7th 
At 11:30 it was heading towards high tide so I set off with my lunch and the intention of testing the inboard engine properly. On the way out to my boat it became obvious that a boat was not moored properly as it was at 90 degrees to the run of the moorings. I gathered a couple of ropes from my boat and went to investigate. He has the usual double strops at the stern but the front strop was attached to a short length of riser chain. 
That could be a loose shackle pin at the screw anchor or a failed chain link (looks fairly new chain so more likely the former). I managed to get the bow strop from mooring E8 onto his bow cleat so the boat is now the opposite way round compared to the rest of us but no longer able to block the channel.
Finally aboard my boat and I set to work checking the cooling system on my inboard engine. The work that I did just after this year’s crane in seems to have been effective as there is enough water flow to obviously fill the inlet pipes. After a couple of short runs it seems there may be water getting all the way through however I was unable to trust the engine to stay at a constant speed for long enough to get into the dinghy and observe water coming out of the stern pipe. The revs are not particularly stable for some reason and the engine repeatedly back-fires via the carburettor. That could be a problem with ignition timing, spark plugs or inappropriately lean mixture. I removed the carb to take it ashore and do a thorough clean,
I packed up and was heading ashore at about 2:45 when I realised that the oar pin mounting on the other side of the tender is now failing. There is no obvious trigger for this problem so maybe the hot weather compromises the glue process.
I had to row gently back to the end of the long pontoon (with appropriate twisting of the port oar to minimise further detachment). I then towed the tender along the side of the pontoon and took her out via the disused slipway. Next time I am at LSC will have to be another trip with the inflatable glue so I can glue the second oar attachment and also the leaky patches.
8th Today is forecast to reach the low to mid thirties and is the third formal heat wave of the summer. There are amber heat emergency warnings in place for the south coast and midlands again today. 
Helen went to the coffee morning while I collected the tender from the sailing club and took it home to work on the oar pin mount and the leaking patch on the port side. The oar mounting got the normal 3 coats of the glue on both surfaces and was then left to cure while weighted down using concrete blocks. I had just finished arranging that when Helen was ready to be collected back – She has found that the bus travel on previous warm days was stiflingly hot.
In the late afternoon I did the other job on the tender and replaced the loose butyl rubber reinforcing on the tube. The original ‘repair kit’ solution was leaking a little on one of the patches. A single coat of the glue is having to work for this part of the repairs as I have used all of the curing agent that came with the glue pack.
11th It was an early start for everyone this morning as the plan was to leave LSC on the peak of the morning tide and head for South deep for the day. We met up with Karl and Dawn a little before 8 and headed out in the tenders straight away. Our plan for getting Helen onto my boat was initially to use a pontoon at Salterns Marina but we eventually decided on Helen going out to the mast barge in Karl’s more spacious tender and me picking her up from there on a reasonably level deck to deck crossing.
The first challenge of the day was again caused by my rope between the strops which managed to get attracted to the outboard prop on two different occasions a couple of minutes apart. That was not being helped by the keels still being a little attracted to the bottom of the bank that my mooring sits on. I managed to get off that with the help of Karl’s electric outboard as well as my 5HP one (I really need to take another look at the lock on this as again it refused to work when needed despite never failing when I tried it out during the winter). The pickup from the mast crane barge went really smoothly and we were on our way out of the lagoon and down the North Channel at a decent speed.
Summer breeze was about 20 minutes behind us as Karl still had to get out to the mooring, transfer Dawn, Remmy and their provisions to the boat before setting off. I slowed down after crossing of the main channel to let them overtake and lead the trip through south deep to the anchorage off Goathorn point. Karl anchored Summer Breeze in a gap between the existing boats and a port side channel marker and then I rafted up on his starboard side. This arrangement proved perfect for keeping cool and enjoying the sunny weather until about mid day.
At around 12:00, the falling tide, current, shifting wind direction and extra scope meant we started roaming around in circles between being well clear of everything and almost touching the channel marker as we passed it. We had thought my boat would take to the ground but we seemed to have found a low spot because we retained about 4 and a half feet of water at the lowest. 
We eventually decided to re anchor a little closer to the shore so un-did the rafting while Karl got the anchor in and moved Summer Breeze. We then re-did the rafting and remained in the new spot until it was time to head back.
After lunch and a few more beers we set off in the tender to take the two dogs for a run ashore. Very muddy getting ashore as I think Karl usually does his landings there at high tide when you can get closer in and land on the strip or sandy shore above the mud.
After a long walk along trails in the woodland we headed back to the tender and dragged it across the mud to the water while the dogs chased around in the mud enough to need a controlled dip in the clean water before boarding the tender.
Karl went for a swim off the stern (in about 4 feet of water) while the ladies sat on the swim platform.
Eventually we realised it was almost 6 so time to get organised and head back to LSC. I ended up leading the trip back as I now know the channel markers and it was easier and quicker for me to un-raft then for Karl to get the anchor in. The plan was originally for me to drop Helen off on a pontoon at Salterns marina before going back to the mooring. That would have then been followed by me collecting her and bringing back fish & chips to eat on the LSC balcony. On arrival outside the marina there were a lot of large motor cruisers in the entrance area at Salterns so I chickened out and went for the reverse of the pickup process by dropping Helen on the mast Barge and getting onto the mooring.
Meanwhile another club member offered to take Helen ashore which led to her somewhat falling into his tender and sitting in the bilge water before getting more organised and being rowed ashore. More comic capers occurred getting her from the tender onto the pontoon so she says “not again anytime soon” but I think (hope?) that means she enjoyed the day but is not convinced about small unstable tenders.
I reckon today logged around 7.2 nautical miles.
Fish and chips for four on the sailing club balcony was an excellent way to relax after a day busy doing nothing much on boats.
17th 
Tonight is the launch for the LSC regatta. A serious test for the new balcony as this is the first social event since it was finished. This is a brilliant place to sit and party in the evening sunshine. Several of the attendees are planning to stay on their boats to get an early start tomorrow.
18th Three races today as crew on Summer Breeze. We began with bacon rolls at 8:30 as breakfast while waiting for enough water in the lagoon to enable us to get out to the moorings. Karl and I were the first of the shore bound sailors to exit the lagoon. However we had rather more to do than others before we cast off the mooring (removing spray hood and finding essential racing kit like timing devices and a chart of the various marks) so ended up towards the rear of the flotilla exiting past the chain ferry. The first of three races today started at 11:00.
Summer Breeze does not go well in light breezes and cannot point particularly close to the wind direction so not really our day. We did manage to beat at least one other boat of our class in each race so not a complete flop.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Back ashore about 4:30 for a quick burger and a beer to top off the sandwich lunch then home to collect Helen, Dave & Rachael for the fancy dress fish supper tonight.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
19th 
Second day of the Regatta with only two races but a later start due to the tide times being later. 9:30 exit from the lagoon today with no pre-cast off fiddling needed.
It was somewhat more suitable weather today so we managed to overtake some boats on cross wind or down-wind legs but lost out again into wind. No matter what we tried the positions remained fairly consistent across all the races with the same boats in the top three for every race. As expected we were consistently in the last two or three on every race.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Originally posted 7th July. Updated 12th.