Ad Lib 29

 

It is a stay-in-port day across Emsworth harbour. Especially if you are the owner of a wooden gaffer with leaking decks to re-pay. "Last time it took me two weeks, just to rake the seams out. Re-caulking was nearly a month. I'm going to epoxy sheath them. I want to be out sailing!"

Although, the only people out sailing, for the past several days, have been the wind surfers. Slashing to and fro, between the half tide sand bars. Riding thirty to forty knots of (surprisingly warm) easterly breeze. 

An option which Stargazer's skipper prefers to sit out. In favour of enjoying the sunshine in a more sheltered spot.

Where I share a picnic table, with a member of the Emsworth Yacht Harbour crew. Learning, in the process, that the marina is run as a workers' co operative. Because the founder, Admiral Gick, was keen to keep it out of the hands of the corporate marina chains, after he retired.

The Admiral had created the marina by converting the log pickling ponds of a sawmill. Which was powered by the Slipper Mill Pond and stood on a site now occupied by waterfront housing.

In the silence, after my lunchtime confidant has returned to duty, I hear a 'ping' from my phone. Purbeck Marine Mike has answered Stargazer's cry for help, with her fuel filler (see yesterday's post). He knows Stargazer well, from her Poole days. Our next port of call is thus confirmed. If not our day of arrival.