End of Season

1st November

We made an early start - although the very heavy rain did not bode well for an unloading session! So we stayed put whilst we did the main part of the sorting and packing (Christine has done quite a bit yesterday).

When qwe had done as much as possible, Mike cast off - and was soaking wet within a few minutes! It took some effort to get away from the bank as the wind was blowing us onto it with some force. Fortunately, we were very close to a bend and so could reverse 20 m and get a better angle to take off.

After about 20 minutes we were back at base but again the wind made turning into mooring a bit tricky. The first attempt failed and we backed off to try again. Having discovered which way the wind was lowing us, our second attempt - successful - used the techniques of winding (hence the term)

After taking all thr boxes and bags to the car, all that remained was to do a final clean through, vacuum pack the bed linen and then drain the water tank. Hopefully we have remembered all the winterising protection we need to do - at least we checked this time that all the power switches were off and so there is a chance that the batteries will stay fully charged. However, we did have an overnight problem - although it read -93, shortly after getting up the meter reset itself, suggesting a low voltage problem. Not clear what we can do about this right now!

Eventually, by 12:45, we were ready to leave and had a good straight run back to Wadebridge in a smidgen under four hours.

So that's it for this season. Apart from a possible winter stay over sometime around Christmas or New Year, we plan to be back in action early spring time once more.