Boat Handling in Plymouth1 -4October 2018  – report by Gordon Ogden

Skipper, Gordon Ogden  . Crew,Sue Fowle  , John Hartland  , Neil Webber  and Mick Hewitt  .

Yacht Nashira  – Bavaria 36 from Plymouth Sailing School

For once in my life, the forecast was for light to moderate winds from the west, or south west, and so it proved!

The yacht had been hired-in by Plymouth Sailing School, as two of their own yachts had been damaged and were being repaired. We picked her up in the early afternoon of Monday, 1 October and, after a brief handover, we were on our way.

We went out into The Sound for an enjoyable afternoon sail in very light wind and took a berth in Plymouth Yacht Haven for the night, with a meal at The Bridge restaurant in the marina. Excellent.

Tuesday promised some wind, so we opted for sailing and sail handling. A spin round Eddystone Lighthouse was our target, although, as we got well away from land, the wind died away quite dramatically. John said he was experiencing more than a little déjà vu, as previous attempts had ended with no wind near the famous rocks! For us, however, it was the Dutch navy, presumably in conjunction with the Royal Navy, who put an end to our hopes. We were called up by an extremely polite radio officer with a strong Dutch accent and told they were about to commence live firing in that area and, basically, could we push off! Well, we did, of course and were accompanied by a school of dolphins for quite some time, on our way back towards Plymouth. The nearer we got to land, the better the wind!

Seriously, it was grand sailing and, with changeable winds from W/SW force 2-6, both at sea and around Plymouth Sound, we had some good sail-reefing practice.

Back to Plymouth Yacht Haven and a rather better berth than the previous night. We opted for the walk to the Clovelly Bay Inn at Turnchapel. Again, excellent food and the chance to stretch our legs with the short walk to and from the pub.

On Wednesday, we got down to some serious close-quarter boat handling just outside the marina. Later in the afternoon, we again couldn’t resist some more sailing and had a delightful sail out through the Eastern end of the breakwater. The visibility began to thicken around the nearby coast and then some very ominous-looking fog rolled in from the sea. It was time to get back, once again, to Plymouth Yacht Haven, where we took our last evening meal at The Bridge.

By Thursday morning, the murk had cleared and we went back to our boat handling. Buoy mooring, reversing, tight spot turns (well, almost), standard, alongside mooring, use of springs, man overboard, etc. I think we all agreed we don’t get enough practice during routine sailing trips.