We got back to Roaring Girl at the end of March. She was fine, sitting sweetly at her position.
When we came back in February, having been away longer than planned, some of our dock-lines had really suffered from chafe, and one had worn through. Fortunately we'd left back-ups and the marina staff had made sure she was safe. But we finally bought even bigger springs. For years we have used the metal type ones you can see on the right. The blue lines lead to our neighbour, and the white lines are ours. Springs of this kind have done us proud, including during our first winter aboard, in Brighton marina, dealing with the south-westerly gales of the Channel.
But the stresses of a Med mooring are a bit different and we decided it was time to upgrade. The spring on the left is a big beefy object with some astronomical breaking strain. The lines are 24mm; there are three on each side, one to the bows, round the Sampson post and to the cleat, with the spring; one back up line (deliberately looser than the spring at full stretch) going directly to the cleat, and one further back up line that goes from the dock to the midships cleat.
The little brown bobble is on the lead line which connects to the very stout warps that are holding us off the quay, by going from our stern cleats to a chain embedded along the sea floor.
The springs are immensely important. They relieve shock and wear on the ropes and protect the fittings of the boat. And strong springs like these really take a lot of the jolts out of big wind gusts and swell, making the whole night more comfortable.
The final beauty of these new springs is that they do not squeak! If you have ever clambered on deck, wearing only jims-jams, in a howling gale, at 0300, to sprinkle washing up liquid on squeaking, creaking, be-damned shock absorbers - you know what a blessing this is.