Back to Sailing (1) – report by skipper Jeff Birkin

July 9th – 11th 2021, Bavaria 36 ‘Anodyne’, Liberty Yacht Charter, QAB, Plymouth.

Crew - Dave Lloyd, Jerzy Wieczorek, Brian Adams and Paul Eyers and skipper Jeff Birkin.

In the typically heavy summer traffic, we all made our way to QAB. Paul & Jeff left early, stopping to do the shopping and having all the handover completed as the remaining crew arrived. Their timing was possibly lucky but some skulduggery and a bar was likely in play.

Our original intention was to have an hour or so sailing on Friday evening but, all things considered, there was little appetite. An excellent meal in the marina restaurant followed by a few nightcaps and nibbles on the boat, finally saw off the good intentions of Friday.

Saturday, we slipped at the crack of 10:00 am and started some manoeuvring and mooring practice in the marina. We then headed out into the Cattewater and, using a buoy as a reference, practiced reversing. We then tried lassoing a mooring buoy, an art that evades many a would-be cowboy. A fun-time video of the action was created, viewed and quickly deleted. It will remain so until someone makes me an offer above 75p.

Around noon we tied up to a buoy for a refreshment break and, half an hour later, with the winds set fair and the skies relatively clear, made our way through the myriad of racing yachts across to Cawsand Bay. As was the nature of the trip, this involved a considerable amount of tacking and, as Paul lost his hat, a MOB procedure. Sadly, the MOB was lost beneath the surface before we could get back to it.

Around 3 pm and a few dozen tacks later we dropped the hook for a late lunch.

Sailing off the anchor, we tacked our way south towards Rame Head so we could begin gybing our way back towards QAB. Again, this involved a few dozen gybes to fully understand the process and possible pitfalls. Having the headsail wrapped around the forestay being the most difficult to deal with in real life. But the winds were very light so there was no risk to the boat and the exercise was enjoyable.

We tied up around 6:30 and made our way to Stavros Greek Restaurant where we had a reasonable meal before heading back to the boat to do more damage to the store of refreshments. Listening to music until well gone midnight, this warm summer evening was a reminder of the youth we had in our 30’s and 40’s, all those decades ago.

Sunday morning, after another lazy start, we braved the drizzle and practiced mooring the boat in various ways and using a few less well known procedures, including solo. We then brimmed the tank with £8.31 of fuel and the chance to conduct another mooring procedure was taken with glee.

With everyone except the skipper wanting to get home for the football - why they play with such an oddly shaped ball is something I’ll never understand - we cleaned up and left the boat by 3 pm. Heading into dense and often stationary traffic on the M5, everyone was in front of a TV in time to witness the inevitable consequences of playing with such a stupidly shaped ball.

As a first weekend on a boat, it was great fun and thoroughly educational. I thank the crew for their tolerance, camaraderie and willingness to have a laugh at their own, and every other crew-member’s, expense.