Jim’s Diary – 5th/6th/7th October 2025
Sunday 5th October
Thank God it is too windy to move the boat today….
I have done a deal to move the boat from Ocean Village in
Southampton to Bembridge harbour on the Isle of Wight for
the winter…. I don’t use the boat in the winter so it’s
ridiculous to pay the same money that I do in the summer…
But, storm Amy’s long skirt is brushing against the south of
England…… I will have to check my weather app to see when
I can do it . It looks like it’s going to be Tuesday…. I’m slightly
apprehensive because I have a dodgy alarm on my starboard
gearbox….. The alarm sounds intermittently telling me that I
have low oil pressure gearbox….. I check the readouts of the
gearbox and it is fine, it is just this pesky alarm that goes off.
The dodgy thing is, sometimes, and again, intermittently it
puts the engines into safe mode, restricting the revs,
resulting in a slower speed…… it’s a pain in the bum
Natasha and I have to go to GB news today. To be
interviewed by Nana….. I wanted to go on and complain
about Hampton Court Palace who have screwed up our
wedding plans(do they know something I don’t?). We’ ll also
talk about JD TV on USTREME +.
Just before we leave, I got a phone call from the producer
who said they have spoken to Hampton Court Palace who of
course tell a different story and the GB news people do not
want to get into confrontation….. Fair enough ,we’ll just talk
about JD TV
We drove into town, and we waited in the green room for
our slot on Nana. We were called in at 5:15 and spoke about
our new show…….
Nana asked if we were getting married and Tash said ,“No
I’ve sobered up now”
I said I had to take it down the pub and then propose again
and Natasha, thinking that she was at home on the sofa
chatting to a friend, blurted out. “Yes, he got me pissed”
The shame of it……………
Monday the 6th October
Up at sparrow’s fart and drove to the studios in the Hamble
and recorded an addition of this week ,as I have decided to
move the boat tomorrow, The normal day of filming.
My friend from childhood Dave Franks is coming with me…
the weather seems fine and the high tide enabling me to
cross the bar outside of Bembridge harbour is at 12:25
My main concern is not the weather but my gearbox…. There
is nothing wrong with it ,but the alarm system could shut it
down resulting in us only being able to do 10 knots…. I must
allow for this happening and plan accordingly.
Tuesday 7th of October
I told Dave I would pick him up at 9:00…. But because of my
new cunning plan I picked him up at 6:30…. He was not
happy and complained about being press ganged.
We had a few alarms on the way across to Bembridge and
because we didn’t have to slow down ,I got there one hour
early…. As there is a two hour either side of high water it was
fine when we entered the harbour and moored up. My old
friend and former harbour master Gordon appeared and took
us for a bit of lunch at the Yacht Club… and then like the true
star he is ,drove us to the red jet ferry back to Southampton
Or I collected my car from ocean village and eventually Got
home dropping Dave off at his house near Box hill.
Then Tasha and her daughter had got me a kebab. Tash went
back to her house and I sat in my bar watching television
trying not to fall asleep at 7:30.
Eventually got to bed at 10:10 and took a melatonin tablet…
they always make me feel a bit odd in the morning…….
And I woke up feeling awful ,depressed and fed up……. I knew
that would happen so why did I take the fucking table?