Laying up Supper and Ruby comes to visit

We received an invite in the post from Universal marina for their annual ‘laying up supper’ (a dinner to celebrate the end of the year when boats traditionally come out of the water for winter) and duly accepted thinking it would be nice to meet some fellow boat owners. Given it was scheduled for Saturday evening we decided we could do some good old boat maintenance but more importantly get our new outboard on our new dinghy! Fun, fun, fun!

We diligently followed the outboard instructions, putting in oil, fuel etc. as our bemused neighbours watched on while reading there papers. We seem to be surrounded by very experienced boat owners and I get the feeling our comings and goings keep our neighbours entertained as we learn our way. Trevor one of our other neighbours seems to think we thrive on bad weather as whenever we see him, we’ve been out in vile weather. Back to afore-mentioned outboard – got it all on, opened choke, align the needle on the handle with the choke sign and pull. Nothing. Retry, retry and retry. Ask neighbour, no he’s surprised too. Bugger the instructions I’ll add a little throttle/fuel. Bingo – we have ignition! So off Susie and I went doing circles and figures of eight. Twas a lot of fun!

The marina had set up a marquee in the parking lot and we duly traipsed up for the laying up supper. A really great evening as we got to know and chat to our neighbours. The wine flowed, the music was good and the kids did the gangastyle dance in the parking lot while parents tapped their fingers to 80s music.

Ruby doesn’t miss a thing!

Sunday we had to be up at crack of dawn to catch the tide to get down to Yarmouth to see my parents. But fog had settled thick on the River Hamble and we had to motor very slowly down to the Solent where it cleared up. No wind so we zipped down under motor with the tide pushing us along. Dad was coming onboard to give us a few elementary electric lessons. His very favourite dog Ruby was joining him. Ruby does not like water and walking along the pontoon was very sceptical and kept looking up at him with a sort of “I’m trusting you on this”. But once onboard and settled she perked up and soon had us amused as we sat in the cockpit watching the world go back. Well until she knocked my coffee over – cue buckets of water! We cooked up some kippers and Ruby proved dogs like fish going from person to person appealing for droppings! Lessons over, we popped on land to see mum for lunch and then had to dash off to get the tide back and be home before sunset. A busy but very enjoyable weekend!