Well i'm on for the Bray Cruiser club BBQ.

Ramage and No Regrets - Are you both still going along to it as well?

Will storm the place with the Birchwood Massive  

Rather infuriatingly, we are pre-booked elsewhere, and it's an event I'm not going to be able to get out of  

Although I can try...

I have to go... I won a free place in the caption competition!

Must make sure my tank is full though...everyone knows what happened last time Carli went to a Bray CC barbie at Cookham!

Any probs we'll follow you up through Cliveden reach and nose you in.  Will look as if we are following very closely  

Quote :

everyone knows what happened last time Carli went to a Bray CC barbie at Cookham!

Do tell!

For car or for <gulp!> Carli?

Carli.

Something about a fuel gauge  

Over to Ramage  

Probably best for you to read my daughter's piece in Bray Cruiser News.

"Are we having fun yet?"

http://www.braycruiserclub.co.uk/default.asp?action=news&news_action=news_item&nid=51


 

Quote :

"Are we having fun yet?"

Nice piece!

Mind you... have I got a spare outboard to get me to the bank?  A fuel can?  A funnel?  The skill to bleed a diesel system?

Hmmm...

Only a few days to go till the weekend and the BBQ. Will be there for this one for sure after missing the YBW one.

Fill them fuel tanks chaps so we can get there and refuel ourselves    

--Last edited by flashheart on 2008-09-03 08:00:18 --

We will be there  

~Now I'm working on the Saturday, so can't leave until 3:30, and if we hurry, may make Cookham by around 7-7:30.

So don't eat all the Burgers eh?  

...and FFS keep Ramage away from the Ale        

And FFS!!

How do I keep Ramage away from the ale?

I've got some spare mooring line to tie to his ankles should needs be.  

Tie him to your boat then, and you can give it a scrub when he hauls it onto the bank.

Relaunching may be a bit harder, just bung a keg in the wierstream, when he wakes up....  

Quote :

No Regrets wrote : Tie him to your boat then, and you can give it a scrub when he hauls it onto the bank.

Hmm, may prove interesting if i'm rafted up next to some other poor buggers.  

Rafted up?

Use more Beer. He can handle up to 7 tons with enough 'fuel'  

                                   

and Alex says:

                       :hic:  :hic:  :hic:  :hic:  :hic:  :hic:  :hic:              

A most pleasant evening!  

I managed to leave St Albans at 3PM, and arrived at Bray only 35 minutes later, and we pulled out all the stops to set sail by 4PM. Quite a result...

'Hangin' a left' out of Bray, I noticed that although we were pointing the right way, we appeared to be going towards Teddington, so a heavier right foot saw the little Sea Tiger tachometer reaching previously unchartered territory, leaving Bray and an uncharacteristic wash behind us...

We had previously timed the journey at between one and a half to two hours, so reckoned we might be a little late, but at 2500-3000rpm seemed to be making good headway, and with regular gearbox temperature checks, made Bray lock in good time, and went straight through.

A small delay at Boulters gave me a chance to check 'No Regrets' vital signs, and everything seemed to be in order, with no apparent signs of mechanical stress, despite the relative pounding the 30 year old oily bits were being subjected to.

By now, Ch.10 was crackling away with the arrivals up at Cookham, and warnings not to head into the Weirstream, which seemed fairly obvious given the flow, and as we headed into Cookham lock, we announced our arrival by calling 'Cookham island' as we didn't know who would be monitoring whose VHF!

Our request was met, and we were offered a space next to Carli, but the space behind seemed like a good idea, mainly because of a deep seated desire for a lie in on Sunday morning (Rafting has no guarantee of this!) so we slipped in aft, ably assisted by the roping skills of Carli's first mate, Alex.

After a brief 'Wummage awound the undergwowfe' we arrived at the brilliantly set up BBQ, and enjoyed a great evening, with a good turn out from the BOA (Formerly UTBM) and no less than three '25's lurking around the place  

Much eating and drinking later, we retired for the night, and slept soundly until a loud scraping noise woke us up....

Over to Ramage....    


Looking forward to next week chaps  

Was the scraping Simba licking your dinner plates?

Sadly, no.

As previously mentioned, the river was flowing VERY strongly.
We were moored to the "Lock" sign forward, and to a large ground stake aft. We also had springs set and the anchor deployed for good measure.

We decided to depart early on Saturday since A: My son was due at a rowing club meeting at 2pm.
and B: The locks were already on Yellow boards (stream increasing) and most of the locks upstream had gone to Red boards.

We got the anchor in & lines off and Bray members on shore pushed us out. Unfortunately the flow pushed us straight back onto the island and forward onto the Lock sign (which scraped along the glass of the wheelhouse but did no damage).

We backed up and tried again using more power and motored serenely up the lock cut to Cookham Lock.

Most of the way home we were on 1300 rpm and even then we were being swept along at more than 8 kph. No wake visible though!

We arrived back at Bray marina at 10.30 am by which time Bray lock had gone onto red boards.

Great BBQ. Simba looked very smart in his hoodie!

Well a great time was had. And just glad we all got back to base in one piece. Certainly an adventure to remember. Cookham was still on yellows downstream at 1pm, so was boulters. But Bray was red on the final leg.

Note to myself: Sit table and chairs in the middle of the room next time rather than in a corner. Better chance of being next to people you know.

Must say Ramage. I was impressed with Alex's and yourself's handling of the boat tanking down the weir stream. Certainly worried a few members for a moment. Was the fastest Birchwood i've seen!
To see you cruising gently back up the stream certainly got us breathing again. Well done