Thursday 30th July - Yeadon to Burnham!
Having spent Wednesday afternoon entertaining my Dad on his birthday with a lovely meal in our new garden, it was now time to head south. It was almost bitter sweet as we have only recently moved into our new "forever" house and are just starting to enjoy the slight relaxation of covid lockdown rules which means we are spending a little more precious time with our close friends.
Reality started to hit as we started to load the (new, somewhat smaller) car. Not only was there less space to take anything but the essentials, but it had been so long that I couldn't actually remember what we had left on board. A friend had kindly been on Laurin and reported seeing very little bedding, however I couldn't find enough spare bedding at home and I was sure we had enough for both boat and house. We decided to bring sleeping bags and order duvets etc from Amazon if there wasn't any on Laurin as the smaller car meant duvets travelling up and down the A1 was not going to happen.
The last time we had been on board was New Year when we removed the sails and stowed them all below decks. We needed to allow enough time on arrival to make Laurin habitable so we made an earlyish start. First stop was Doncaster to see the lovely Tiffany Rose to pick up some fantastic sparkly leapordskin cycling shorts for Esmé. Then the long slog south to Burnham, stopping only for driver swaps, and munching our picnic lunch en route. We finally arrived Burnham on Crouch around 2:30pm and immediately bumped into old friends! It was great to be back.
After a brief chat we headed to Laurin. I was happy to find duvets, duvet covers, pillows and pillowcases on board. Just missing sheets for some reason! After a couple of hours work we had sails on deck (mizzen bent on) beds made, and the essentials unpacked from the car. I did a brief shop at the Coop to put us on until our Asda delivery on Sunday and we booked a table at the Swallowtail for an early tea.
It was interesting to note the changes in Burnham due to Covid. Marina staff were wearing masks and there were buckets of "gloop" to wash our hands in before and after the security gate leading on to the pontoons. It seemed to be an unspoken rule that the gangplank had a one way system and everybody waited their turn. People stepped out of the way onto finger pontoons when passing each other. It seemed stranger "social distance" greeting people we hadn't seen for months, than keeping distance from friends at home. In the Co-op people seemed better at social distancing than I've seen in supermarkets up north recently, waiting (sometimes impatiently) for one shopper to finish browsing rather than risk going too close in order to retrieve their peppers! The Swallowtail had erected a big gazebo outside to allow more open air drinking and dining, but we enjoyed a lovely spot on the balcony for our start to the holiday.
Friday 31st July - Wot no pants!
After a lovely cooked breakfast we discovered our that AJ was missing something.... Pants! He and I had packed all his clothes into the pouches we use for storage on the boat but Esmé had helpfully put them all (or so she thought) into a bag and loaded them into the car. Unfortunately she had missed the pouch containing all the pants and socks! Luckily the Co-op had started selling clothes so this was easily remedied.
Todays tasks were to get more sails bent on, start to clean the decks and to catch up with the boatyard to check that they were ok to lift us out for a much needed scrub. We were going to be lifted late morning so we could use their lunchtime to check the annode and change it if necessary. Laurin was severely fouled as she'd been in the water for over a year and not moved for the last 10 months.
They asked us to bring Laurin round the the crane ourselves which is a little unusual for Burnham but we figured it was probably a covid thing to prevent them having to come onto our boat. Patrick was a little concerned about if we would manage this with so much weed but I was a little more gung ho. Weed on the bottom really doesn't help boat handling but weed on the prop is even worse so we checked the mooring lines and motored her slowly in astern to try to clear the worst of it. Over a period of about 5 minutes I observed much weed floating towards the front of the boat and away under the pontoon, feeling the tension in the lines increasing as the prop cleared somewhat. She still drove like a pig when we backed out of th berth though so I dread to think what she'd have been like without our preparations. True to form she didn't behave going backwards and so I needed to do a little pirouette to get her facing in the right direction. Once she had been manhandled into the slings we got off and watched her being lifted... always a tense moment!
The weed underneath was even worse when we looked up close!
Once she was cleaned off we went to take a look at the annode but decided to not to change it as there was plenty of life left in it. Last time we changed the annode the studs moved and we had to rebed them in, something we didn't have time for so we didn't want to have to change it if we didn't have to. I took the kids to Swallowtail's tent for a drink and some snacks while Patrick cleaned up the prop and then very soon she was relaunched and we motored her back to our berth. A good morning's work!
In the afternoon our friends Lizzy and Polly came to visit and we enjoyed a lovely but hot walk to the Parlour Cafe at Creaksea for the most amazing milkshakes ever! They had a really well thought out system for ordering and also minimising contact.
Dinner was taco boats in the cockpit and we all enjoyed the marginally cooler evening air.
Saturday 1st August
A light breakfast and then more unpacking, and the main still to bend on. This was a whole family job as it seems an almost impossible task without removing the boom. Anyway, by mid morning we were done and starting to contemplate plans for the next few weeks. We really wanted to go to Holland but felt uneasy due to Covid. We had then thought about heading down to the Solent with perhaps a short trip over to France but with quarantines being imposed at short notice on people returning from Spain, and reports of the Solent being even more busy than normal we decided to stick with the East Coast. There are still many nooks and crannies Patrick and I have yet to visit, and the kids haven't done a lot on the East Coast since 2016 which is a long time ago in their short lives. I'm also hoping that quieter anchorages might recreate a little of the magic of our "Big Adventure".
At some point during the morning (and much to the kids delight) we uncovered the old Ikea swing that the kids tie to the main halyard and use to launch themselves along the length of the boat.
After lunch we took a walk into town to return a trophy and for ice cream. It all felt a bit busy on the front but we were thankful that it was nowhere near as bad as the scenes on the news from other, more touristy towns. We quickly got away from the crowds and sat on the grass by our old sailing club and then AJ headed back to the boat whilst Patick and I took Esmé to the playground... a real treat as our local ones up north are still closed.
Another thing we have been doing over the last couple of days is cleaning out the water tanks. They haven't been used since new year and we were concerned about what bacteria might be lurking so they've had a flush with some speicalist stuff purchased from the chandlery followed by a flush with a water/bicarbonate of soda mix. Finally we can drink from the taps!
I ljust love evenings on the boat. Drinks and nibbles followed by a steak dinner, video call with our boat neighbours who unfortunately can't get down, and another relaxing evening reading with one of Nana's Anzac biscuits.... what could be better?
Delighted you have settled back in so quickly, hope the holiday goes well. There is more East Coast than you could possibly do in 3 weeks....
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