Wednesday 5th August 2020 - Eat out to Help Out in Brightlingsea

So today the plan was to get the dinghy pumped up, check out the outboard and take a short trip across the harbour to Point Clear for a picnic lunch as AJ in particular wanted to swim in water more than a foot deep. We needed the dinghy and outboard to get ashore at our next port of call, West Mersea, as we will be spending the night on a swinging mooring and the club launch is only running for club members due to Covid 19.

The kids helped Patrick pump the dinghy up whilst I did inside jobs, and then I helped Patrick lift on the outboard which he then tested.... zilch! Not even a splutter. AJ soon lost interest and Patrick continued to fiddle but no joy. I started to take our normal approach of hitting google and youtube for suggestions but then Patrick pointed out the lack of secure place to strip it down (the pontoon is a little exposed and wobbly) and the fact that there are a number of marine engineers in Brightlingsea. The reality of living 200 miles away from the boat is beginng to hit. Something we would normally have a go at fixing ourselves (and would have checked before our summer cruise) became something we are (almost) happy to pay for somebody else to do.

We took a walk to French Marine and they had capacity to look at it that afternoon, so we headed back to the boat, loaded the outboard into a trolley and wheeled it out of the marina and across the road before returning to the boat to contemplate rowing across to Point Clear. After watching a number of old boys in rigid rowing boats struggling against the tide Patrick wasn't happy loading 4 of us into an inflatable and trying to row across. AJ was very upset at the prospective lack of swim but showed his increasing maturity by coming up with an alternative solution.... take the foot ferry across.

I quickly made a small picnic and then the kids and I headed over to the harbourmasters building to book our Ferry (usually I think you just turn up at the pontoon but covid 19 means they need to keep track of numbers and also take our details for track and trace). Down to the pontoon and onto the socially distanced Ferry complete with masks!

Once at Point Clear we spotted some of our boat neighbours who had paddled over in their inflatable kayak. I felt a bit of a wus for taking the ferry but they very soon had to leave as the tide had already turned and as we watched them paddle back it was clear that very soon it would be an almost impossible task.

AJ enjoyed a swim whilst the tide was relatively slack (you can see him just above the paddle of the kayak) and then the kids set to making another sandcastle. I got a message from Patrick to say that the outboard was working but French Marine didn't know what had been wrong as they had spent an hour fiddling and then it had suddenly started. £36 down for an hours labour but at least we had a working outboard and the engineer said that it is a good one worth holding on to (something we knew anyway but it's always nice to hear it from somebody else).

With the increasing wind AJ soon realised that no amount of complaining to Esmé would stop sand blowing off her spade into his face so he decided to wear some protection! (Video of him testing it out below).

AJ eventually got his own back though as he managed to throw an entire bucket of sea water over her whilst she was unable to move burried in the sand!!!

Much squealing ensued and complaints of eczema hurting so I asked her to rinse of in the sea before coming to me to have fresh water from our water bottle poured over the painful bits. Only problem is that Esmé's old fear of what is under the water has come back (despite swimming so much in the Med) and so she was scared to go in. AJ rectified this by piggy backing her and so the squealing continued! Best bit was AJ trying to piggy back her back out of the sea which appeared to be rather more challenging than getting her in. Finally she was out and with a small freshwater rinse, quiet and happy again.

We caught an earlier ferry back to Brightlingsea as the kids had just about had enough and Patrick met us at the showers with wash kit then back to the boat for some time out of the sun before dinner.

We had decided to take advantage of the "Eat out to Help out scheme" and 3 out of the 4 of us were craving seafood so we had already booked the Rosebud a lovely pub about 1/2 a mile away. We were planning to eat outside but a few spots of rain and a quetionable rain radar picture on my weather app made us retreat inside. Great social distancing, lovely atmosphere and awesome food made an excellent night.

There was not a scrap of food left at the end and we were all full to bursting for a ridiculously low price tag so we left a hefty tip and headed back to Laurin. Esmé was clearly very tired as she (as she always does when tired) behaved like your very drunk best friend after a good night out, stumbling and dancing all over the road, singing at the top of her voice. I pity her friends when she eventually does start drinking. (Watch out Iris!)