As we weren't due to lock in to Heybridge Basin until 5pm we had a lazy morning on the mooring, started off by a pancake breakfast. AJ took advantage of slack low water tide to play on the swing and Patrick took time to give the deck a good scrub.
I spent some time catching up on tutoring paperwork and the blog before deciding to tackle a boat job that had been niggling me since last year. Before going on out "Big Adventure" we had created a designated "charging locker". In it we kept all our electronic devices and installed multiple usb and cigarette lighter sockets as well as a small inverter. Unfortunately last summer when we returned to the boat after lockdown nothing seemed to be working in there! As I now have a new laptop which will work with my old 12V charger I wanted to get the charging locker up and running again.
Step one was to check continuity between the sockets and the bus bars behind our switch panel. That's where the fun started as we don't quite have a full set of tools on board and the one size screwdriver I needed didn't seem to have made the journey down from up north. After a fair bit of fiddling I eventually had access.... everything seemed ok! I started fiddling around with the switches and then it hit me.... the charging locker was on a different switch to the main cabin USB's... all this time all I needed to do was flick a different switch! I was livid with myself, particularly as it was a pain of a job getting everything back in place with less than ideal tools! Anyway, at least we now have a working charging locker!
After a light lunch AJ and I took the dinghy ashore to pick up some fresh seafood and wait for Chris to join us. The outboard was being a little temperamental (probably due to the fact that we were using up last years petrol in it) and I was a little concerned about the journey back against the tide. In the end the return journey was fine and once we were all on board we had a leisurely chat and dropped the mooring, saying goodbye to the packing shed which had been our companion overnight.
Once past the Nass Beacon we put sails up and killed the engine before looking at our speed and ETA at Heybridge... 5:30pm.... too late for our 5pm lock. Now we were really kicking ourselves as it was a perfect afternoon for a sail but at some point we were going to have to motor. We'd failed to realise how much our fouled bottom and towed dinghy would slow us down... rookie error! Regardless it was a beautiful afternoon to be on the water and we enjoyed seeing the Blackwater for the first time since before we went to the Med. It was interesting to sail past Radio Caroline and we also spotted Lisa's old boat "Black Magic" and sent her a picture... a bitter sweet reminder for her!
All too quickly we were outside Heybridge only to have to wait nearly an hour to lock in... we could have sailed anyway!
I absolutely love locking in at Heybridge, it reminds me of our Stella days where the whole fleet of classic little racing yachts would fill the lock after racing down from West Mersea and raft up together in the basin. Imagine our surprise when we tied ourselves up in the lock only to find ourselves next to old Stella friends "The Blue Streak Boys".
Once tied up I prepared a mish mash of dinner out of what was left in the fridge and we enjoyed a lovely meal in the cockpit with Chris and Anne (who had driven down to collect Chris), finishing off with candlelit whisky!
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