Fast Eddy vs November: A tale of two boats

November 3

My first night crewing on Fast Eddy...

Dreadful night driving to Gosport.  Fog, wind, darkness, motorways slick and shiny with grease and water. Heavy downpours fell in swirls and then turned into gusting sheets of sideways rain.

I sat in the marina car park watching the storm as it set in illuminated by the pale yellow light above the car.  I stared at the trolleys which were locked up a 100 meters from where I was parked.  At last I leapt out. When I got to the trolley stand, of course I didn't have a pound coin. Grrr. It could have been a mile back to the car as I was that wet by the time I found a coin in my pocket.

I text Rupert that I'd be there in 5 minutes, wet and cold.... and asked him to please turn the heater on for me!  Totally drenched by the time I got to the boat, The first casualty... My pears got squashed in bag, although my prize double sleeping bag was still dry! 

I haven't seen what the boat looks like outside, as it was black as black and blowing like a mother when I arrived. No time to stand outside and admire the scenery, that was certain.  On the inside, Fast Eddy offers spacious accommodation. She is is a lovely vessel w 2 heads, 3 double cabins and a galley kitchen which is bigger than the kitchen in the dolls house I call home.  

What a night.  The boat is creaking and bobbing, her fenders bumping the sides of the boat and the pontoon. A wicked wind is howling something fierce and it's still raining buckets.  It sounds like I'm sitting in the bath with a hurricane above my head. Maybe this is what babies feel like in the womb? Everything muffled and amplified all at once, kinda weird. After a couple mugs of sweet tea, a glass of wine and a bit of banter, I've tucked myself up in a cherry wood lined berth and am feeling quite toasty inside a dry, arctic sleeping bag.  

Well, tomorrow should be interesting weather again ... Let's hope it is not a Life of Pi adventure. More later, must sleep. 

November 4

Stormy weather has calmed down for the day. Wind is forecast force 4 and 5, spring tide, high water at 11.30 am. At sea conditions will be rough. Our plan for today is to sail from Gosport to Cowes and overnight at West Cowes. 

The two skippers are sorting out the engine, adding oil, tightening the fan belt right now.  Weather looks as if it will deteriorate by Wednesday so we may have to cut sailing short this week. We will have to see what materialises. 

I will let you know if I end up hurling when we are sailing later today. I'm feeling good and perky so far, despite the rocking and bobbing.

Later...

No hurling! After settling the boat down for the night we headed to a local pub for hot food and cold beer.  My preference was chips and Guinness.  When Indian was suggested I gasped, I thought, inaudibly. Apparently not.  Jonathan the other crew member with whom I was to share the double berth laughed out loud.  Did I really say 'oh no' so everyone could hear.  I thought that was in my head. Terribly embarrassing.

Maybe that tipped the scales in my favour, however, because it was agreed we would have straightforward pub fare. And, a jolly night was had by all, right down to the impromptu neural-marketing lecture I gave .... You see what happens when I skip a lecture!   

November 5

Woke up all night to the constant tapping of a loose rigging right above my head, or so it seemed. I kept dreaming someone was knocking on the door, and I wasn't about to venture out of my down cocoon for anyone daft enough not to say anything at the door.  Later in the early morning another one of my stupid alarms went off at 4.55 am.  My iPad was well stowed and not easily retrievable in the dark, especially with a stump like hand thoroughly numb from lack of circulation (having been shoved under my head for half the night as a pillow). Only after smashing my elbow on the cabin ceiling did I manage to find and turn off the offensive device.

When I fell back asleep, I had strange dreams about drowning an old lady who had kidnapped my daughter but wouldn't tell me where she was being kept, and, time was running out.  Me thinks I watched The Bridge too many times. In my dream, my frustration and stress levels were too high to be restful, so I clawed my way to the surface of reality and rolled out of the cabin to find two people already seated at the table. Rupert the Skipper stood with a kettle in his hand, staring at me as if I was an alien that had just beamed aboard.  Pretty sure I had been talking in my sleep, I opted for full disclosure, entertaining my three shipmates with a pre-coffee version of the bizarre dream.   

Later that morning... 

What's the name of that sound of the wind whistling and warbling through the mast riggings in the marina?

My brother calls it the sound of a graveyard. All those lovely boats swinging on moorings with nobody in sight.  Kind of like a big suburban neighbourhood with all the middle class ants away at work busy paying for their possessions- all the things they hardly have time to use, drive, sail, or live in.  Hmm, it is good to keep things in perspective, even if it seems a bit bleak.  No matter, whatever one wants to call that sound, to me it is like listening to music, granted its melancholy music. 

Dumb question 2: Why is there no bar in the Spinnaker Tower?  Does it seem a wasteful endeavour to anyone besides me? 

Rain delays play....

Sadly we decided to leave Fast Eddy in the lonely marina full of pretty boats bobbing in the wind. The  weather won this round of man against the sea...Unlike Captain Ahab, our risk averse skippers called it quits. The forecast was sufficiently poor with persistent rain (not so bad on its own), and force 6 to 8 westerly winds. If it was just rain we probably would have endured it.  However rough seas, gale warnings and a broken vhf radio meant a rethink for the week and a reprieve for the illusive white whale.

It really did seem like the universe was conspiring against Patrick, the day skipper student. He wasn't really going to get a good learning experience out of the week if it ended up being all about survival. As he was the chap who was actually paying for the day skipper course, he ultimately needed to decide. I suppose the lesson here is that caution makes a better sailing companion than recklessness, or obsession, especially since the safety of the crew lies in the hands of the skipper. Patrick made the right call, difficult as it was. 

As such we will reconvene the weekend of December 7, as that is the nearest available date we could all coordinate.  Unfortunately, I can only sail for two days of the reschedule as I am teaching during the week and can't take any more time off.  That means I'll be boarding on Friday and leaving the team Sunday evening. They will then carry on Monday and Tuesday.  I will miss the night passage on the Monday night which is a bit disappointing.

So until December arrives I will have to be content with the memory of a fantastically clear and crisp afternoon spent enjoying the fading intensity of the sun's horizontal rays.  It was a treat, sailing in a near empty Solent, collars pulled up high to protect us from that promised stiff wind.  Yes, Winter sailing in a yacht twice the size of my lovely little Lara has been fun. Provided you are well wrapped up it is an invigorating experience not to miss. 

November 6

Although I'm still a rubbish sailor, every time I am out on a boat I come home wondering how can I get to do this all the time? (And it's not just because it takes two days for the room to stop swaying when I do get home.)  I'm sure it will feel different when I'm back on Lara now that I've seen how the big bears roll, but I still adore her.  Alas, next weekend I'll be taking my storm damaged Seal 22 out of the water.  Lara might  be less grand, and now also bereft of an outboard, but she is the right size for me, plus she's mine, bless her. 

Again, the voice of a very wise brother rings in my ear:  "Don't get sucked in. Any boat big enough to live on is one capable of swamping you (more than a house) financially.  There may be ways to do it without hammering your wallet, but don't fall for it. Never forget the beauty of a small boat in fine weather. Nothing compares to it. Usually it is all anyone is really after."  Very Melville, don't you think?

Post script

I continue to stir the salt in my blood.  I continue to love my little day sailer for all the right reasons. For example, on Monday when we were pontoon bashing in Fast Eddy, I was holding the bow line waiting to jump off to tie her off. But when we got closer to the practice pontoon, I wasn't standing astride the guide wire. By the time I was ready, the gap between us and the pontoon looked too wide, plus we were 3 feet above the pontoon.  I hesitated, stood there looking at the yawning gap, contemplating if I'd make it or not. It was seconds only, but too many seconds. Rupert the Skipper was well annoyed.  He grabbed the bow line and leapt off saying 'and Karen's decided she's not getting off today...'  How mortifying.  After that, with a few more practice runs, I did get the hang of standing astride the guard wire while holding on to the shroud waiting as we drew near enough to the pontoon to leap off safely.

On my little boat it is just a short step off!  Still not sure why it takes it me three times longer to move the fenders, or lines.  Guess I'm the slow coach when it comes to untying and tying things up.  Regardless,  Lara seems so much easier to manage.  Will that light bulb moment I love so much when learning new things happen soon? Dunno. 

Until then...  I guess I'll have less of this...

And more of this.

Because as Goldilocks found out, not all bowls of porridge, rocking chairs and down-filled beds are created equal.  I'm sure the same applies to sailing yachts!  Plus, at the end of the day, sailing is really all that matters! 

Coco at the helm.

Just then, Goldilocks woke up and saw the three bears.  She screamed, "Help!"  And she jumped up and ran out of the room.  Goldilocks ran down the stairs, opened the door, and ran away into the forest.  And she never returned to the home of the three bears."

:-)