So guess what, I went down to the boat last weekend! Nothing strenuous, just went down on Saturday and shackled the mooring buoy to the chain. No rope this time: if it comes away from the chain it's been nicked.
I had a couple of hours on board in the sunshine, airing the cabin. After that I had a walk round the pond.
I came across this poorly looking Westerly Centaur on the beach at the end of the spit:
The poor thing had lost a keel. It was covered in seaweed, so I guessed it must have sunk on its mooring and been recovered. The fact it wasn't tied to anything suggested the person that put it on the beach didn't expect it to move.
I went back at high tide on Sunday and sure enough:
It doesn't float. :-( Such a shame.
I hope that somehow it gets restored and doesn't get cut up like so many other recovered wrecks I've seen down at Eastney. Obviously they'll need the missing keel, hopefully they have recovered or will recover that as well as the boat.
In other news, the travellers that had been occupying the car park have been given notice to leave. Not the strongest of messages, but at least they've been told to skedaddle "as soon as practical".... very British :
Hopefully there is an end to this:
The whole car park being used up by caravans and campers. One's even parked a speedboat up at his caravan like some holiday home and another put a patio outside the door, so they knew they were in for the long haul! I did notice not one of the cars parked with the caravans had a towing hitch, so how they got the caravans there or how they'll tow them away I don't know.
That American RV has been parked up around Eastney and the rest of Portsmouth for about two years or more now. Anywhere he can get free parking.
So I've made a teeny step forward. Not a big one, but at least I got out to the boat.
