The Lune Pilot

Poor planning can lead to disaster and even after all these years I do sometimes fail to plan.

Take yesterday – wind, blue skies and a free pass meant that I could for the first time in a good few weeks go sailing. At this time of the year the Lune Pilot is based at Beccles in Suffolk. I decided therefore to hook her up and have a day out at Oulton Broad.

The first problem encountered was the fact that my new Ford Ranger with a dealer fitted tow bar has a 13 pin socket. I only discovered this when I tried to hook up. I never even knew there was such a thing. Being a Sunday in Suffolk my options were fast diminishing. I Googled for a solution and find out that there is such a thing as an adapter. Since I used to live nearby I was aware of a local motor factor and got there with 5 minutes to spare. As they said on the Apollo 13 mission – “that was the glitch for this mission”.

Oh no it wasn’t. When I arrived at Oulton Broad…   well I have never seen it so busy. They only meet there once a year and this was that weekend. Power Boat racing at Oulton Broad. Call me old fashioned but this is not the place for sailing boats. The noise, the smell and the obvious no go areas just mean it’s not a great place to be. Don’t get me wrong, those I chatted to were very friendly and I am sure if I hung around I would have quite got into the racing scene and the paddock buzz.

So where to next I thought? Well a number of places came to mind. However, at this point I remembered a small problem that I had not considered until now. I had not yet replaced the rowlocks which were stolen over the winter at Rutland Water. I can’t go out into unfamiliar waters without my back up propulsion. No worries I thought, Jeckells Chandlery will be open they will have some – did they heck – well not the right size anyway. Well I’m not superstitious but I do believe that when you encounter three show stoppers then it might just be time to stop the show.

I then took the boat back to the boat yard and did something else.