After the morning coffee and weather I decided to fry up my bacon in a big batch and put it in the fridge for future consumption. I do this at one time since it generates such a powerful smell in the boat which dissipates slowly and is pretty messy with a surprising amount of unhealthy fat remaining to be disposed of. I was just finishing up the last frying pan full when I had a knock on the boat and got a visit from a Jeanneau forum member who had been following my posts. We did a tour of the boat and chatted for a quite while and he was kind enough to offer me a slip at his club, Norfolk Yacht & Country Club. This is significantly cheaper and nicer than the commercial facility I was at and I thanked him for his offer but was still planning on departing in the afternoon to make my weather window. We exchanged contact information and I went back to finishing my cooking and waiting for the inverter.
Mr. Murphy once again proved his perspicacity. I spoke with the dealer to make sure that all was on track and, surprisingly, they had just received the shipment and wanted to run my credit card. The price they quoted was a lot lower than the original and I immediately knew that we were going to have problems. $165 overnight shipping plus $80 for the inverter… The inverter should cost around $2000 and the weight of the shipment was a couple of pounds versus the 80Lbs I expected. It turns out instead of a 5000W inverter they shipped a 500W inverter! The Victron dealer apologized and confirmed that I had ordered the right part but they had shipped the wrong one. And now it transpired that the weight of the inverter exceeds what can be shipped overnight air-freight so they would have to truck it in, and that was a 2-day minimum. I ordered the correct part right away and then tried to figure out the weather and when the next window between frontal systems could be found. It didn’t look good at all.
I then contacted Michael again and asked if it would be possible to take him up on his offer after all, since the dockage prices were rather steep at Bluewater despite it being out-of-season. He confirmed his invitation and I said that I would be coming in around lunchtime the next day. I then looked at the chart for his marina and the lengthy entrance channel was marked at 8 1/2 feet depth which just happens to be my draft! It is close to a full moon with a 3 foot tide so I would be safe going in on a rising tide close to full tide, which would be 12:00 to 13:00 the next day. Michael confirmed the channel but said it should be no problem if I followed the recommended entry and channel – easy for him to say since he was going to be on land 🙂
I worked on getting my NMEA signal sorted out in the afternoon and then walked into town for an early dinner at the Brown Chicken Brown Cow which had been recommended and it was quite good, with a single musician providing entertainment to accompany the dinner.