The Starcross Fishing and Cruising Club "Lads Trip" to Alderney was early this year and fitted in with my plans to move Aphrodite to Plymouth so I tagged along as a friendly ex-member with Delphi being the only other boat this year.
I had spent Thursday running round getting jobs done for the boat, eventually meeting Frank Rowsell onboard who was fitting the new main at about 1500. The sail was hoisted and check that all fitted as expected. The whoops of delight from Frank indicated that all was well.
I left the boat as I need to get the car down to Plymouth ready for my journey back from the marina home once we had delivered the boat. Much to my surprize the trip by train from Plymouth to Starcross was going to take over an hour and a half, with a very long wait at Newton Abbot railway station, but I eventually arrived back in Starcross at 2000 and met up with Alex who was looking forward to a week away.
We met as usual in the clubhouse on Thursday night and decided that a departure on Saturday morning was the plan, but the big question was where. Much scratching of heads, the consultation of various sources of weather and chats were done, suggestions ranged from Poole to Plymouth as the weather ruled out Alderney.
Having taken the decision to depart on Saturday morning we had agreed to aim for the Yealm, just east of Plymouth and Alex and I got about prepping the boat for a trip. Having just been put back in the water there was a fair amount of tidying up to do!
Friday night we popped over to the club for 2000 as arranged. No sign of the other boat crew, which led us to wonder if we or they had got confused as I always use GMT on board. At about 2100 they all bounded in the front door offering huge apologies as there had been some issues with outboards. A final confirmation of departure times and where we were going a pint or two and we headed out to Aphrodite to sleep and be ready for departure time of 0700 on Saturday.
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