Yesterday was very sad as we said goodbye to Tim as it signalled the beginning of the end of Nightfall’s 1st adventure. Tim had been such good fun and a most diligent navigator but he needed to jump ship to get home and start prepping for work on Monday, as well as catching up with his lovely wife Donna, so we understood. Since they got married as recently as 12 weeks before, it was most generous of her to wave him off for 2 weeks without her. Mind you, while he was away, she did book their honeymoon (just in case he was tempted to run off to the Canaries in November and do another ARC crossing, clever girl!)
We managed to persuade Graham Eggleton to come for the ride to Eastbourne and his wife was kind enough not to mind either, provided he still got to his mother’s for lunch at midday on Sunday!!
But first,we wanted lunch and beer and we enjoyed both at Cullen’s bar in Dover which was great. After buying some fresh crab for sandwiches for today, we cast off & out into the open sea. What did we find? No wind! Poor Graham. However, we enjoyed the motor sail in lovely weather along to Eastbourne and only just got into the lock as it was low tide bearing in mind this boats draws 2.55 metres! After tying up,we raced along to the Thai restaurant at 21.45 hours and had a lovely meal. Back on board, after a quick malt it was bedtime and how good that felt after 2 nights at sea; the boat was still. Lovely.
Graham jumped ship after breakfast in order to have any chance of catching a train as the 1st part of the aim to get to Newbury before 12.00. We were sad to see him go.
And then there were 3. We cast off at 9.20 and exited through the lock and out … no wind again.
The morning has been spent watching the world go by and ticking off the south coast mentally as we went East. Dave Cranstone, called to say he was watching with the binoculors at Birling Gap. James in Greece sent a text to say that he could see we were approaching The Seven Sisters, and other friends have been in touch to enquire what our ETA is likely to be and do we need a lift back to Hungerford? Tim Devlin sent a text to say’ nearly Holmen’ making us roar with laughter. We feel humbled to be surrounded by so much attention and good wishes. Thanks everyone.
Our aim is that Nightfall will take a temporary berth in Haslar Marina for a few days while we decide what to do about the ‘snags’ that we have to discuss with Arcona UK. We may take a month or so at Hamble Point where they are based.
For the moment, we are sorting things out so we are not on board until midnight doing it after we arrive in Gosport, and oh yes….. We’d better call Haslar hadn’t we?
Final blog entries about this trip will be posted over the next few days, but for now,
Cheerio.
Karen & co.
