After what has, for most of us, been a decidedly disappointing summer, weatherwise, it was a great treat to see the sun over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Some friends who had been threatening to sell their boat because they had used it so little this year said they had rediscovered the point of keeping it.
Because of our racing campaign, we have used our boat an awful lot this year, logging 2,000 miles so far, but this weekend we rediscovered the point of more leisurely cruising!
It didn't begin well. Husband had to work every day over the weekend, to make up for recent time off, so we only had Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning to get away.
And the first task on Saturday was to change the mainsail.
The newer, racing main is not very-user friendly when it comes to short-handed cruising, so we replaced it with the original Dacron sail, complete with stack pack and lazy jacks. Trouble was, we'd forgotten that you have to thread all the reefing lines etc through the zip at the back, or the system doesn't work.
So, after much effort, with two reefs, outhaul etc all finally attached, we had to undo the whole lot and start again. This time we managed to thread one of the reefing lines the wrong side of the lazy jacks… and so it went on.
We were a bit hot and bothered by the time it was all sorted out, and we'd missed the tide. So the planned trip to our favourite anchorage at Hamford Water was shelved.
(As it turned out this may have been no bad thing, as friends who did get there reported the normally tranquil spot quite crowded, as lots of others had exactly the same idea!)
In the end we settled for the shortest voyage of the year so far: about half a mile from our marina berth to a mooring buoy on the other side of the river. For the first half an hour it seemed like parking on the hard shoulder of the M25, such was the traffic of boats going past, as everyone tried to make the most of what might be the last really hot day of the year.
But then suddenly, everything went quiet, and we sat back to watch the strings of birds flying overhead, gulls, geese, oystercatchers and curlews, and to enjoy a fabulous sunset.
We've done our fair share of moaning about the weather, like everyone else. But we've come to the conclusion that the sheer variety of our climate makes us enjoy beautiful days like this all the more.
Just as it's the wide range of experiences, from hectic races and long distance passages to tranquil nights at anchor, that makes sailing so compellingly addictive, whatever the weather.
