After a solid night’s sleep until 0800hrs, it was Elektra bouncing on the bottom as the tide started to float her which woke me. I got out and boiled the kettle for tea and had breakfast. Once l had cleared up afterwards, l lifted the outboard from the pushpit onto the dinghy and motored over to the shore, it wasn’t until l got there that l realised l had left my phone aboard, so back in the dinghy to Elektra to get phone. Almost back the outboard miss fired and stopped but l grabbed hold of Elektra before getting washed upstream. Phone collected, back in the dinghy the engine started but having having gone about 3-4 boat lengths stopped again. So l rowed it to the shore.
I made the painter off to a shore chain and went for a walk. I didn’t walk far because already the morning was getting hot, but l wanted to take some photos for those of you who read my blog. Out around the point and back up the main street/lane past the pub “The Sloop Inn” and along a footpath beside the river. Once on the way back l stopped a cafe for a drink, 2 cans of fizzy orange £6! Having spent that much on a soft drink, l didn’t stop st the pub for a pint.
Having rowed back to Elektra, I needed to look at the outboard, it had to be working for getting ashore once l was back home again. So l set about stripping down the carburettor, this l have done many times before with lots of different smaller engines. Quite often you don’t see anything blocking the jets, but just taking them apart quite often solves the problem. And this was the same with this outboard, once put together again, l tested it and it ran fine. So l lifted it onto the pushpit and clamped and locked in place.
Then a drink and a sleep in the cockpit, and so the day drifted by. I had a bit of washing up to do and some other jobs. I studied the forecast a bit. There is strong east winds forecasted for the weekend and l needed to get home before them.
So the plan is to leave tomorrow on high water and go west, how far west will depend on weather.
Love Sailing 