Hart - le - pool and Mutiny no 2.
Apparently Hartlepool gets it s name because it was know for a pool where harts (stags or deers ) would come and drink. Sadly both are long gone. Hartlepool marina is another new marina built to revitalise the town and very nice too.
I kept being told "don't wear a monkey suit in Hartlepool" so I had to find out what this meant. There is a tale that a ship was wrecked and the only survivor was a poor bedraggled monkey dressed in a French uniform, supposedly for the amusement of the sailors on the doomed ship. The local townspeople held a trial and considered the monkey to be a French spy so he was hung, poor thing! However it was also said that the ship could not be claimed as treasure trove if there were any survivors, so that is possibly why the monkey was hanged.
Hartlepool 's new marina is man made and it cannot be reached at all states of the tide, so because we need 2 metres of water minimum we have to be careful in judging when we could get in, otherwise we hit the bottom. Josh had done his calculations carefully and judged that we could get in about 4pm. We had an uneventful motor sail for 6 hours and I was having a sleep below when we got to the entrance. We called the harbour master and she advised we shouldn't go in until 5pm. However careful you are with your calculations the tides and depths are just predictions and chart data may be out of date,so nothing is better than local knowledge. Josh wanted to test it for himself as our calculations suggested we would have enough water by 4pm. I was with the lady harbour master, let's wait until 5pm, have a little look at the coastline and put the kettle on and come back in an hour. "I am just going to go in and have a look" says Josh. Oh dear. The Harbour master called us up and suggested we might be able to get in, and Josh answered "Yacht Lunar Sea (lunacy) we are just coming in to have a look we will abort if it looks too shallow". " Oh dear" you can hear me say again. In we went and had to abort as the depth went down rapidly. On the sail back out of the harbour entrance we saw another yacht coming in attempting to enter, so Josh says "I'll just ask him what he thinks and what he draws". So we went close to the incoming yacht and hailed them to ask. Now those of you who know Josh will know that wherever we go he always thinks he knows someone! Guess what, he did actually know one of the crew on Mr Micawber the incoming yacht. So manly greetings followed and "what do you draw?" 1.5 metres was the answer. "Right, I'm going in then" says Josh, "Follow that yacht" says Josh to me (I was on the helm.) I could not look at the depth gauge and Josh took over the helm, when the inevitable happened and we went aground right in the entrance, with a concrete pier one side and rocks on the other. "It's only soft mud, we aren't in danger" says Josh hoping to make me feel better. It wasn't just the danger it was the embarrassment of being stuck in the entrance. The harbour master then calls up on the radio and says it will be another 50 minutes until we have enough water to float off!! Oh dear!! At that point I flounced below and wasn't talking to the captain.
After about an hour, we managed to get in at 5 pm as the harbour master had originally predicted. I still wasn't talking! Mutiny number 2 (number 1 was in Southwold if you remember!)
Anyway we went ashore to a very nice restaurant (Portals in the marina if you are ever in Hartlepool) and after a large gin and tonic and a pan fried local sea bass I had calmed down and we were talking again. Over dinner Josh said "Anyway, we didn't go aground, we were just sitting in the mud." I let him have the last word, for now anyway!
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| Hartlepool Marina |
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| Monkey collecting for the local hospice |
Hartlepool 's new marina is man made and it cannot be reached at all states of the tide, so because we need 2 metres of water minimum we have to be careful in judging when we could get in, otherwise we hit the bottom. Josh had done his calculations carefully and judged that we could get in about 4pm. We had an uneventful motor sail for 6 hours and I was having a sleep below when we got to the entrance. We called the harbour master and she advised we shouldn't go in until 5pm. However careful you are with your calculations the tides and depths are just predictions and chart data may be out of date,so nothing is better than local knowledge. Josh wanted to test it for himself as our calculations suggested we would have enough water by 4pm. I was with the lady harbour master, let's wait until 5pm, have a little look at the coastline and put the kettle on and come back in an hour. "I am just going to go in and have a look" says Josh. Oh dear. The Harbour master called us up and suggested we might be able to get in, and Josh answered "Yacht Lunar Sea (lunacy) we are just coming in to have a look we will abort if it looks too shallow". " Oh dear" you can hear me say again. In we went and had to abort as the depth went down rapidly. On the sail back out of the harbour entrance we saw another yacht coming in attempting to enter, so Josh says "I'll just ask him what he thinks and what he draws". So we went close to the incoming yacht and hailed them to ask. Now those of you who know Josh will know that wherever we go he always thinks he knows someone! Guess what, he did actually know one of the crew on Mr Micawber the incoming yacht. So manly greetings followed and "what do you draw?" 1.5 metres was the answer. "Right, I'm going in then" says Josh, "Follow that yacht" says Josh to me (I was on the helm.) I could not look at the depth gauge and Josh took over the helm, when the inevitable happened and we went aground right in the entrance, with a concrete pier one side and rocks on the other. "It's only soft mud, we aren't in danger" says Josh hoping to make me feel better. It wasn't just the danger it was the embarrassment of being stuck in the entrance. The harbour master then calls up on the radio and says it will be another 50 minutes until we have enough water to float off!! Oh dear!! At that point I flounced below and wasn't talking to the captain.
After about an hour, we managed to get in at 5 pm as the harbour master had originally predicted. I still wasn't talking! Mutiny number 2 (number 1 was in Southwold if you remember!)
Anyway we went ashore to a very nice restaurant (Portals in the marina if you are ever in Hartlepool) and after a large gin and tonic and a pan fried local sea bass I had calmed down and we were talking again. Over dinner Josh said "Anyway, we didn't go aground, we were just sitting in the mud." I let him have the last word, for now anyway!
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