Sailing holiday 2006.

Note: The daily entries of this post were written during the holiday.

This year we have realised that we don’t have enough money to skiing again. Something that I was really looking forwards to and miss tremendously. So, Francesca asked her dad (Nick) if we could join him on his yacht “Impala” and tour the Devon coastlines for a week in May. He was only too happy to have us along.

Finally, the day came and we drove down to Lymington to join him and his friend “Mike”. Mike is a very experienced sailor from Scotland and was former owner/skipper of the Gemini, which is the boat that tours the Corryvreckan whirlpool (Link -> http://www.whirlpool-scotland.co.uk/index.html).

We settled in for the night by buying the shopping and then headed down to the boat to make ready for an early sail. As usual the drinks came out and we all toasted to a great holiday ahead.

Nicks boat is a 46ft Bavaria Cruiser that sleeps 10. It has an engine cruising speed of 9knts and the top speed under sail was 11knts, a record we hoped to beat this trip. It is quite capable of seeing nick around the world and back and I have the suspicion that whenever he is in it he feels that urge to point her to the Caribbean and be away!

Here is a shot from the Bavaria website:




Our berth was at the front of the boat, a double bed right next to the engine and a nat’s breadth of plywood away from the next-door berth.

Very comfy beds ahoy!

Day 1

Sailing holiday day 1

I wake from the nights drinking to find the boat moving, something I couldn’t miss this as the engine is away from my by only an inch. Cesca and I then discover the first thing about the sea: sickness.

Amazing seasickness that is best left to the imagination. All I will say is it is like being full of food, in a washing machine on fast spin and it wont stop for 6 hours.

After a few hours we decide to go back to bed. After the break I start to find my sea legs and am able to help out and take a watch as Nick ducks his head. Much of the holiday, when rough, was swapping watches whilst the other got a quick nap. Finally, the biting wind reveals Dartmouth and we berth for the fist night alongside the quick dock ready for the morning. I am writing this happy and again with a glass wine in hand.

Day 2

Sailing - Day 2
Finally, my stomach settles down and Cesca and I can actually help out.

And what a day we have had!

A wonderful wind blows in the quiet morning and we quickly put up the sails. We sailed almost all day around from Dartmouth towards our next berth of Fowey. On the way, and my watch, we get 29-knot gusts from across the bow (it was a bit windy like) and the whole shebang lists wildly to port. I had the feeling like it would tip us over and my heart was in my mouth at that moment as Nick and I wrestled with the rudder. We quickly pulled in the sails half way to lessen the wind and then swapped watches.

Cesca immediately sets the holiday’s speed record with 8.9 knots (wow that’s fast!).

Finally, the wind blows itself out and we cruise, under power, into Fowey then venture out for the local pubs and a fish supper. Now, very well fed, I munch some chocolate and listen to some opera as I write (and digest). A very wind swept and interesting day!

Day 3

Sailing - Day 3

Well, a restless night being awakened by passing shipping bouncing the hell out of us in the front berth. The morning faired no better as the heads (bogs) were blocked and we needed to pump them out. Another “hands on” experience we all will take to our graves, say no more than I am now known as Commander U-Bend and I didn’t have the worst of it!

Finally we set sail and hoved-to and got underway. The sun came out and the rest of the day was wonderful sailing all the way to Mylor.

Very beautiful and peaceful.

Now we are welcoming guests (old friends of Nick’s and Mike’s) on board for a dinner party and I am drinking a beer. Bliss.

Day 4

Sailing Day 3

Ah what fun, a nice long lay-in followed by sailing directly off the dock in full “goose wing” formation.

Goose wing:

We then coasted across the 20-mile way to Newton Ferres river under light winds while sunning on the deck.

Fun and relaxing.

Once we arrived at the river we pumped up the dingy, attached the outboard motor and went around the river inlets looking at the wrecks and fine sailing ships aplenty. Today is Nick’s birthday and so we motored over to the local pub for a steak dinner and some very fine Lebanese wine. Then, worse for wear, we came back to the boat and played cards for few hours before turning in. Of course, Cesca won as usual.

Nothing-new there!

Day 5

Sailing - Lunchtime on Day 5

The day started early with a nice little hang over from the nights fun. The boat was in complete fog in all directions, so it was on with the radar, out with the foghorn and all hands on lookout.

The sea is amazing in fog; dead calm and smooth as silk with no waves at all.

CLICK HERE for a movie of the sea in fog!

Really a wondrous sight to behold.

We made our way out of the river mouth and across to Falmouth, honking all the way. Finally the strong sun burned off the fog and the mighty coast guard vessel at the mouth of Falmouth Harbour came into view. We then manoeuvred into the fuel dock and refilled the tanks at the crazy high prices here (60p v 48p in Scotland).

Cesca is ashore getting rolls for lunch and I am sitting here enjoying a short break before getting on with my duties.

Sailing - day 5

Well, after the fuelling we had a nightmare getting out of the harbour.

If it wasn’t trainee helmsmen practicing docking and swooping in front of us, it was the water under the boat. Or rather the lack of it; there is nothing more frightening in a yacht than a depth gauge reading 0.0 and the sea floor visible over the side!

Worse horrors were to come as we then spent, after 2 hours in sun - sails up, 3 hours under motor through fog that was deadly close. Radar was the saviour again apart from one moment when only my spotting of a lobster pot and cry of “Hard turn a port!” saved us from serious damage (Lobster pots are the true foe of sailing, they are the dog turds of the sea).

When navigating in thick fog of 25m visibility it is vital that 1. You don’t get a call from work in London asking hard UNIX questions, like Paxman suddenly leaping out of the sea with a “starter for ten” and 2. That you have in your kit a large plastic conch-shell-like instrument of doom upon which you bellow out whale call at 100db telling all unseen shipping to mind your course.

Here is Mike playing the instrument in question, CLICK to listen!

Seriously, it sounded like a dinosaurs mating calls across the glens.

Eventually Cesca and I manned the front of the boat and lead us into the river inlet and we berthed for the night with wine and more cards.

Day 6

Before:

Saling - Day 6

After:

As I write this I am sitting full of shellfish and fit to burst with food, Today we have sailed and tacked all the way around to Brixham and The Poop Deck restaurant, owned and run by my favourite Uncle; Tony.

We are joined at Brixham by Cesca’s cousin Charles and his girlfriend Cath. They spend the rest of the voyage with us and get the train back home from Lymington on Sunday.

The food there is of massive quantity and of the highest quality. Cesca and I shared the Sea Food Platter, which is an amazing amount of shellfish. It was wonderful to be able to see Grandma Bell and my, cousins if only for a few short hours, I can’t wait to be down here again.

Tomorrow brings the start of our journey back home and for some of us the early 4 am watch. I fall asleep now in a melancholy mood, the holiday is coming to an end and soon my land legs will have to be found again (I sway on land at the moment). It is a moment of peace and a nexus for the coming homeward journey, for a final port away from home it is strange to come to the place I know the best; Brixham, and some of the people I love the most.

Day 7

Sailing - Day 7

Today has been the best sailing so far. We motored around from Brixham towards Poole via some wonderful cliffs and coastlines. Around the point we came across the “rough waters” that had caused the event marked in the paper a few weeks ago; the boat wreck and rescue of two people off the cliffs. I can quite understand why the skipper of that boat became frightened as the waves here are in a permanent state of extreme chop and you roll down one and up the other magnificently, which is both fun and terror inducing at the same time.

Eventually we made it through this and I took long turn at the helm getting us up to 9 knts and taking us into Poole harbour.

I spend some of the time learning to tie knots correctly.

Slip:

Bowline:

Reef:

Ropecoil:

After some well deserved drinks we all turned in and got some equally well-deserved rest. Last day tomorrow and we have much to do once we get back ashore.

Final day

Sailing - final day.

So the final day is over and the trip is done (the parts on the waves anyway). What can I say other than we have truly flogged-the-Oggin’ in almost all sea conditions.

My impressions? Well, there is something intrinsically “blanking” about standing watch on deck alone, by which I mean my mind is slowly ground to quiet and silence and becomes, well, blank. Like I am an Etch-a-sketch being shaken gently against the wind so that the picture (the stressful picture that work and modern life creates) is diminished and eventually gone.

A welcome blankness into which I can pour what I want and I find that suddenly I can, to switch metaphors, see the wood from the trees. I like sailing. I like it a lot.

However, It has its problems as far as the standard holiday checklist goes. As whilst I can say that it is social, fun, exciting, travel to the unknown & back again and fairly cheap, it is also very tiring (my body is thinking that work will be rest after this!), slightly claustrophobic (it is impossible to have a private conversation or tryst aboard ship), a holiday governed by someone else (Captain says jump; you jump, obligingly, but jump none-the-less) and a high learning curve (I finally learned the knots by the time we pulled back into lymington!). And that is leaving out the sea sickness.

It is I suppose very similar to one’s first ski trip in these respects and I take heart by that thought, as the second and subsequent ski adventures are fun and later ones where you have mastered the art are pure bliss. I very much look forwards to future sails and will be better prepared for the challenges involved mentally and physically. So it is to be recommended to all and savoured by those prepared to step aboard with opportunity to go further than a days jaunt.

Best regards to all!

James and Francesca