One of your best sailing experiences?

Cerebus

Cerebus

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If I had to choose, it would be one when I moved up from dinghy sailing to small cruiser and I found myself solo at sea with nothing and nobody in view on a sunny and good weather day.

Just out for a day sail, but the absolute solitude (except for nature; a huge bonus) was quite an experience (remembered from possibly over 35 years ago.)

The second (I know no one asked), was sitting in a creek in a tiny dinghy at ANCHOR, not even sailing or racing, but just enjoying the sun and sky and clouds and peace and gentle wavelets; further back than 35 years - time does fly.

I wish I had started sailing earlier.

I should say I have never experienced the Southern Ocean, a round the world cruise, Caribbean or other experiences that may eclipse my very amateur, happy experiences.
 
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The autopilot broke down about fifteen minutes after leaving Mahon bound for Sardinia, with just me and her aboard, a few weeks before our wedding. 52 hours of hand-steering, and not a cross word or moment of tension or anything but mutual helpfulness and positivity. It wasn’t exactly a fun experience, but highly affirming and a fond memory.
 
Sailing solo from Muck to Tobermory in my old Folkboat. 20-25kts of a Westerly, with the appropriately large breaking seas accompanying me to give a 'surfing reach' for an hour or so, on a day when the sun seemed to be only shining on the boat and me, with everywhere else being very dark grey until Ardnamurchan point came into view!
 
jamie N said:
Sailing solo from Muck to Tobermory in my old Folkboat. 20-25kts of a Westerly, with the appropriately large breaking seas accompanying me to give a 'surfing reach' for an hour or so, on a day when the sun seemed to be only shining on the boat and me, with everywhere else being very dark grey until Ardnamurchan point came into view!
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Tobermory is an experience itself.

You sound more adventurous than me!
 
Cerebus said:
Just out for a day sail, but the absolute solitude (except for nature; a huge bonus) was quite an experience (remembered from possibly over 35 years ago.)

The second (I know no one asked), was sitting in a creek in a tiny dinghy at ANCHOR, not even sailing or racing, but just enjoying the sun and sky and clouds and peace and gentle wavelets; further back than 35 years - time does fly.
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That pretty much described today. Very light wind and gentle sail to our lunch stop anchorage, where we spent a long time just enjoying being in a nice place in nice weather on the boat. And a gentle breeze for the return later.

View from the anchorage

1758650130696.png
 
ProDave said:
That pretty much described today. Very light wind and gentle sail to our lunch stop anchorage, where we spent a long time just enjoying being in a nice place in nice weather on the boat. And a gentle breeze for the return later.

View from the anchorage

View attachment 199871
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Nice scenery, but no blue sky!

I have been wearing a wooly sweater today!

But sailing really is quite different from many other great experiences I am sure some would agree.

My first post should have included that upon my little cruiser experience I saw no other boats, humans, aeroplanes; just me and the sea and sky.

I think it was before I was engaged let alone married, but I forget- it was a solo sail anyway- good company is better.
 
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Poignard said:
Being on watch at dawn and seeing St Lucia appear in the distance.
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I wondered about that one. Except the navigation during the last half day or so could have been done by following all the jets flying in to land on there and Martinique.
And it was like rush hour for us - a few boats’ lights visible ahead, and others converging from both sides and astern. A race to the corner and round up into the bay.
 
Lots of great memories, and one lasting regret over a lost photograph. Bound for Greece off Cape Spartivento , the sea had finally become flat calm after a pretty rough night and as the sun came up the sea astern turned bright pink...really bright sparkling pink.
I was totally amazed, not just the sun rise at all but tiny Jelly Fish like creatures, multi millions of them!

I later learned they are commonly called " By the Wind Sailors" ( Velella Velella ) and they have a 'Sail' like fin which was catching the sunlight like sun through a magnifying glass and turning the sea sparkling pink as if strewn with pink glittering Diamonds, as far as the eye could see.

I had a great photograph which to my great regret got obliterated by the doomed Photobucket hosting site. A sight at sea difficult to relate just how beautiful it was, and the really good photo lost in space .:cry:

Fortunately many photos survived.
Europe and Africa off to Port...

Dominica with it's head in the clouds and feet in the sea.

I'll be anchored off Fort de France, Martinique by evening, unless the Trade Wind fails..:giggle:
 
If you like solitude and you are stuck in the UK try the River Stour in Essex. 10 miles of beauty, no roads, the only vehicles you may see are bringing their boats to the shore line, via farm tracks or unmade up roads. You might see the Parkston quay ferry train trundling along in the distance, White sand bars at Stutton and you may find you have this beautiful wide river to yourself. No marinas and only 2 small drying yacht clubs. Perhaps the odd boat at anchor. I have walked on the sand bar, on a sunny day at Stutton and thought you could be anywhere in the world
 
It’s a lovely question by the OP

And like most of us on here, there are so many good experiences over the years

Here’s just one that stands out.
Having sold my first ‘proper’ big boat and worked, busy busy . I dipped my toe back in by buying a very small bilge keeler,

“just for one summer”.

The first freezing but sunny weekend out sailing I thought “Oh Wow!”

This was just such fun. It sailed without fuss across waves and squalls and up creeks and across shallow bits and dried out level within spit of a pub. Brilliant. That was the start of a boaty love affair that one.
“ Quite a few summers”
 
Been a lot of good sails, but one was leaving Helford, spinnaker only and sailing up into Fowey and thinking as we sailed past Polruan we ought to get the spinnaker down as that was where we wanted to pick up a visitors buoy.
It wasn't a fast sail by any means but easy, autohlem steering and I suspect fishing lines out for mackerel.

Unfortunately no pictures :( as I tend not to take many nowadays, unlike 40 years ago.
 
I've got a wierd answer to this one ...

My most memorable sailing experiences were in my head while reading "Swallows and Amazons" by Arthur Ransome .... those books got me totally hooked on sailing and cemented the association in my mind between boats and adventures.

I was lucky in that my parents were into sailing boats from the day I was born, and I got my first boat aged around 5 or 6 - a rotting wooden optimist - which I bounced off every moored boat in Loch Tummel as I learned to sail.

I was hooked for life and have always had access to a boat of some form or other, my Optimist as a child, a Marine Tutor on Loch Long, Kingfisher 20+, Albin Vega, and a Finnsailer 35 on the West Coast of Scotland, a Laser Pico for my kids on Draycotte Water, a Topcat K3 for me on Ammersee in Bavaria and more recently a Bavaria 36 followed by a Bavaria 44 Vision in the Adriatic,

Of the myriad of experiences on all these boats, the stand out moment was on a sailing course aged around 10, crewing for my mum on our Kingfisher 20+ with no-one else on board ... we were doing a night sail from Campbeltown up to St. Ninians Bay on Bute in company with 2 other boats - a Moody 33 from the sailing school and another which I can't remember. It was a clear night with a fresh breeze and I was sat in my lifejacket and oilskins at the bow watching the fish scatter as we sailed North, they left green phosphorescent trails behind them creating an amazing underwater firework display.

A night sail from Tobermory to Coll was also memorable some years later, sitting in the cockpit of our Vega watching shooting stars rain across the sky as we sailed in total darkness apart from the faint glow of the nav lights. I was on the helm following a compass course while my dad was sweating below doing the chartwork.
 
First time, age 15, was part of a small crew on a small yacht sailing from Falmouth to the Hamble.

First time sailing overnight from Pompey to Cherbourg.

Gets a bit posey now.... :)

First time sailing our Moody 33 across the Atlantic.

First time taking a yacht through the Panama Canal. Motoring of course, but massive wow factor.

Landfall in Tahiti.

plus zillions of others, often made by the company not just the sights!
 
Many happy experiences at sea, or even on the Broads, but something that cruisers can enjoy is the pleasure of arrival. Islands have a special quality, so that Alderney, the Scillies and Bornholm come to my mind. One especially rewarding trip was our furthest east, when we arrived in Gdansk in 2004, having hastened to get there before a gale. Our impressions of Gdansk were from the News, which was entirely of a grey city with grey docks populated by grey men, and so it was something of a surprise to see a beautiful river mouth with trees, a monument to Polish patriots, a castle and even the shipyards lit by the evening Baltic sun, and finally a view of the rebuilt city where we stayed for some days.
'04 baltic (35).jpg'04 baltic (42).jpg
 
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