Gaz Bottles And More…

Chris writes…

Gaz Bottles

I have recently bought a Refill Camping Gaz 907 Bottle for Carina. This is the same size bottle for Elfida. As I was at Port Solent, I simply took the empty bottle the lockhouse to get a refill. As it was late, I just took the bottle without the screw-in handle. Apparently, the Camping Gaz suppliers will NOT accept a bottle for refill unless the handle is attached.

907 Type refills cost £49.99, a new bottle would presumably be double that.

Don’t lose the handle!

Yarmouth Harbour Electricity:

We visited Yarmouth a couple of weeks ago. They have introduced a new charging system for visitors’ electricity. Previously they charged £5 per night for electricity, which is more than we are likely to use overnight. They have introduced an App – called Berth Vend. This takes £5 initially but recognises any unused charge and refunds it to the app when you leave. Any feedback on your experience with this system would be useful. A similar system operates at Ocean Village – but uses a different app.

Weed:

In the recent hot spell, the amount of weed being generated has increased. There was certainly some in the lock recently. Carina’s seawater inlet filter needed a clean out. Please check where possible that this is clear, especially if you know you have motored over a patch of weed.

We should do more of this:

A couple of weeks ago we took Carina from Port Solent. The sail should have been Alderney / West Country and back to Poole but the weather dictated that we did Portsmouth / Swanage/ Weymouth / Mupe Bay / Wareham and Poole. Cracking sailing for the most part.

The point is that we did a crew change in Poole. Three crew departed to get the train to PS and three more arrived. We then headed back to Port Solent the next day, featuring a cracking sail to off the Needles Channel and into Alum Bay for lunch followed by a night in Yarmouth. Next day, a lovely Gennaker run from off Yarmouth to Gilkicker.

The fact that we were able to handover away from Port Solent really gave us flexibility without a great deal of hardship using train travel. Surely, we can chat to each other so that we do more of this type of thing without having always to depart / arrive back to Port Solent.

Interested in joining similar sails with Tops’l? Get in touch!