Successful Move to Marsden Cove Marina
05 March 2012 | Marsden Cove Marina, New Zealand
Rod
After sleeping it over, Jan, on Jenny, informed us that that he could steer the boat outside while Jarl, his son visiting from Norway, could switch the engine into gear, forward or reverse, and operate throttle control down inside the boat. This would involve Jan calling the commands down and Jarl hearing them, because they cannot see each other during this procedure. Marsden Cove Marina was close by, and it would be much easier to source a fix in a marina that an anchorage. If Elisabeth and I would go into the marina well ahead of jenny, we could park our boat, get our dinghy in the water, and then zoom out to Jenny, climb onboard and take the lines ashore while Jan and Jarl controlled the boat.
A call to Marsden to let them know we were coming with a big beautiful crippled boat and a call to Matt to tell him we are at Marsden, and we were off. We had had the dinghy off the boat last night, so it came on board. We raised anchor, and we set out for Marsden. The wind has shifted during the night, so we had a nice and very rolly ride to Marsden. It was no problem, but very entertaining. Once at Marsden, like good commandos, we got the dinghy in the water and set out to assist Jenny. Once we got out of the marina proper and into the channel, we gave the dinghy power so we travel faster to help Jenny. Of course the dinghy has also been unused for a year. The gas was new, but upon throttle up, the engine died. "Row, Elisabeth, row while I try and get her going". Well, she did, and I did, and the beloved little engine we call "Blackie" sprung back to life. Then she died again. Three times, we had this great fun. The irony is that the engine had just been given to the local outboard shop to "get her ready for a season of trouble free duty". Sigh What can you do? It seems like fuel starvation - should be an easy fix. Just put it on the list.
We got to Jenny. Jan had decided to sail her into the marina. Jenny is over 50 feet long and is a custom built, cold molded wood boat. Sailing such a boat into a very windy (Yes, the wind had picked up by now- remember the gale warnings we had been getting?) It was not blowing that much, but the wind was there. Bottom line is that after a few exciting moments, we got Jenny in and tied. Matt came in the afternoon, had a look, Jan made progress in sourcing help, so to quote the Kiwis, "she'll be right". And she will. I think that we will all be here a few days, but there is another low-pressure system forecast to come on Wednesday, so we would need to be somewhere cozy anyway. This marina will be fine.