The alarm buzzed, I was about to hit the snooze as I normally did, but then I remembered why it was chiming at this ungodly hour. 04:30 who’s idea was this, oh yeah mine…
I wasn’t under my normal duvet on a plush double matress with a feather pillow, I was twisted up in a sleeping bag, with another spare sleeping bag in it’s travel bag as my pillow.
I slept relatively well up forrad in the v-birth only stirring a few times in the early hours in anxious excitement for the day to come. Sliping my alarm off I noticed another alarm going at the aft of the boat, and the sounds of movement, well atleast Dad’s up as well. It was is fault as much as mine the plan for this Satuday’s early rise had been the result of a planning weekend a couple of weeks previous , we were going through the calendar to get some dates in for building up my nautical miles and getting me familiar and comfortable with handling the boat.
“You could get a quick ‘Round the Island’ in at some point if the tides were right, have a look at the tides in the summer” working back from august it soon dawned that the reason the round the island this year was in early June was due to where Saturday morning tides best fell for a reasonable time morning start. Looking at some of the dates we already had in we realised that the weeked 7th – 9th of March whilst a little early could be an ideal oppertunity. The tides were certainly feasible, as we got to within a week weather forecasts were looking promising so I practiced drawing up a passage plan and we talked through the details Wednesday evening to make sure we had a solid plan, there it was set we would aim to leave the berth at Ocean Village at 05:00 get round the island and get back in time for a late dinner.
Now the day was finally here, last night I had driven straight down from work and over dinner and a beer we had talked through the finer details for the morning and prepped a few last final things for a smooth departure. Jumping out of the V-berth, up forrad, I spent a penny, it is nice to have your own loo on a boat a rare luxury on a 36 footer, I stood up after and opened the front hatch and propped it up. I find this easiest as I am too tall and so its most comfortable to stand in the middle facing the front of the boat hanig locker to my left toilet and sink to my right and the V-berth infront of me, the top of my just popping out the hatch. My eyes are just at a level where I can peer out at the marina, it wasn’t raining and there was signs of a breeze, Win!
I use this full height area to get dressed, knowing it’s going to be a long day out in the weather, the time is now to get the layering system needed right, it was due to be around 10-13 degrees and whilst the sun might break through there would be cloud cover and between 10-20knts of wind. I start with stretching my legs bringing them up on top of the loo cover and putting on my socks making sure they come up as igh as possible before pulling on a set of running leggings as a baselayer. Doing it this way round locks the socks in place under the leggings and helps prevent them moving around on a long day like today. I throw on a light weight short sleeve summer walking top to create an area that will wick well and breath close to the skin before putting a thermal longsleeve high collar baselayer over the top.
I then pull two extra layers out of my back for later in case I get cold as well as a thin snood, then pull my trousers on manageing to head but the edge of the front hatch opeing as I do “ouch f*cker, thats a good start to the day”, I can hear dad moving around sounds like he is having a sink wash and brushing his teeth, it reminds me to do the same so I grab my wash bag and pull out the sink to brush my teeth at the same time putting some deodorant on. I’m pretty much ready and so turn to getting my lifejacket out the locker, putting on my watch, stowing my loose items like my kindle and keys in my waterproof bag and zipping my phone and gloves in my bright yellow rain coat pockets.
I grab my boots out the locker and open the door to the saloon, chucking my boots, snood and extra layers on the saloon seat just under the mast. With everything done up forrad, I move bits to where I think they won’t move and then start my checks, seacocks on the loo check, seacock on the sink, I think to myself dad doesn’t normally bother as it’s so high up it should be fine. Ahh hatch, I close it up properly and make sure to push the sliding handle wedges into place to make sure it is fully shut. The kettle is on and I prep two mugs for tea and my yeti thermos for a coffee I will want that later and won’t necesarrily want to spend time below to get my caffiene fix.
In planning last night we agreed that we would get out of southampton water and make our porridge on the run to hurst castle, thus there was nothing more to do then run through the rest of the checklist.
Hatchs, Seacocks, Instruments, Loose items stowed my favourite loose item stowage is the use of the microwave to store plastic tubs, and the space in the cupboard infront of the microwave for the kettle. Dads getting geared up, safety straps are in place and he has closed the rear compartment hatches, and rear heads seacocks, stowing his loose gear in the aft cabin and heads as he goes.
He goes above and we stow the washboards, and he starts taking the shore power off whilst I remove the boom stay line we put on at mooring to keep the boom out the way, whilst he is on shore we half up the mooring lines. With both back aboard he calls down into the saloon from the cockpit “What final checks should you do before we start the engine” I know he has already checked the oil before I got there, I verbally run through the general checklist, getting to it being in nuetral and not being able to think of anything else. “You need to take the steering lock off and check for loose lines” I have already visually checked it’s in nuetral and he goes to remove the steering lock.
Due to various things being currently worked on the engine start is in a unique location, all the way at the aft of the boat at the foot of the aft cabin on the bed. It’s on a wire out from the void behind. It’s normal location up in the rear of the cockpit is taped off, the plan is to make a 3d space that fits the curve of the boat better and stops the control panel from cracking, as well as a new acrylic cover as the old one had completely crazed and cracked. However this hasn’t been done yet and to keep sailing whilst this work occurs its been relocated to the aforementioned foot of the aft cabin berth. This requires me to squeeze sideways throw the aft cabin door, I only ust fit with my gear on boats weren’t designed with baby silver back gorillas in mind, before lightly launching myself head first and commando crawling to the foot of the berth, finding the panel and turning the key for the most agregious alarm to sound until you hit the starter button. I do this and as I get to the end of the berth I remeber that I didn’t check the battery kill switch now located where my feet are and hope that it has been left on. It has and as I hold the start button for what seems life forever the big diesel lump churns over and over attempting to fire before finally coming to life.
I get a call down from the cockpit to log the engine hours and I take the oppertunity to also make sure that when dad had turned the instruments on and started the track it had in fact started. The raymarine plotter, really a crap android tablet, with some special buttons and features is a nightmare! the menu’s have been designed and layed out by an intern who choose one half of the locations whilst on ket and the other whilst on speed and then rolled a dice for good measure. There are two routes to get everywhere but never quite to the setting you want, and whilst the GPS and AIS start up, after everything has turned on, it sits there having a siezure between the two nomatter how many times you hit okay and tell it to be quiet whilst they get there relative electronics up and running and locked in. But ofcourse it must be good because you can watch netflix on it and install apps, just what you want a chartplotter for… the raymarine track is started and I log the engine hours. Whilst doing this I am reminded to also put the steaming light and bow and stern lights on and with this, we’re ready!
I head up and take the helm and stern line, realising we had missed a rear spring line I quickly pull the boat forward against the spring to remove it and whilst dad walks forward to take middle spring off and take control of the bow line. I cast the rear off and put us in gear as Dad casts the bow off, theboat is parked in the berth aft too so it’s a straight chug out and round the finger to get out and we are off.
Dad brings the fenders in as I navigate out of Ocean Village, just outside the entrace on the way upto dock head we sort the lines and I pass the helm across to go forward to practice heave the main at the mast. After having a little snag on a reefing line caught on a clutch it went straight up, Dad whilst single handed sailing has found this much faster for getting the main up then using the winch and he normally does this himself with helm put onto autopillot. Having pulled up the main on the central winch several times a couple of years ago, I agree with his conclusion that hand over handing it at the mast is much easier and faster whilst also being easier to see what the main sheet is doing between the jackstays whilst you go. Motor sailing out of dockhead in the dark we round to port onto southampton water and unfurl the jib and we kill the engine, it certainly different coming out of there in ther dark and the light pollusion from the dock side is horrendous for your ngiht vision with lots of high brightness floodlights.
We had aimed to setoff at 05:00 by by the time we actually left the berth I noted the time was 05:15 and now went down below to enter this on the ships log. We sail down southampton water the next mark of importance is Calshot spit, we deal with some early morning traffic between a couple of big ships, ferries and some form of pilot vessel as we do the dawn starts to really break and we get the first indication of how much of a beautiful day this will be, it is not yet warm and the breeze is crisp but it feels fresh and the sky is clear and a reasonable breeze can be felt. I was still charged with anxiety and adrenaline for what the day will hold, whilst I had wanted to snooze this moring the moment I jumped out fo the v-berth that was it, I was pumped and focused for what the day had to bring and now as I sat in the cockpit we were underway and all being well we would make it round the island before I would see southampton water again.
Approaching the entrace to the Hamble, another sailing vessel appears and cuts across infront of a couple of ferries to the calshot spit whilst we hold on to go behind them. It looks like they are well crewed with atleast 4 people on board and around the 33 ft mark, we jest at what there plan is for the day. Are they a training vessel out for practice or possibly doing the same as us, little did we know they would be our competition for the day…
After passing Calshot spit we pass across the channel towards the Royal Yatch Squadron and the Gurnard boy so that we properly cross where the start line would be for the real Road the Island race, I go down below and add more times to the log, we had made good time and had been at Calshot spit for just after 06:00 this was ideal from a tide point of view so a strong start. Whilst we sailed towards hurst they took the south coast of the mainland whilst we ran closer to the Isle of Wight to try and take advange of the best part of the tide.
It was time to get breakfast on, I went below and got the kettle on for another cup of tea, unfortunately feeling queesy as I do, I have to come back to the hatch and take in the fresh air and centre myself mentally. I manage to do this enough to make porridge taking my time to constantly return to the hatch and breath. Until the porridge is done and as I lean over the pan to server it I get a full breath in of fresh porridge smell, for some reason this set me right and I was suddenly feeling much better though not quite 100%. I sat in the cockpit eating porridge and honey from the pan and drinking my tea as the sun continued to come up behind Dad on the helm, what a glorious morning it was turning into and it was good to feel the warmth of the sun on my face.
I took the bowls below and prepped them with boiling water to soak, grabbing my pre-prepped thermos as I cam back up before taking helm on the final part of the run upto Hurst. Dad headed below to wash up and check the AIS, the boat we were running with was called Crème de la Crème and we were keeping with it for now…
LazyModernTraveler 