…And They’re Off!

Hands up, I (Deb) admit that I’m not a fantastic sailor (I should just add ‘yet’ onto that sentence but, I feel I’m not worthy at this point in time). I was born and grew up in Birmingham and, until the age of 18, had rarely seen the sea, let alone been ‘on’ it. But I do like it. I like it a lot. So much, in fact, that when we were apart I gained the Competent Crew qualification as well as learned to sail a laser dinghy at a local sailing school. In truth, I capsized a lot and got annoyed with the stupid wind! Nick, has spent most of his life around boats. He’s a skilled and experienced Skipper having owned boats and taught dinghy sailing in his youth. When we met (1988) he was a big windsurfing enthusiast. So much so, that our honeymoon (1989) was spent windsurfing in Turkey (Bodrum, to be exact) where I earned my RYA level 2 Windsurfing certificate. Actually, I think they just gave it to me to be polite. I also gained a certificate for being the ‘Most Rescued’. Not my fault, dear reader...it was always an offshore wind so ‘getting out there’ was no problem...it was the getting back that was the challenge. Anyhow, my certificate sits proudly amongst all other certificates including the one I got for learning the Green Cross Code back in the Middle Ages. We’d owned boats when we were married. The first was a Strider Club 24ft catarmaran that gave us great days out and all without a single electronic device onboard. Our second was a Heavenly Twins MkIV, a 26ft cruising cat that gave us even more wonderful days out and many overnight stays in and around The Solent on the South Coast, UK. I enjoyed the sailing but I think I just didn’t pay a lot of attention to what was involved. In my defence, I was mostly looking after our two young daughters while we were afloat and I was almost certainly making the tea and sandwiches in our galley which seemed very novel after the Strider which was very basic. Fast forward to 2017 and we got together (for the second time around). Life was Exciting and comfy but we were unsettled. Work dominated our lives. Days and weeks were long and there never seemed like there was enough time to do much else. In our previous life, we had talked about leaving the rat race and moving onto the water. It wasn’t long before we were having conversations along the same lines, again. In 2018 we spent a month sailing from Portsmouth to Dartmouth and back on our Heavenly Twins cat (with Roxy dog) and that was a real turning point for us. We enjoyed it so much. We wanted the liveaboard lifestyle. After looking at the logistics, namely the money situation, it wasn’t pretty. Neither of us had the money to invest in a boat that would be more ‘liveaboardable’ than the one we had. We’d need to sell everything to buy something more suited to us and we’d need to give up our jobs in order to commit to a new lifestyle. So, in the space of two years, that’s what we did. 2019 – Nick took early retirement and we bought our boat (originally Witchfinder General and renamed OnBlue). 2020 - I retired early, sold my house and pretty much everything in it (quite traumatic) and we moved aboard. And all this, amid a global pandemic! Our goal is to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean. Our oldest daughter lives in Cyprus and we’d love to get there. It is, however, a huge challenge. The furthest Nick has sailed to is Cherbourg and also Plymouth along the South Coast, UK. Enter a Brexit deal that has a whopping detrimental effect on our plans (only 90 days travel in every 180 allowed in the EU) and a continuing global pandemic that sees many countries still closed. To date (2021), our plans have been put (slightly) on hold until the EU decides what’s happening with borders and control of the pandemic. We’re not deterred. We have decided to go sailing this summer but to come back to UK marina life for the winter (that’s not difficult, you get used to the ‘luxury’ of marina life pretty quickly). So there you have it. Nick: Captain Competent. Deb: keen but needs to listen more. Different experiences, different capabilities but we share the dream and the passion. And to live aboard and travel and maintain a boat (and all the logistics these things entail) is all about teamwork and that’s what we can achieve (except on the days when we bicker and moan at each other but that’s completely normal when you live in a small space with your ex husband, right?!). Ultimately, we each bring something to this experience. I, for one, am looking forward to what we can achieve. Especially if I listen more.

After being waved off from Portsmouth Harbour, and before heading West, we headed to Bembridge Harbour on the Isle of Wight. We wanted to beach OnBlue so we could have a look at her bottom. Being in a marina is (mostly) super comfy but it’s not always great for the boat...being stationary allows all sorts of garden growth to take a grip on the hulls and we certainly felt the effects of that as we motored over to Bembridge, somewhat sluggishly. Once the tide had ebbed and our hulls were exposed, we found the growth on them wasn’t bad at all but we were covered with millions and millions of tiny little sea creatures, resembling micro shrimps. We’re animal lovers but these b*ggers had to go! As we wiped the hulls the creatures fell into the water in their thousands. They stuck to our wetsuits and wriggled on our skin. Pleasant it was not. We worked for a few hours as the tide rose around us. Once we were afloat we headed out, back into the Solent and motored all the way to Hurst Castle before raising the sails in a rather pleasant South Westerly wind, force 3-5. We were filled with trepidation...we didn’t have a set plan. Well, the plan was to have a plan and let that plan change as when wind, weather etc dictated. That’s sailing, I’ve learned. We just wanted to head West then take it from there. We got all the way to Swanage that first day and anchored in the bay. The holding was a little soft and it took several attempts, lots of shouting and a minor argument before we were set up for the night.