The poor weather meant being involved with practical necessities like refuelling and restocking the food box. However, it was difficult to avoid being caught up in an evolving local story.
Paul is the counter clockwise circumnavigator in the boat with all the stickers. He has been travelling with a parrot, which is a pet he's had quite a while.It's added interest to his trip and has helped him raise money for his charities ( Crohnes and Colitis Charity). However, on Wednesday it escaped and flew off and ever since he and Phil in the Pirate have been trying to get it back. This has involved the two of them contacting the police and local media and, as Phil, unaware of the funny side, delivering "flyers".
It appears that the bird was captured by someone amongst the lowlife in Grimsby and it involved them in having to meet up with the local equivalent of the mafia to get some leads. One of them had led him to someone who had a parrot, but it turned out not to be Paul's. At the end of the day, the latest was that the bird had escaped from the person who had him in a shoe box.
All of this has been on the local radio and television and Paul's face and story is becoming well know. This is creating great publicity for his charities, but the poor guy is very attached to his bird and, as good as this positive may be, it is knocking the shine of his trip. He he constantly on the phone to different people and is clearly worried about its safety. He would prefer that it is being well looked after than being attacked by local sea gulls'
It put my own frustrations with my new vhf radio into perspective. I am having trouble transmitting any distance. I can receive messages from the coast guard but I can not raise them. I can transmit to Kelvin in the marina. I can also receive his dsc calls but I can't send one to him. My hand held radio continues to work fine, so I'm not without a radio but its just a pain. It could be the aerial but it would be useful to contact someone who could run tests on the equipment.
A fellow Seal 22 owner, who is a boat builder and is working on a cabin cruiser in the marina offered to give me a lift with my fuel cans to the filling station.His dad had bought the boat from new in 1971. It was a mark1 version and they had test sailed it with the JohnBaker himself in the boat yard on the Exe. They still had the receipts. It was sold to someone locally. The previous owner's son then acquired it back because he liked it so much. Unfortunately, it had been badly damaged in a storm in 2002 when it had been battered up against the pontoons. Nerveless, it was in the right hands and he will get it back on the water eventually.
The marina is run by the Humber Cruising boat club. They rent the quay and have provided all the pontoons themselves. They are a very friendly bunch and run a bar within the site that sells draught beer at £1.40 a pint. It was inevitable that the 4 of us circumnavigators would eventually come together there and we spent the evening comparing experiences. It seems Paul has been sailing for only 4 years, and given the efforts he seems to have put into sponsorship he must have started preparing for this very soon after learning to sail. He was the least experienced between us and clearly the most anxious. He was keen to learn from the 3 of us what to expect as he went north.
The wind continues to blow strongly from the south, so Kelvin, Phil and I can not set off yet. Paul could use these winds,but wants to try a little longer to get his parrot back.We're cooking breakfast together on his boat in the morning. The next blog is bound to be a continuation of the story. Sorry no photos today.
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