Weekend from Plymouth February 23-25 – report by Jeff Woolmer

This was to have been skippered by Ian Collins but as he was indisposed on the day the crew was just Jeff Woolmer, Bob Buchanan and Brian Adams on the Bavaria 34 ‘Cherry B’.

The crew of me, Bob and Brian arrived at Plymouth Yacht Haven at 5PM to board Cherry B which was there due to dredging upstream at the usual berth of Yacht Haven Quay.

We had some trouble finding the disguised main master switch on the boat. The handover went well and the heater kept away the worst of the cold. Saturday's forecast was for 22-32mph easterly and 25-32mph easterly on Sunday so we decided not to go to Fowey as it would have meant beating back on Sunday. A pleasant evening meal at The Bridge was followed by drinks on the boat.

In the morning a hearty breakfast was needed to prepare for the cold day ahead, again at The Bridge. Bob and Brian put up the working jib in the marina and we headed out in the Arctic weather. The morning sea state slight was slight with force 7 (28-33 knots) winds and with 2 reefs in the main the boat handled well. We decided to head out to the Eddystone and got within touching distance, well 4nm, before turning back or we'd miss the rugby.

Back to Sutton Harbour Marina for chef Bob's home made tomato, bacon and lentil soup then off to the pub to watch the 6 nations - England lost. Fish and chips followed and back to the boat for a drink.

Sunday AM was cold and windy - again so another hearty breakfast was consumed in a local café.

We sailed up the river Tamar to the Devonport navy yard to be intercepted by a police launch and two tugs escorting a destroyer. Notwithstanding the manned machine gun on the back of the destroyer pointing in our general direction we gave them plenty of sea room and lived to tell the tale.

For a quick cup of tea, we took a mooring and lost the boathook in the process for Brian to expertly recover it. It was then time to sail into the sound doing some short tacking in the fresh winds which made for a very enjoyable sail back to the marina. Brian said the 2hr beat down the Tamar in a F7 was the best sailing he’d had for years.

In all 34 miles covered with F6/7 winds and a max temperature of 5°C all weekend.