As the number and experience of members continue to grow, the club has begun to organise more cruises further afield. These start from ports or marinas more distant from London, requiring extra time to reach the boat at the start. This is more than compensated for by the chance to experience a range of unfamiliar and beautiful coastlines.
Note that prices exclude travel to and from the cruise start/finish location.
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'Hold me! Hold me!' Screamed Jeremy as he went over the side head first towards the water. John had indeed grabbed his legs and was holding on – but was laughing so much he was struggling to pull him back!
The rest of the crew were also in hysterics at poor Jeremy's predicament but did manage eventually to haul him back on board!
You may think the crew very frivolous laughing at a man overboard situation – so I'll explain.
We had set off from Plymouth the day before along the beautiful Cornish coast. The sun was shining and after some complex tide calculations decided to go to Polperro for a spot of lunch and hopefully pick up a buoy there.
We nudged in closer and closer, with sheer rocks on either side and arrived at a buoy – 'Who has got the boat hook? Quick! What boat hook? We hunted everywhere! Our Bavaria 44 came complete with bow thruster – but no boat hook! Fortunately a similar yacht was already moored and we exchanged lines and went alongside.
After a few beers, lunch, warm sunshine, beautiful setting, our neighbours blew up their dinghy and were venturing to the heart of the rocky shore – funny place to go...... oh! they were retrieving their boat hook!
Once back on board they kindly lent us their electric pump, and soon the boys were rowing us ashore to the historic fishing harbour of Polperro. First stop was of course the Blue Peter Inn, followed by the ice cream shop.
From Polperro we headed west to Fowey (pronounced Foi, as I was sternly told by the water taxi driver).
The plan was to pick up a mooring in Fowey and head into town for dinner. But of course no boat hook!! Which is where our man overboard came in. Jeremy gallantly volunteered to lean over the side and be a human boat hook... needless to say he failed!
Ian then concluded he could go feet first and actually stand on the buoy (4 ft wide flat topped buoy) and get the line through that way – success! And off we went to join our fellow LCSC boat skippered by James Alsop. The Ship Inn had made a real effort to accommodate us all and it was a splendid meal. Menu selection was admirably assisted by Amanda calling out the specials to much applause.
The following day we headed off to Falmouth via Helford river for lunch. In the river of course we needed a buoy! Now these buoys were small and round – no way you could stand up on them. The crew were all umming and ahhing about how we were going to pick up the buoy, when Tim said 'well go on then, someone climb onto the transom (bathing platform) and I'll reverse up to it!! Such a simple solution – we all laughed at yesterday's antics!
We continued on into Falmouth and rendezvoused again with James' yacht, and another excellent dinner.
This was a really great weekend – great sailing, challenging navigation, beautiful scenery, superb restaurants and of course great company. It was well worth the long journey to Plymouth where we started from.
Tim and I drove down, the others took the train. Rod was delighted to discover on his train there was a hen party going on – unfortunately, unlike John who was in the middle of it – Rod was 3 packed carriages away and couldn't move!
A big thank you to Caroline Farrar for organising the trip.
Skipper:Tim Waite, Crew: Jenni Waite, Jeremy Clark, Ian Wild, Kanthi Ford, Alison Clark, John Rennison, Emma Ascroft, Mark Lavender.
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