Storms, autopilots and a social whirl in Lymington

 The promised strong winds materialised. This is what we were promised:

This was just as it started building up:

and some of the gusts were force 10 speeds. For the non-nautical folks, 46.4 knots is 53.4 mph and Force 9. That is plenty enough thank you.  It got a little bit fruitier than shown on this picture later on, however we really did not care as a couple of yottie friends visited dodging fallen trees on the way. We caught up on all things nautical / Covid / Brexit deal (they have a business that tries to import from the EU) and put the world to rights. Oh, we might have partaken of a little alcohol too to go with the food. They are sailing folks but like most people we know with white flappy things for propulsion, they seem to motor a fair bit judging by their Marinetraffic picture:

The captain then got all keen and decided to replace the errant follow-up lever in the autopilot system. Luckily, a few months ago, a second-hand one had come up for sale by another Nordhavn owner and knowing that they are now rarer than rocking horse droppings, we bought it. Getting replacement items for 14 year old boat electronics is not simple.....

Removing the old one was OK. However we then found that the "nice" man who removed the one we had procured could not be bothered to pull out the little plug on the one wire which connects it to the system. Oh no, some numpty had cut the plug off and it is a multi-strand very fine wire with a bespoke plug on it. Luckily we could swap the old cable onto the new follow-up lever by dismembering it gently:

as the other end had mostly simple clamp terminals. Some bad words were said about idiots who cut connectors off cables that would easily unplug. 

Still, the replacement lever was rebuilt, fitted and tested as far as possible on the berth - so far so good. The next trip will tell us properly.

After these exertions (not really that hard) the cold wind and rain conspired to cut our bike use and walks. A visit from an ex work colleague of the Captain was good - loads to catch up on including hearing about his John O'Groats to Land's End cycle ride. A succession of 100 mile days until you make it. Yes, you did read that properly and yes he is probably a little bit crazy as he said that when reaching Land's End he would happily have turned round and gone straight back. Hundred mile days are a little further than the range of our E-bikes. He looked good though:

and before you ask, he is the guy not wearing a sling....

The weather continued to be rubbish although the darkness in this picture is because it was late evening, not because of the black clouds we enjoyed day after day:

as you can see, there were a few calm evenings. 

The social whirl continued, feeding Roland the engineering guru one evening and catching up on his new life in North Wales (not to mention his regular commutes to Plymouth to see the Princess Yachts folks).  After so long being locked down, seeing people (all of whom had been suitably jabbed of course) was a huge and most welcome return to some kind of normality.

Cameras, autopilots, Toddlers and off to Lymington

Paul, the very nice Maricom man came along to Bucklers Hard to finish off the camera install. That was lucky as he also helped troubleshoot the strange new autopilot behaviour. The problem seemed to be from the flybridge follow-up lever:

as the system ran happily for ages on the berth with that disconnected. Connected, using either of the autopilot black boxes (yes, we have two and two hydraulic pumps in the system) the system would suddenly power down and not restart. We can prove or disprove the point on our next trip.

The camera system has great quality images and a recording facility. Also excellent low or no light capability too. So we are very happy with the new kit overall. Being able to see the images on the flybridge plotter will make some berthing manoeuvres much simpler. 

It became legal to host folks on board and so we had a visit from the Toddlers for lunch - their first escape from the house for a meal out since lockdown #1. All very strange how suddenly it begins to feel normal to do such things again after months of high infection rates and tight restrictions. Then we had to do some plotting with Andrew and Linda about when to leave Bucklers Hard. You need plenty of tide height to get over the bar at the entrance to the river and also one that forms just downriver of the village. High tide was just before 4am... If we waited for the afternoon high then it was going to be pretty windy and a late arrival in Lymington. Yup, you guessed it, a 4:30 alarm call. Naturally we were wide awake well before that. As it was light and we were all members of the wide awake club, a very early departure was enjoyed. 

The river was beautifully peaceful - no other idiots were out and about at that ungodly hour. The new camera on the stack saw it like this:

only without the funny lines that the camera causes when taking a picture of the screen. The plotter sees it more like:

We just sat in the pilothouse and enjoyed the view. 

Arriving in Lymington before 7am was novel. Nobody in the harbour office so we just picked a spot and went to get some more sleep. After recovering a little, the Bromptons were exhumed from the lazarette and the four of us cycled to Milford-on-sea. We mentioned ages ago whilst hosting Andrew and Linda in Scotland that together with the crew, they were the "Berghaus triplets" - all wearing the rather nice branded jackets. Well this time we were the Berghaus triplets and the Brompton Quads. The quartet of folding bikes did prompt a few comments.

The lighthouse in Milford provided a most enjoyable light lunch. If sharing a baked camembert could be called light. 

As there was a little weather window, Andrew and Linda decided to head back home to Weymouth around 10pm. Their departure was just as darkness was falling:

and as you can see, a ferry got in the way. 

Nordhavn departures are rather stately activities:

It felt strange to be alone again - almost like being back in lockdown.