Mistrals first trip under my ownership

[lewlew100]

Monday was spent getting my engineless Carrera off the trailer and onto blocks/supports to free up the trailer for Mistrals collection from Northney Marina.
Left home (Lincolnshire) with empty trailer Tuesday 4AM in a bid to avoid any traffic on the M25 - that did not work!!! The M25 was even busy early morning with the gantry signs showing congestion at every entry/exit for the motorway. The A3 was also very busy/slow at the London end, but not too bad further down.
After a short break at Petersfield services I eventually arrived at Northney. Waited a couple of hours for the boatlift and by the time everything was properly secured and a couple of adjustments to the trailer and a short catnap I was ready to leave at about 4PM. A3 traffic was not bad, but increased as London (M25) approached I wanted to wait until after 7PM before joining the M25 so I decided to park up for a while (sleep), but had problems finding a layby that was not full of artic HGV's!!! All the laybys with a safety island were full so I had to make do with a roadside (I think they are dangerous) layby. Anyway the rest of the trip was uneventful, arriving at Market Deeping at about 10PM, dumped the boat/trailer in a friends yard and arrived home at around 11PM. On Wednesday I collected the rig from Deeping and towed it to a farm building in our village where I intend now to remove the canvass cover and clean it up a bit and get a couple of repairs done to make it a bit more weatherproof. It really did seem to be a bit of a shame bringing the boat back from the coast to our inland area (the boat will be going on the river Nene although I do hope to be able to drag it back to the coast a couple times each year as long as I am able. Geoff.

[betty boop]

well done Geoff, sounds like a fun trip, the 4Am start would have been charged double time and a half, so we both got off lightly I think you'll need to put some pics up too of your boat collection and the new addition.

[lewlew100]

Thanks Ian, I really think it was you that got off lightly, being spared about 18 hours of my almost incessant chatter. I will try to drag up and post a few pics of my current fleet - probably nearly as many as the navy, and like the navy most of them out of commission!!! Geoff.

[Bigplumbs]

Yeah we need pics !

[lewlew100]

OK BP - remember you asked for it - I will try to load a few picks under the new heading "too many projects, not enough time. Geoff.