Passage Home

The date and time was set for Jumbucks passage to Milford Haven, Sunday 24th June 2007. I had manged to cajole two crew members to assist in the voyage who had the necessary experience and my intentions were to just go along for the ride! But they had other ideas and insisted I was to skip' my own boat. Talk about in at the deep end, my knowledge of yachts could be listed on the back of a postage stamp having owned power boats before, but I kept telling myself I had to learn and this is what she was bought for. So with a dry mouth myself, John (Mr Etec) and Pete (BFG) boarded at 1100 hrs, deflated the tender and stowed it away below and headed out under power, port side of Black Rock, Solva.

The weather was bright with a gentle wind blowing North to South and it wasn't long before the crew had the sails set and the outboard was turned off. I was sailing! BFG plotted our position every 30 minutes and Mr Etec looked like he was going to fall asleep as passages weren't his thing. " Blasting round cans is fun, this is boring" was all he muttered, but at least he was there, just in case.

We were making a steady 5 knots as we entered the falls at the back of Skomer Island then the wind disappeared and we were back on the outboard. Passed Skoholm and a breeze reappeared. "Kite up then Skip?" the two crew members chorused. I smiled nervously and shook my head in agreement. Mr Etec disappeared to the fore deck and BFG busied himself sorting out sheets, I sat there gripping the tiller and tried to take it all in.

As we rounded St.Annes head and entered Milford Haven we were now surfing in off the waves, spinnaker up and Mr Etec getting all excited. " 7.5" he shouted, "8.9 on that one" The tiller was vibrating under my hand and beads of sweat ran down my neck, but I kept smiling!

The run up the Haven to Hobbs Point was quite serene and uneventful until we finally arrived at my swinging mooring and disaster struck. While trying to re inflate the tender I pulled a little to vigorously on the pump handle and it snapped off! Plan B was put into action and we slipped the mooring to drop BFG off at the quay so he could get his tender from the club to come back out and rescue us.

Jumbuck was home, back to the club where she once sailed many years ago and before I had even developed an interest in boats, but that's another story.

The Early Days

She was standing all alone away from all the other vessels, high up in the harbour of Solva,
Pembrokeshire when I first viewed her. Having earlier that day visited Boatshed Wales and asked Alan if they had anything for the beginner. I immediately felt she was right for us and with the wife in agreement that all it needed was some TLC, an offer was placed and accepted that same day and the journey began. All we had to do was get her back to my own mooring at Pembroke Haven Yacht Club, Hobbs Point, Milford Haven, a seven hour sail away and I'd only crewed twice on a good friends UFO 27! A plan was needed and some experienced crew who knew a lot more than I did. Tides and weather were studied with diligance over the next few weeks and while we waited for them to be in our favour a little TLC was lavished upon her.

Back in July 2007 I apparently became a gentleman when I made the decision to switch from power boats to sail. I hope to build on this blog my journey through the black art of halyards, sheets, luffs, leeches, tabernacles and many more sailing terms of which meant nothing to me in those early days! Enjoy the trip as I add to the story when time permits.