The Boot Trick

Cold and windy weather has limited PicoMicroYacht's voyaging recently, but I was able to visit Chichester Harbour and a favourite spot, East Head.

East Head - anchor locations marked with a cross

This sand dune promontory is a great place to beach a boat. Due to the inclement weather, it was fairly deserted.

It was too cold to hang out on the beach, so I went for a walk.

I had to calculate the tides carefully, to be able to get back to the boat before PicoMicroYacht floated again. It could not be easily dragged up and down the foreshore due to the damp sand.

PicoMicroYacht was beached about four hours after high tide. With approximately six and a half hours between high tides, I had just over four hours until the boat would float again.

To be cautious I attached it to an anchor borrowed from my larger boat, using a long warp.

I then did the boot trick.

I learned this trick from Dylan Winter. If you leave a boat in such circumstances and do not want people to meddle with it, then leave a pair of boots by the anchor. His view is that it has the effect of making people think you just about to return. Of course, they could walk off with the boots, but I think that unlikely!

Three hours later, I returned and lay on the shingle upper foreshore, watching the sea and the sky.

The tide came in and PicoMicroYacht was readied.

The photo shows a newly acquired depth transducer mounted on the bottom of the rudder