Merlin29
New member
I took delivery of my first boat at the begining of March. I've done a few miles shakedown in her but this weekend at short notice I made my first proper passage. We slipped our berth in Southampton at about 9am on Saturday morning and made for Pool harbour. What a fantastic day for sailing! We arrived at Cobbs Quay at about 7pm, inflated the dinghy and fired up the outboard and made our way across the harbour to the RNLI building where we enjoyed a three course dinner and a few beers. Then in the dark we motored back across the harbour to the boat where we were made to sample a bottle of single malt whisky. Sunday morning we slipped at 8am in the mistaken belief that the bridge would be open at 8:30. We were wrong, but soon realised our mistake and motored back to the marina fuel pontoon to fill up on diesel. Then we motor sailed back to the solent, stopped off at Yarmouth for lunch and made it back to Southampton late afternoon. I'm not a very experienced sailor, but gained a tremendous amount of confidence and some new skills on this my maiden voyage as skipper and had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.
