Back to Sailing (2) – report by skipper Jeff Birkin (plus inserts by Ian Gamble)

16th-18th July  Bavaria 36 Anodyne  Liberty Yacht Charter, QAB, Plymouth.

Crew - Sue Fowle  , Ian Gamble  , Colin Burbidge  and Mick Hewitt  and skipper Jeff Birkin 

On Friday we headed early to Plymouth (Ian, travelling from Cardiff, was delayed and finally met with Mick at Lidl, identified in a ‘matching blue fashion statement’) and split up to do the shopping and check the boat.Sue was already holidaying there so, once teamed up we decided how we would like the weekend to go.

18:30 With these super high tech yachts racing, the bars and restaurants around us (including the Waypoint at QAB) were fully booked so there really wasn’t much chance of a meal on Friday or Saturday evening.Therefore, after the racing ended, in fine weather and a light breeze we slipped out of the marina, tacked like crazy - it was for training – then motored into Cawsand Bay.

20:20 Because of the racing Cawsand had a lot more boats sitting at anchor than usual.We chose a suitable spot and, whilst the cooking was underway we played the game of, ‘how far off the shore are we? It takes the sight of a human on a paddle board to allow the mind to accept the actual distance is a lot further than it looks.The scurvy crew provided a great meal (Mick’s risotto actually) and we hit the stores of beverage and nibbles fairly hard whilst listening to music, before retiring for a peaceful night.

On Saturday at 10:40 with almost no wind we had a lazy start, practised manoeuvring and MOB recoveries before dropping the hook again back at Cawsand for lunch.

It was notable by now that, the difficulty we had with finding the neutral position on the throttle during the first weekend was now more pronounced.This made a lot of slow speed manoeuvring far more problematic.

14:45 blowing a mere F2-3 SSW, there was enough wind to sail off the anchor and out into the Sound for sail training.Although the racing looked very fast, there wasn’t enough breeze for us so, mid-afternoon, we gently motored towards the Yealm, passing the bar entrance around 4:30.

It’s to be noted that Simon is banning his boats from tying up to the pontoon to the east as there has been so much damage caused/done to the boats.On this occasion therefore, is all we were doing was conducting a nav/transit/helming exercise, with other vessels overtaking, as we made our way in the procession up river.Having turned near the West pontoon, we headed back out and were clear of the entrance by 5:15 and back on the hook in Cawsand by 6:15.

Another night on the hook, scurvy crew performing as before, music drink and good company.A really great evening. (Ian’s report of the evening is The very useful anchoring advice from Jeff ensured we were securely stopped for the evening. Bottles were opened and we eagerly awaited our culinary fayre cooked by Sue. The night remained calm, with the exception of Jeff’s singing. ;-) After all, we had to keep some of our floating neighbours company.)

Sunday saw another 10 am lazy start before making our nearly windless way around the breakwater and back towards the Cattewater where we practiced lassoing a buoy to which we eventually tied up at noon for some light refreshments.Sunday morning saw us balancing the vessel into wind, followed by manoeuvring for MOB with and without OSCAR; this again proving the OSCAR-LINE a must-have device.)Heading back to QAB we did some pontoon bashing to entertain a large audience, before hopping over the river to PYH for fuel.

15:00 and we were back at QAB, cleaned and emptied the boat before making our way home in fairly light traffic.

A thoroughly enjoyable weekend made all the more so by spending it on the hook each night with such a nice bunch of people. What a lovely, relaxing and friendly way to spend a weekend learning some skills. Highly recommended. Thanks again to everyone for their company and patience.)

On a final note, we covered 22nm of which around 15 would have been on engine and could only squeeze £8 of fuel into the tank.Given we used over 10 engine hours, it’s simply not worth £3.50/hr to let someone else fill the boat.