Magic_Sailor
New member
This is a short account of our first passage some years ago. Thought you might like to read it!.
It all started quite innocently really back in the 70's. I'd done a bit of crewing and racing on dingies and cruisers - not much. I didn't intend for it to go this far. Then my wife and I did some boating together on rivers in this country and France. By chance one day in June 2000 we were walking above Lulworth Cove on a beautiful early summer's day. It was warm verging on hot with a fantastic westerly breeze to keep our temperature down as we stood gazing from the hilltop by Durdle Dor out across the blue sparkling sea below.
Then it happened. Some yachts, pure white sails in the powerful sunshine, were passing below us - on passage from Weymouth to the Solent I guess. I didn't mean to do it. "Wouldn't it be nice to have one of those" I mused innocently. "Yes" she said, completely unaware.
We left Lulworth quite early. "I know", I said, "why don't we look round a few boat yards at Bursledon on the way home". "OK" she replied.
We looked and our hunger for more grew with each new sheet of details provided by the brokers. Before we knew it, we were doing it every weekend. "Maybe we could do it" we thought. "If we did, we'd have to wait until next March" we kidded ourselves.
March pah! By September we'd bought her. 27 feet of loveliness and like all real addicts, we gorged ourselves for the 8 weeks before she came out for the winter. Of course our addiction led to other things just as bad - chandleries!
Our combined experience was "adequate" looking back and even then I was careful to check and understand the weather before setting out. I'd crewed a laser dinghy occasionally with a friend (and won!), crewed a charter First 35 to Cherbourg and back and crewed various friends and acquaintances cruisers over the years. My Wife had crewed on river cruisers but has always been game to "have a go".
It was early October, the first time we took her out, I had a couple of days off work for a long weekend. We were going to Yarmouth, Poole, Cowes and home. I didn't think about tides, wind direction or any of that stuff - I never had to as crew - someone else had seen to all that but I'd never realised! We left the boatyard on the Hamble at about 7.30am on a Thursday morning in mid September. It was one of those early autumnal mornings - it really was. Talk about romantic. Very little wind. The river was silent and flat calm with a very slight mist rising off it. The sky a deep, deep azure with not a cloud to be seen as we puttered slowly along in our pristine oilies. Alone on the river, passing other wonderful yachts, low tree lined hills, crowds of waders on the mud flats and even huddled on some of the pontoons.
We hugged one another over a mug of tea and agreed that we were the luckiest people in the world. My Wife looked wonderful - her hair glowing in the sunshine and a big smile on her face. As we left the Hamble and Southampton Water a slight south westerly breeze came up (nicely) in the same direction as the easterly tide now flooding up the Solent - such innocence. "We'll try a little motor sailing" we agreed. Up went the main - no problem. "We'll try some proper sailing"…we were getting cocky. Out came the genoa (we didn't know it was called that then!) and we shut down the engine.
Silence. Just a slight gurgle of water along the side of the boat as she made way through the water….but not over the ground however. We came up to E Lepe buoy and tacked quite neatly for all our inexperience together as skipper and crew (although I say it myself!). Held that tack for 20 minutes, definitely making way against the land and tacked back again - well you do don't you. 10 minutes later we were back at the E Lepe. We tacked - 20 minutes, tacked again - 10 minutes…back at the E Lepe. Of course we then realised that this thing called tide had quite an effect! But we didn't care. "It's good tacking practice" I said to hide my embarrassment. But it was in a way true, we did gain a small amount of practice and as it happened with such lovely conditions - who cares! The sun was shining we were on our own boat and God was in his heaven…. we motored down to Yarmouth for our first evening afloat with a pint, steak and kidney pie and a roaring fire at the pub. This was just the beginning of a passion that has so many more good times than bad.
Magic
It all started quite innocently really back in the 70's. I'd done a bit of crewing and racing on dingies and cruisers - not much. I didn't intend for it to go this far. Then my wife and I did some boating together on rivers in this country and France. By chance one day in June 2000 we were walking above Lulworth Cove on a beautiful early summer's day. It was warm verging on hot with a fantastic westerly breeze to keep our temperature down as we stood gazing from the hilltop by Durdle Dor out across the blue sparkling sea below.
Then it happened. Some yachts, pure white sails in the powerful sunshine, were passing below us - on passage from Weymouth to the Solent I guess. I didn't mean to do it. "Wouldn't it be nice to have one of those" I mused innocently. "Yes" she said, completely unaware.
We left Lulworth quite early. "I know", I said, "why don't we look round a few boat yards at Bursledon on the way home". "OK" she replied.
We looked and our hunger for more grew with each new sheet of details provided by the brokers. Before we knew it, we were doing it every weekend. "Maybe we could do it" we thought. "If we did, we'd have to wait until next March" we kidded ourselves.
March pah! By September we'd bought her. 27 feet of loveliness and like all real addicts, we gorged ourselves for the 8 weeks before she came out for the winter. Of course our addiction led to other things just as bad - chandleries!
Our combined experience was "adequate" looking back and even then I was careful to check and understand the weather before setting out. I'd crewed a laser dinghy occasionally with a friend (and won!), crewed a charter First 35 to Cherbourg and back and crewed various friends and acquaintances cruisers over the years. My Wife had crewed on river cruisers but has always been game to "have a go".
It was early October, the first time we took her out, I had a couple of days off work for a long weekend. We were going to Yarmouth, Poole, Cowes and home. I didn't think about tides, wind direction or any of that stuff - I never had to as crew - someone else had seen to all that but I'd never realised! We left the boatyard on the Hamble at about 7.30am on a Thursday morning in mid September. It was one of those early autumnal mornings - it really was. Talk about romantic. Very little wind. The river was silent and flat calm with a very slight mist rising off it. The sky a deep, deep azure with not a cloud to be seen as we puttered slowly along in our pristine oilies. Alone on the river, passing other wonderful yachts, low tree lined hills, crowds of waders on the mud flats and even huddled on some of the pontoons.
We hugged one another over a mug of tea and agreed that we were the luckiest people in the world. My Wife looked wonderful - her hair glowing in the sunshine and a big smile on her face. As we left the Hamble and Southampton Water a slight south westerly breeze came up (nicely) in the same direction as the easterly tide now flooding up the Solent - such innocence. "We'll try a little motor sailing" we agreed. Up went the main - no problem. "We'll try some proper sailing"…we were getting cocky. Out came the genoa (we didn't know it was called that then!) and we shut down the engine.
Silence. Just a slight gurgle of water along the side of the boat as she made way through the water….but not over the ground however. We came up to E Lepe buoy and tacked quite neatly for all our inexperience together as skipper and crew (although I say it myself!). Held that tack for 20 minutes, definitely making way against the land and tacked back again - well you do don't you. 10 minutes later we were back at the E Lepe. We tacked - 20 minutes, tacked again - 10 minutes…back at the E Lepe. Of course we then realised that this thing called tide had quite an effect! But we didn't care. "It's good tacking practice" I said to hide my embarrassment. But it was in a way true, we did gain a small amount of practice and as it happened with such lovely conditions - who cares! The sun was shining we were on our own boat and God was in his heaven…. we motored down to Yarmouth for our first evening afloat with a pint, steak and kidney pie and a roaring fire at the pub. This was just the beginning of a passion that has so many more good times than bad.
Magic
