solent clown
RIP
As a shortcut to getting our restoration Trident 24 back in the water we bought another one in february. Some of you chaps may remember our posts about planning and executing the return trip from Portsmouth to Southampton.
We did so on the 27th of February, a hellish cold day just before the snows. It was the first time we had ever handled a yacht that size alone, and an adventure of its own, with very strong winds, and a snowstorm added to the mix.
We came home safe and well, and from that day on we have been out at every opportunity, between one and 5 days a week, stayed over, fixed, fettled and enjoyed.
As dinghy and microcruiser sailors, it has been gratifying to realise how transferable the skills are to a bigger boat.
Far from daunted now, we are absolutely loving having a cooker that isnt strapped to a thwart in the open air, a cabin, a loo, decent VHF, satnav ( karen likes it, I still refuse to look at it) but most of all, a reliable inboard engine.
It did feel like cheating initially, and everyone told us that once you have it you will use it, and by George, it is true, BUT it so enhances the experience, and makes getting out at any opportunity so much easier as we have a narrow sliver of river to negotiate.
The only problem we are still having, is the force of habit/autopilot of dinghy explorers - and not adapting our thinking at times to the dashed great fin hanging under the hull.
Our sole real ignominy due directly yo our (my) cavalier attitude to depth was running aground at Eling and having to be dragged out by a flubber and a Jetski. Purely because I just went the way we always went before without a thought.
It has been a great pleasure to be out in a yacht, and less challenging than we ever imagined. easier than a dinghy, especially further out. We do miss the immediacy of the water being so close in a dinghy, but have been very pleasantly surprised at the agility of this 50 year old boat, it is great fun to chuck around.
The Solent seems a smaller place in a bigger boat, and the security of an engine and the comfort of a cabin serves to have eroded a little of our healthy respect for the wiles of these waters, and we now merrily plough on where before we would have laid up and camped ashore or gone home.
It now really feels like the beginning of the adventure we have always dreamed of and trained for all this time.
So thank you Solent, for being our teacher, , mostly kind, never cruel, and almost always forgiving of our mistakes. I love you dearly my steadfast companion for all you have given me. You will always be home, but this year we will be venturing further without the aid of a trailer.
And thank you all, for your words of encouragement and advice. It has served us very well indeed.
Hurrah for the PBO'ers
We did so on the 27th of February, a hellish cold day just before the snows. It was the first time we had ever handled a yacht that size alone, and an adventure of its own, with very strong winds, and a snowstorm added to the mix.
We came home safe and well, and from that day on we have been out at every opportunity, between one and 5 days a week, stayed over, fixed, fettled and enjoyed.
As dinghy and microcruiser sailors, it has been gratifying to realise how transferable the skills are to a bigger boat.
Far from daunted now, we are absolutely loving having a cooker that isnt strapped to a thwart in the open air, a cabin, a loo, decent VHF, satnav ( karen likes it, I still refuse to look at it) but most of all, a reliable inboard engine.
It did feel like cheating initially, and everyone told us that once you have it you will use it, and by George, it is true, BUT it so enhances the experience, and makes getting out at any opportunity so much easier as we have a narrow sliver of river to negotiate.
The only problem we are still having, is the force of habit/autopilot of dinghy explorers - and not adapting our thinking at times to the dashed great fin hanging under the hull.
Our sole real ignominy due directly yo our (my) cavalier attitude to depth was running aground at Eling and having to be dragged out by a flubber and a Jetski. Purely because I just went the way we always went before without a thought.
It has been a great pleasure to be out in a yacht, and less challenging than we ever imagined. easier than a dinghy, especially further out. We do miss the immediacy of the water being so close in a dinghy, but have been very pleasantly surprised at the agility of this 50 year old boat, it is great fun to chuck around.
The Solent seems a smaller place in a bigger boat, and the security of an engine and the comfort of a cabin serves to have eroded a little of our healthy respect for the wiles of these waters, and we now merrily plough on where before we would have laid up and camped ashore or gone home.
It now really feels like the beginning of the adventure we have always dreamed of and trained for all this time.
So thank you Solent, for being our teacher, , mostly kind, never cruel, and almost always forgiving of our mistakes. I love you dearly my steadfast companion for all you have given me. You will always be home, but this year we will be venturing further without the aid of a trailer.
And thank you all, for your words of encouragement and advice. It has served us very well indeed.
Hurrah for the PBO'ers
- but the boat will cope
