The northern event also went very well. Saturday was the usual intensive exercises in Charlie's field (with it's slopes, hills and pond it's an excellent location for beginners). Bill and Gordon soon picked up the basics and remembered them (well, most of the time
). A good soaking during hump exercises certainly helps with memory problems
We met on the River Lune early Sunday morning for a cruise together with Brian R. High tide was forecast to be around 11:35 but the mini-bore appeared around 9:30. Pretty impressive as the river just instantly changes flow direction then starts to fill up like a bucket under a tap - within 20mins the craft that I'd parked on the road edge (about 7 meters above the water level) was virtually floating. I'd forgotten to put the drain plug in (together with opening the fuel vent valve it must be the most common hover-silly!) so the bilge pump got some much-needed exercise! It was to be a 9.9metre tide and, as predicted it flooded the roadway and lapped up the wall to the Golden Ball pub.
We set off up river to the weir through Lancaster city centre just as the jetski guys appeared (easy launching for them with such a high tide!). Trip to the weir was uneventful for the others, unfortunately I couldn't get under the railway bridge in Lancaster due to the high tide
. I eventually crept under off-hover with about 6inch of clearance and a bent aerial then remembered that high tide was still an hour away so quickly returned under the bridge before I got trapped upriver
On return to the launch site we couldn't find space on the bank to land (too many jetskis by this time) so used the opposite shore (which was now flooded and consisted of vast area of grass islands in a sea of water.
After a re-fuel we set off for the mouth of the estuary. No mud or sand banks and just a vast area of shallow muddy water past the Docks at Glasson and around Sunderland point. After a stop offshore it was decided that, due to fuel issues, the two "learners" would return back up river and practice on the wide section. Brian and I then continued up the coast toward Morecambe. The docks at Heysham were very busy (there was a line of ships to the horizon waiting to enter during the high tide). These ships move a LOT faster than they appear to (you have to try to decide to go in front or behind - it's always a good idea to go behind as any problem isn't going to leave you sitting in the path of a 20000 tonne ship travelling at 15knots
), the wake behind a ship can be quite "interesting"!
The entire trip to Morecambe was uneventful and very relaxing - almost no wind, blue skies and virtually flat seas. Craft just purred along at 20-25mph on half throttle using little fuel.
We landed on the main beach at Morecambe (it was pretty busy!) and had the obligatory ice cream and a bit of sitting around answering questions (and handing out club leaflets!) before re-fuelling and returning back down the coast. Once again, a totally uneventful trip (the tide had started to go out leaving the three miles of sand/mud bank with only about 4" of water on it - you just slide along at barely above idle for miles.
There were no craft breakdowns or other problems - all in all a thoroughly enjoyable weekend - good company, interesting scenery and beautiful weather - what more could you want?