The boat was bought on the 21st of November. I even managed to get it out of the water and scrub it down a bit. Just waiting for a crew. We did go out to celebrate: a bottle of Champagne was duly opened. But tides and winds were wrong so we didn’t leave the mooring.

I also thought that having an experienced crew might help for the first sail. My first victims were Charlotte and Benoît. Both are colleagues and have experience. So we agreed to go out the week end of the 1st of December.

But as the week end got closer, the weather decided otherwise. Never mind! We showed a good spirit and decided to go out the next week end. But yet again the weather was wrong.

And the following week end looked just as bad.

The meal before

So, on Wednesday 12th of December a very experienced crew decided to give it a go: my mother and I. It was cold, so we decided to have a nice meal first. Then we rowed to Doro-San, climbed aboard (I was impressed: Lali is 82). We prepared everything and then noticed the tiller wouldn’t move. I checked if anything was broken and realized the rudder was stuck in the mud. The readings gave me a tide of 2m and the previous owner told me he could leave the mooring with that. I checked and found that we were indeed aground.

Stranded

So we waited until the tiller was moving, I went to the bows and cast off. Engine on. And my mother said “I don’t think we are moving”. Which was correct. So I had to get us back on the chain and we waited a little longer. Incidentally this “getting back on the chain” was proving to be a very heavy bit of work. Obviously because I wasn’t doing it the right way but even with not much wind you don’t hold a 4 ton keel boat like a 14 footer.

Sailing at last

At last we left the mooring. I tried to understand the somewhat erratic buoys supposed to indicate the channel and we were off. We hoisted the sails… Well, only partly: we hoisted a sail. And sailed for 20 minutes before heading for port. In between the tides and the moorings it was getting close to night time.

Getting back onto the mooring was as difficult as expected. Imagine going downwind past the mooring, turning back and stopping the engine in order to stop exactly on the buoy. During which time the goal is to run to the bows, get hold of the buoy with the gaff… and pull. Clearly I am going to have to spend some money on a better system!

Then packing up the boat and rowing back. We reached the shore and I was exhausted. I had something to check… My mother phoned me up and the phone had stayed on Doro-San.

I had to go back 2 days later to collect it.

This may seem a bit disastrous and a lot of effort for a half hour under a jib (and when I read this I have to admit that this doesn’t seem very promising). But I am full of enthusiasm for my next attempt.