Everybody got on very well, Jack, psychotherapist amongst other professions, good cook and champion rope thrower, Diccon who had travelled from Brussels, socialist, cheerful and reliable, and us two very happy to be moving on the water again.
Sunshine and calm most of the week end but a welcome brise enabled us to hoist the sails 2 or 3 times. Record of 8.2 knots in the Thames was recorded!
However, tragedy struck in the form of the mast crashing down! Whilst moored in South Docks Marina, the men decided to take the mast down to enable us to get under Tower Bridge. Thankfully I decided to go to have a shower. When I came back, the mast was down indeed but crashed too! Jack, John and Diccon all overlooked the fact they had taken off the pin at the bootom of the mast while they were untangling the wiers at the winch... the mast apparently came down noiselessly but broke when it hit the roof of the cabin...
However, tragedy struck in the form of the mast crashing down! Whilst moored in South Docks Marina, the men decided to take the mast down to enable us to get under Tower Bridge. Thankfully I decided to go to have a shower. When I came back, the mast was down indeed but crashed too! Jack, John and Diccon all overlooked the fact they had taken off the pin at the bootom of the mast while they were untangling the wiers at the winch... the mast apparently came down noiselessly but broke when it hit the roof of the cabin...
Apart from this catastrophe (which could have been worse had I popped my head out of the cabin whilst the mast was coming down) motoring on the Thames was extremely enjoyable andwe felt like "tourists with a difference".
I particularly like mooring on a buoy for lunch near Battersea Park, a few yards from the "London Peace Pagoda", built in 1985 by monks and nuns of the Japanese Buddhist Order Nipponzan Myohoji
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