A Weekend and a Half

We said last week that this weekend would have to be pretty good to beat the last one. Well it most certainly was one to remember.


It started off early on Saturday with a 6.30am drive from Lincoln to Newark. A few of us were to bring a stranded Burton Waters boat back from Newark Marina to Burton Waters. The owner had been taken ill around about a month ago and was still too ill to bring her back, so we jumped at the chance to bring her home. It was a very successful trip with the boat being delivered back to her own berth with no damage and a very happy owner. Shortly afterwards the drinks started to flow and saturday evening hides behind an alcohol induced fog.


Sunday dawned and what a glorious day. The task for sunday was to measure the bridges through Lincoln city centre to find out if we could fit a friends boat through with a few modifications to the radar arch. So we strip off the canopies, fender up well lower the arch and head off for Lincoln and the Brayford Pool. Dark Star lowers anchor in the pool we pick up the bridge measuring crew and off we head.


The first few bridges we measured fine, before the remaining crew of Dark Star ring up to say they are dragging anchor and the boat has gone behind the island and is now sitting on the bottom. So we head back to tow Dark Star from the shallows ensuring that Naughty-Cal isnt grounded in the process. Finally she is extracted from the mud and moored to the viewing platform due to an abscence of any visitor mooring space anywhere in the pool. Naughty-Cal is then put back on bridge measuring duty.


The remaining bridges are measured successfully without any damage being sustained to either structure or vessel however we did cause quite a stir with the sunday shopping fraternity who wondered what the hell we were doing. Finally finished we head off back to Dark Star to clean up and have a well earned drink. Upon reaching Dark Star our friends on the pirate ship Wish You Were Here have arrived rafted to Dark Star so we raft beside them as well. It wasnt long before Dream On and Devocean made it five boats rafted and finally Banjo arrived to make it six boats on the viewing platform. Why we have left it so late in the season for such a gathering is unknown but it made quite a sight. We settled on a take out from the Mexican waterside restaurant for dinner and had a few drinks before we all set off for the Pyewipe Inn for a final drink and to round off the evening.


With a flurry of untied ropes and lifted anchors the gathering disappeared as quickly as it arrived and soon regrouped outside the pub where the same shuffling of boats and rafting ensued to get us all in again.


Its a good job we dont mind rafting..................