Another beautiful day. Sorry if you are reading this and have been sitting in an office or classroom all day, and we have been out on a boat in the sunshine for 2 days in a row -so very sorry, honestly!
We have both had a wonderful day and feel so very lucky! We were both up bright and breezy this morning – well, John was, and thought he was being very kind by bringing me a cuppa at 7.15am, this was indeed a kind gesture, but you have to bare in mind we hadnt planned to leave until 10 and I hadnt had a lye in for a long time……anyway – it was a decent cup of tea and the day was far too beautiful to miss a single minute of!
I always find loads of things to do anyway to fill my time and never get bored. I had a lovely shower, made adjustments to the chart plotter to get it set up how I like (having convinced John I really wasnt going to break it!) and popped to the shops for a few essentials, such as biscuits. I also ate breakfast! If you know me well, you will know I’m not too good at eating breakfast, I know its good for me, but I don’t feel like it when I wake up and often find myself doing other things and forgetting – until I feel unwell and make myself eat.
Each morning, John has presented me with a bowl of cereal and a boiled egg and toast which I have dutifully eaten – and enjoyed!
Anyway, I digress as usual. We slipped the lines and said goodbye to our neighbours who seemed a little too relieved to see us go – they were friends on both boats having a jolly and enjoying the sunny weather and not really going anywhere apart from the off licence I think!
Again, we had a meticulously planned passage from Weymouth to Brixham, and I had inputted the waypoints into the chart plotter as I mentioned yesterday. I did check 3 times that I had inputted them correctly – Rick has drummed that into me, and I checked it wasnt set to Bogata! John hadnt really used a chart plotter before, for some reason he didnt get much chance to do so when he was on RBE, and, as I’ve mentioned, he is a bit of a technophobe. However, he is now becoming very interested and kept muttering “this is a nice bit of kit” as we went along and the chart plotter helped.
Weymouth looked beautiful in the morning sunshine
As did the Dorset coastline
See the horse!
I’m not sure if I have mentioned – John has also completed the Round Britain Experience – he did it April to June and I did July to August so we have never met before but have completed the same trip. However, as we spend the hours on the water regaling our stories, I think we experienced it very differently due to a few factors, not least weather! When you have completed the RBE, if you want to progress to a yacht master qualification, with South West Marine Training, you are offered the opportunity to sail a yacht, instructor free for a week, then an instructor comes on board and puts you through your paces for a week testing you all the way prior to a RYA examiner coming along and assessing you (assessing sounds better than examining!)
It turns out that John had the opportunity to do his yacht master a month ago which he cleverly passed! He didnt want to let anyone down (thats the sort of gent he is) so he didnt cancel this trip. A good job really, thanks John as I’m sure SWMT wouldn’t have been happy letting me sail solo – and who would bring me breakfast after all?!
John however seems set on ensuring I too pass and is giving me all the support he can, in true “geography teacher” style. He hands me a set of cards (like revision cards on various topics), tells me I have 10 minutes to study them before he tests me……….thanks John, who wants to sunbathe anyway – I am here to learn!
Back to the trip – we planned to give Portland Bill a wide berth being mere novices, and passed by East Shambles Cardinal
Like good boys and girls! We could just see The Bill in the distance, and we felt safe. Lyme Bay then forms the coastline, and we were heading to Brixham which meant we cut straight across it, so the coastline went out of view. The sun was shining, the sea was very calm, almost milky, and very little breeze – this did mean we had the engine on, but it was a small price to pay for a beautiful day. We really could have been anywhere at all.
John keeps a beautiful log – he is very artistic (although he can’t cook!) and I tentatively made my entries into it in my best handwriting. I don’t think he reads my entries, but probably will in time, as I’m leaving little comments for him along the way. Being a technophobe, he probably wont read this blog – so it will be our little secret for now!
Our timing, yet again, was perfect, we had the tide with us most of the way from Portland to Brixham, and the sun was just setting as we neared our destination
A fishing boat approaches Berry Head
Sunset at Brixham
We knew that one of our instructors – Duncan – would be on the boat next to our berth with his students, which put the pressure just a little on us, but as we neared, we could see another instructor – Rick, was also there – no pressure at all! They stood there watching, arms folded as John glided Nashira into her position, and I stepped onto the pontoon and secured her on, all the lines ready prepared. They had to dig deep to make any comments – and just made mention that one of my fenders was a couple of inches higher than the others – come on guys!
It was good to see Rick again as I hadnt seen him since Bangor NI. He has been on RBE, bringing her round from London since Monday with some new students who are doing mile building and fast tracking, and it seems fast is the word as Rick clearly hadnt had time for a shave since he had left! Life as an instructor seems to be a difficult one at times – joining boats with people you have never met before, teaching people with a wide range of knowledge and experience, often sleeping in the saloon and being away from home on frequent occasions. They all seem to keep themselves affable despite this, so the odd whisker or too can be forgiven!
We joined Duncan’s boat – Kerry, for a drink, then headed back to Nashira for our dinner – left overs tonight – yummy!
I couldn’t wait to head to the showers. Brixham has definitely won the award for the best facilities right around Britain! They are fabulous! John was most surprised when I eventually made it back to the boat, as I had been away so long. I enjoyed a proper preen and a real soak in the shower, something I had planned for months as I’ve journeyed around Britain – thinking of the showers in Brixham! Amazing how priorities in life can change isnt it!
In bed by 10.30, feeling absolutely exhausted – John has tired me out with all this testing – bloody geography teachers! Goodnight!
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