The vast choice of KFC meal options was the next issue. What to chose, what to chose!! Aidy and Karen decide on 2 meal deals (sensible), Shane and Helen a value bucket and small popcorn chicken, and Dave….a FAMILY bucket, complete with 10 pieces of chicken, 2 bags of fries, and 6 cream eggs. This one is so large that it comes complete with 4 paper plates and forks!! The feast begins and goes surprising well. Reinforcements are called in (in the form of Aidy) to help with the 2 buckets and after much chicken bone debris and licking and wiping of greasy fingers all consider themselves fully fed and watered!

The walk back to the boat is the 2nd healthy part of the day (the sail across being the first- all that music on the way across really takes a toll on the body!) and the tide has come up sufficiently for the gate to be dropped and the marina entered. Mystere is moved from her temporary mooring to the marina pontoon and E10 becomes her new ‘home’ for the next few days.

An exhausting week leaves the crew wanting to sleep and nothing else…not much of a first days holiday for a group of mid 20 year olds! No pub, no town, not even a beer…just a pillow and duvet!! This tiredness is broken momentarily by what only can be described as a stampede down the pontoon and finger of which Mystere is moored! There was then a loud revving of engine and a pleasant swaying motion felt throughout Mystere. Helen (who is closest to the hatch) sticks her head above deck only to see the back of a rather large motorboat directly in front of her moving away rather quickly. She comes back down stating that, ‘mmm, I think we have just been hit’, at which point Dave and Shane both leap up and rush for the same gap to go and have a look at what is going on! They go out and there is much muttering, all that can be heard is the women on the finger apologising for her husband, apparently it was “his first time out this season and he’s a bit rusty”. He’s more than a bit rusty love, if he can forget that much in a matter of months he really does stand no chance at all of ever being a competent sailor. I only hope he is a fast learner (i.e. the same speed as he can forget!). Even if he had forgotten everything he learnt last year, there is no way you go into everything flat out, especially a mooring for goodness sake! Still, under instruction from Dave, he did manage to moor up next door, and did come across first thing in the morning to once again apologise. We give him the benefit of the doubt for his lack of knowledge. He was probably more embarrassed, than Dave and Shane were annoyed that they had been hit. It was only softly after all, and no damage was done to either boat this was due, the guy told us because ‘my nipper fended us off’!!