West Bay’s new Attraction

Octopus has been creating lots of interest, moored smack bang in the middle of the harbour, most of the holiday makers stop, point and take photos, some do their best to look into the cabins, one or two cheeky ones ask to come on board her. The locals are real characters and very friendly, we feel very at home here. Yesterday we loaded the last things on board. The weather improved and we moved Octopus into the Inner Harbour as more windy weather is due. Now we are moored against the quay, right next to all the fish and chip shops cafes and grockel shops. The holiday makers can now look right into the cockpit at low water and at high water they can look into all the windows and through the hatches above the showers. Susie has now made a poster saying ‘Boat Tours, £2 above decks, £5 to see below’. Next we will be doing fishing trips around the bay!!

Taking On Stores

We all went to Southampton Boat Show on Tuesday to try and pick up some bargains. Tom tried very hard to talk his way onto a super yacht costing a cold eleven million pounds, but for some reason they didn’t want to let us on board!! A friend of mine at the boat show let the children look around a very shiny Princess 42, which seemed to satisfy their curiosity. On the way back we shopped for our stores, four trolley loads from Aldi’s should keep us going for a while!! Unloading and storing it all took a while, all the tins had to be marked in case they lost their labels and sorted into some sort of order.

Drama On The Not So High Seas

We have had over a week of lovely sunny weather, a few days ago a new weather front came over bringing with it force 5/6 South West winds. The outer harbour is very sheltered in those winds, but a swell builds up. We had a chat with James the Harbour Master about bringing Octopus into the Inner Harbour, but as Octopus was taking the swell well on the pontoon we decide to stay in the Outer Harbour. We brought her nearer to the main pontoon and said to James we were happy with her there as long as he was happy the pontoon could hold us and he assured us it was fine. All was well as the winds got up, Octopus rolled a bit in the swell but we happily carried on with the fitting out and loading. We were just serving up tea that evening when there was a big ‘crack’ and the pontoon fixing broke off. Chris and Justin were right on it, leading a rope off the stern to the other pontoon and then trying their best to secure the pontoon just as the other fixing snapped. Leaving Susie in charge of the children eating their tea and assuring them that it was normal for a pontoon to break free (??), I started the engine and rang James to let him know the pontoon had broken free, then rang Mike so we had a bit more ‘man power’. James and his assistant were very quick to arrive followed by Mike and Tim. The swell was too big to risk moving her into the Inner Harbour, so with all our help we manoevred Octopus onto the other pontoon, more perament pontoon.

Our Crew Arrive

Our crew, Justin and Katy, arrived last Sunday, along with Justin’s Mum and brother so they could have a look around the boat and meet us. I had told Katy and Justin how quiet West Bay was, with just a few fishing boats and the holiday makers strolling up and down the harbour walls with ice creams. On the day they arrived West Bay was hosting a drama festival in different areas around the harbour and it was teaming with people. The flags were out and the music was playing, what a welcome.

Living on board

Sunday and Monday was mainly spent moving more stuff on board, it all seems to find a home but there still seems as many boxes at Five Farthings as there was when we started! Teaching the children how to use the heads, to wash all the plates first at the sea water tap and generally to be sparing with the water has been easier then I thought it would be. They have adapted well to all the new ‘boat living’ rules. They have all been tired because of excitement and their new sleeping arrangements, but they have managed to fill their days themselves so I can get on with the things I need to do. They now put on their lifejackets before climbing off Octopus onto the pontoon and then they go fishing for crabs and other beasties. Yesterday Uncle Mike and Jasper turned up on their kayaks and all the children had a go in them, paddling around the harbour and under the boat.

Octopus is attracting lots of attention, lots of holiday makers like to point at her and it is a bit like being in a goldfish bowl. Everyone can walk right around the harbour and we are right in the middle. We never new this harbour was so busy, this is the first day no new yachts have come in to moor next to us. We have met lots of very friendly folk passing through on their boats. Yesterday a couple knocked on the side and said they were looking at buying a boat about the same size as ours to sail away to the Med and through the Red Sea with their twelve year old daughter. It turns out they only live a few doors away from Margaret, at Walditch. We are now off to use the Five Farthings laundry, telephone and internet service so I can post this!!!

Our First Trip in Octopus

Hamble to West Bay, Bridport,
Sixty-five nautical miles, leaving first light at 6pm.

Rising nice and early and waiting for the sun to come up so we could slip out of a very tight spot that Octopus was moored in. Low water was at five but we needed to see where we were going, so we left our mooring at about six with Chris taking the helm and steering her out beautifully. As we came out of Hamble we could see a few other yachts, the Isle of Wight ferry and a couple of larger ships that we steered well clear of. It turned out to be a very chilly and misty morning unlike the day before, but later when we rang the children in Bridport they reported they were already in their shorts and T shirts and that it was a lovely sunny morning there, so we were hopeful that the sun would soon break through.

By lunch time we were also enjoying sunshine and eating poached egg sandwiches cutesy of Alan, who seemed to be galley slave for the day. We made very good time throughout the day, apart from a bit of dodgy navigation when the depth sounder reading was only just over a metre! Lesson one…be very vigilant when trying to take short cuts in the Solent.

The afternoon was spent enjoying the weather and the views of Portland and Dorset coast. Chris got his computer navigation software up and running, it’s very reassuring to see a clear picture of where you have been and where you are going. By 4:30 Chris had informed Bridport Harbour Master that we would be arriving at five. Approaching the harbour we were greeted by cries of ‘Hello Mum, Dad’ by our welcoming party waving from the end of the harbour wall. Octopus was brought in by Pat and moored at the end of the pontoon, where we are still.

Granny Margaret watched us from the harbour wall and everyone else packed on to Octopus. With Alan and Gaynor’s help we cooked new potatoes and casserole for seventeen and we all managed to fit around the two tables without any difficulty.

Chris, Gaynor and I had a quick dash to Five Farthings to pick up some clothes for the children. By the time we got back to Octopus the children had already been to the beach with their cousins and had discovered the joys of their new home being surrounded by water, (they can get wet so much easier here!!) Six very, very, very excited children got ready to spend their first night on Octopus. Alan went to the pub with Chris’s brothers leaving Gaynor, Chris and I to open the complementary bottle of champagne that the yacht brokers gave us. A dolphin, who had been in the harbour all day came to the stern of the boat to talk to us, but was then followed by a load of people wanting a closer look at him and one mad chap jumped in the harbour to get a bit closer. Earlier the children had managed to stroke him, but while we slept he was escorted back to the open sea!

Hand-Over

Chris and I went off to Hamble on our own on Friday Morning to receive ownership of Octopus. We spent about three hours looking over her and tried very hard to take in all the details of how everything worked, we have been living on board now for five days now and we still haven’t got around to reading all the manuals. We managed a test sail for a couple of hours on Friday afternoon and then they handed us the keys and left us to unpack our gear and get settled in. We had just about got everything stowed away when Pat, Pete and Jane arrived followed by Mike, Tim and Alan. Leaving them to sort out who would be lucky enough to share a bunk with Pat, we got ready for the walk to the pub. We had a very nice meal at the Olde White Harte leaving early because of our early start….well some of us left early, other stayed for just one more!

West Bay...where we will be mooring next Saturday