexual. We didn't let the two of them get close or alone enough to prove or disprove that viewpoint:

Back on board Lady Grey. Alex was in good form and dished out some large and very welcome gin and tonics before we headed into town for dinner. 

A very good one it was too. Crustacean restaurant did us proud, some really good fish dishes and although they do not advertise it, they have a couple of dog friendly tables near the entrance. All in all, an excellent day.

Finally, the sun came out and the wind dropped. It almost felt as though spring was here. Izzy had a walk along the Portland harbour area and plenty of amusement and exercise chasing stones:

If only it could stay that way.

We finished off our social whirl with a visit from an ex work colleague of the captain, Mr Bishop. He came on his rather lovely BMW GSA motorcycle that made the captain rather nostalgic for big twin boxer engines and the open road. He also came with cake - always welcome especially as it was a blueberry one. Some was saved for our planned trip the next day.

Maintenance news:

The saga of the wiper arm continued. The fitting on the wiper motor spindle was so seized in place that loads of penetrating oil made no impact on it. We had to move to a more destructive approach, slicing it open with a Dremel cutting disc. It took three of them by the way, the stainless arms are pretty thick:

The other fitting in the picture is for the trailing arm, it just screws into a bolt on the superstructure. Just? Well, maybe it just did in 2007 but now, it was as if it was welded in place. The whole fitting was removed, penetrating oil and heat were used, as was some bad language hoping that would help. Funnily enough, it didn't seem to. Finally it gave up and the old arm was free. 

The clamp arrangement to fit onto the motor on the new arm is way better and ought to allow future removal with less stress:

The new arms were cut to the required length (one more Dremel cutting disc bit the dust) and then we noticed that the new arms only had a spring on one of them, not on the trailing arm. As pressure on the screen is critical, we removed a spring from the old arm and fought it into position in the new one, together with the screen washer fitting and pipe. Finally fixing it in place with plenty of anti-seize paste was satisfying but somehow worrying too. One done, three more to go it seems. A really annoyingly tricky job that could have been avoided if the builders hadn't assembled the things "dry".