Friday Night
I came down the night before to meet the previous owner Bob Stokes who kindly talked me through the boat, answer a few questions and talk through some decisions he made when restoring the boat over the last two years. It's really handy to be able to talk to the previous owner as questions will always arise once you start sailing a new boat. Bobs a fantastic guy, everyone knows him around Chichester which immediately fills me with confidence with my new purchase, oh and its already been to venezuela apparently.
10 minutes later and I'm reminded that I now own a boat that will need a lot of love and attention, but unlike a girlfriend I'll willingly pour my wages into buying practical useful things which serve a purpose other than smelling or looking nice. So the cabin lights stop working after 10 minutes, as long as the boat floats I'm more than happy to take this one on the chin and sort it out another day, after all I didn't bring candles for decoration.....
Saturday Morning
This morning myself and Emma took a walk over to Birdham Pool, just a 5 minute walk from Chichester Marina. I didn't realise the marina office was closed at weekends so we spoke to the lock keeper Tony, who said we could put bring over Excalibur and sort everything out on Monday with the office.
Speaking with Chichester Marina they told me that at 11.30 they would operate a free-flow, opening the lock at high tide allowing people to move through freely, great for me and Em and no faffing with locks!
Time to spend some money. I headed over to the chandlery and bought some charts and a folio pack of the solent, and a marina guide. Inevitably I got some strange looks from the staff when I mentioned I was going to Birdham Pool, just five minutes around the corner, but hell, if you just blew a wad of cash on new boat you'd be a bit bloody apprehensive too!
Nerves building
Nervous tension building, Emma took the role of being extra calm, anyone who knows Em would realise this is ironically frustrating (if that's a valid sentence). Anyway its better than having a flapping girlfriend at times like these.
Knowing from crewing on Troskala, the words maneuverability and long keel boats are rarely found in the same sentence, if they are it's hardly be complementary . Reversing a long keel boat hits the top of my most feared past times, along with riding motorbikes down the center lane with a locked back tyre, dangling from ladders, and kicking down doors and entering rooms filled with stagnant gas, all of which I've done and would recommend avoiding to sustain a long and healthy life.
Firing her up
So the time comes, I fire up Scally (Emma's nickname for Excalibur, easier to spell and kind of endearing this name will stick I'm sure), a few shouts, a few hmm back, no hmm forward, more throttle and we're away, well we're now in a boat Jam. I forget down south people actually use their boats on a regular basis unlike when I was in St Katharine Docks. Nevertheless we eventually punch through the incoming water thats being pushed through the lock and we motor at about 1 knot past the 5 green poles, head for the start of Birdham Pools green pole runway and follow them to the lock. The whole process could have been completed in 10 minutes, but I wanted to take as long as possible and enjoy the moment.
I could have planned a bit of a jolly, but my plan is to take baby steps, overly cautious but better than getting in a pickle with a boat I hardly know.
Birdham Lock
Emma's radio voice was amusing, I think she was trying to impersonate a 50yr old salty dog. Five octaves lower than normal she ascertained from the lock keeper that we should wait by the Well. New to Birdham Pool I struggled to see any Wells so we circled around a few times until the lock opened. Panic ensued when instead of using our lines, we were given lines from the lock, with the radio on full blast, all I could see was Emma's mouth moving at the same time Gin Palace 5 was complaining to Chichester Marina that they forgot ice for their martinis. Anyway we eventually tied up in the lock and were handed a welcome pack along with a warm greeting.
Mooring
I had put a post up the previous day on YBW asking for advice/help on mooring using piles. Pile mooring comprises of berthing a boat between four posts, and lassoing them to each corner of the boat. Two minutes after getting into the lock, a happy chappy old boy called Steve came over and said to Emma he knew me from the forum and would head over to our pontoon and take our lines. Right there and then I realised I had picked a superb marina, everything about the marina seemed proper old school which suits me just fine.
The first attempt at mooring bow first was a total balls up, and mainly consisted of some shouting at the girlfriend to 'get out of the way' and 'ahh cock we're going backwards'. First attempt abandoned, I drew a courtesy smile and a shrug of the shoulders to a fellow mariner and his wife who were waiting to lock out, with no response I can only presume that I had must have had the briefest encounter with the only flawlessly perfect sailing duo in marine history, for which I'm humbly honoured.
The second time round was less of a balls up but probably put some go faster stripes on poor Scally. Steve was there waiting for us to take the lines, which took a bit of time as we did our best to work out how to get closer without headbutting Excalibur against the pontoon.
We eventually tied up and were very thankfully for Steve's help. I later read the forum posts, Steve was happily sipping on rum and cokes awaiting our arrival while the life event of moving Excalibur was taking place, chin chin to Steve!
End of the day
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.
Birdham Pool is a lovely quaint place, good shower and toilet facilities. Everything else on Scally worked fine, we finished the day with the champers left by Opel Marine which had been delightfully chilled in the fridge. Chichester Yacht club put on a fireworks display which reflected off the water of the marina with a multitude of colours finishing off the day nicely.
Times have definitely changed since selling Moonpenny and buying Excalibur, I sat there looking around slightly dazed for the rest of the weekend thinking 'hmm how exactly did this happen again?'. Looking around again I noted the hot and cold running water, cooker, fridge, all these extra toys I guess are nice to have, though there's definitely a part of me that still likes the simplicity of Moonpenny, poor Moonpenny.
