Regrets.. I've had a few, but then again, to few to meeeention



First Stop at Rownhams Service station



Since buying Jelly Bean, Paul had gone through the 'Masonesque' process of joining the local sailing club and arranged a mooring on the river Orwell, however the one thing he was struggling with was transportation. Boats are a pain to move around the country by road when you need to change location. I've done this a few times with Jelly Bean but then again I have a trailer and a car with a tow bar. As Paul had neither and had received outrageous quotes for transportation I offered to deliver for fuel and expenses.
It's about 220 miles from Poole to Ipswich so in order to get there, unload and get back again we were going to have to go early, so Saturday morning started far too early for me and my press ganged crew,  We were up at 4am and on the road by 5am. 

Coffee time at Fleet

Towing at a steady 45 - 50mph I decided to stop at regular intervals to stretch our legs, drink coffee and check over the load.  Good job we did as by the time we got to south Mimms the wheel nuts on the near side wheel had started to vibrate loose! This is not the first time that this has happened to me with trailers and I wonder if the amount of vibration makes trailer wheel nuts suseptable to this?  We were very lucky that the wheel hadn't come off completely, the rest of the journey went without having the radio on and every change in road surface prompted palpitations.  

Mission accomplished.. Paul unhooking the strops

 We arrived safely at the Orwell Yacht Club by just after 12 noon expecting to have to get the boat set up and float it off the trailer... however the tide was pretty much fully out and the slipway was unusable so one of the club regulars had taken control and we were back on the road.  I followed Paul a short way to a dock side where a crane would unload JB from the trailer.  Paul decided to keep her on the hard standing while he assessed the engine and applied some fresh anti foul.

With my last job done for Jelly Bean the relationship is finally over,  I know I have plans for a replacement but it's hard to think any other boat will ever measure up in terms smiles per penny.  Good luck to Paul, if you have even a fraction of the fun and learning that I have had from Jelly Bean it will all be worthwhile.