I live a fair distance from Derby, so it was always going to be a long day collecting our new Gull Calypso dinghy from Hartley's factory.
As I travel a fair distance around the south west of England I'm fairly used to spending hours on the motorway. What you can't predict is traffic issues along the way.
Generally speaking, you'd consider yourself unlucky to be delayed by an accident along the way. On the first motorway leg of the journey, I was unlucky enough to have two seperate delays at different accidents, plus a further delay along the M69 while the numpties in the traffic control centre played with the variable speed signs, which were due to a fairly short queue at an exit. Along a fairly short stretch, less than ten miles, we went from 70, to 50, to 60, to 50 again, to 60, to 50 and finally back to 70 when we passed the three vehicles waiting to leave the motorway.
Anyway, I pitched up at Hartley's only about half an hour late, having lost a further hour in delays along the journey.
Duncan, from Sales, was very welcoming. With coffee in hand, I was given the whirlwind tour of the premises and onto the first encounter with my new dinghy.
Cue Cheshire cat expression.
What I should have done at this point, is to photograph everything in the assembled state and maybe some more photo's as we disassembled the boat. But I didn't. So, subsequent assembly on the first launch wasn't quite so stress free as it should have been, but note to self for next time - what next time is the response from the better half!
Dismantling completed, the dinghy was subsequently loaded onto the road trailer. I checked the light board, as you do, and everything looked good for the return trip.
Anything determintal to say about Hartley's? Well, maybe a few minor niggles.
I am renowned for planning for every eventuality, so I had taken just about every variation of rope and strap I could think of, so securing the boat to the road trolley wasn't a problem.
Maybe a couple of pointers might have been welcome before arrival.
I had ordered a jockey wheel, which I assumed would be integral to the launch trolley. Not so. I was presented with the wheel, and out of curiosity looked to see how it fitted. It didn't.
After a surprised look from Duncan, from Sales, he went off to find the attachment.
OK not a problem - but just as well I checked. Even a cursory search on the internet reveals that this type of jockey wheel is much cheaper elsewhere. And this is probably my criticism of Hartley's, their accessories are on the expensive side.
As I pulled away from Hartley's, the rain started. So, confident the lights were all in order, sidelight on and proceed. At the next junction I signalled, as you do, and that's when I discovered an 'issue'.
The more experienced user of trailers may be aware that some modern cars have fancy monitoring of the lighting systems. Sadly, mine does. As soon as I switched on the indicators, the display on the dash went berserk.
What can you do. I crossed my fingers and only had either the lights or indicators on.
I'd stopped when I could but in the rain, in a motorway services , a miracle cure escaped me.
(I have now sorted this out with a relay unit from the every trusty Ebay.)
But, it was more traumatic than I needed, towing a new boat for the first time.
So, with crossed fingers I eventually parked up in my office car park for an overight stop.
I did waste a fair few hours trying to sort out the light board - I'm deluded enough an electronic engineer to have thought I might be able to sort it out. Although, it did occur to me fairly early on that some sort of interface might be needed.
After a couple of hours sleep at home, I was back at the office to pick up the boat before the roads got busy and finally arrived at the boat park at Cheddar.
Won't be doing that too often.
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