So it is that I ended up on a boat with Roderick and John, my sailing companions for nearly two weeks. I am so grateful to them both for welcoming me into their home and sharing their holiday with me.
They have made such excellent company and I love listening to them both chat about boat problems, solutions, tales of people they have met during the last 11 years they have sailed in the Caribbean together.
Roderick eventually stopped apologising for the fact his boat was very basic, and I think came to realise that I meant what I said when I told him that the people I was with was far more important than the facilities on the boat. That didnt stop me teasing him of course, as I inspected the boat as one would an exhibit in a museum!
As we come to anchor, we bring up the echo sounder and squint our eyes to try to see the depth
Despite its archaic look, it works really well, as does the VHF, and Roderick chuckled when I asked if it was Bakelite!
The winch on the other hand didnt bring too many chuckles
If you know how to sail, you will know the effort you have to put into moving sails up and across and the importance of the winches. I was trained using self-tailing winches – not so on Furore as you have to pull hard onto the lines whilst winching and secure the lines when done with a cleat. I wonder how it would be with a boat with electric winches! I gained the title “Wench on a Winch” on Furore!
I came to love Furore however, a lovely little boat, despite her age and weight (sorry lass!!) she moved well through the water, and didnt complain a bit when she had to wear a dragon – Wales got its mention in the Caribbean!
Furore wearing a great flag!! Thanks boys for respecting your new Welsh crew!
I also very quickly came to love the company of Roderick and John. They really took me under their wing and were such fun to be with (more details to follow in another blog….)
John has told his wife that a woman joined them on the boat, and described me as “a grey haired spinster” Naughty boy! I think Ann knows differently!
Why the title of this blog you may wonder – well, I think it is only really John and Roderick who would possibly know its meaning, and it is a little tease………
I’m a newcomer to sailing, and every day is a school day as I have said many times before. I’m pretty hard on myself when I make mistakes and hope to get better, so it is lovely to spend time with guys who have spent most of their lives on boats and see that they get things wrong too. Letting your 11 year old bucket go over the side for instance, not to mention having trouble with well placed bowlines……
During our stay at the beautiful island of Union, we met a lovely guy there called George. He was the skipper for a boat called Adventure which was a multi-forces boat which enabled guys from Army, Navy, Airforce etc to take trips around the world, as a relief from their assignments around the world (hope I got that right George). He had with him 14 young men from the army. A lovely group of people, and George was great company. As we raised the anchor from Chatham Bay , Adventure too prepared to leave. I can imagine George saying to his lads – “watch this guys, this is how the professionals do it…..”
I had this in mind as the anchor raised, the sail was hastily raised, flapping around with no lazy jacks to keep it under control, when one of the reef lines slipped through its professionally constructed bowline (mentioning no names…..), escaping through the boom. This required us to drop the main and anchor once more!
I never thought my midwifery skills would be called for onboard a small yacht – but my fingers, well used to manipulating babies out of small spaces helped tease the line back through the boom, with a little help from a long piece of wire Roderick had kept for many years in case it came in handy – it did today
Reef line reinstated with an extra hitch behind the bowline, sail once again raised – this time, a baton managed to find its escape, its now living somewhere in the Caribbean, and so it was we limped away………..
