admin Date , Tuesday April 21 , 2026
The day began early, as most boat days seem to do. There is
something about sleeping on a yacht that makes you wake up at odd times,
usually when someone else moves, a rope creaks, or your brain suddenly
remembers that the toilet is not quite as convenient as the one at home.
The light was beautiful first thing in the morning, so I
took the opportunity to experiment with some UV and infrared photography. This
is not, strictly speaking, part of the RYA Competent Crew syllabus, but it is
very much part of my personal syllabus, which appears to include sailing,
filming, photography, and trying not to fall into harbours while carrying
expensive equipment.
Breakfast was a fairly relaxed affair. Tadek went shopping
and asked what we needed. We ordered three grapefruits and some batteries for
the GPS.
He returned with fresh bread, various essentials, and the
requested batteries. Unfortunately, the batteries were zinc carbon ones, which
are not really what you want for a GPS. They are the sort of batteries that
look as though they might power a small clock for a few days, but are unlikely
to impress a hungry navigation device for very long.
Still, fresh bread appeared, so morale remained high.
John paid the mooring fee, which came to 60 euros. Another
reminder that sailing involves wind, water, ropes, navigation, and the constant
gentle disappearance of money.
The morning’s main exercise was side-to berthing practice
with Steve and Judy filming us. Steve seemed to be everywhere at once,
including in the dinghy, while Judy stayed on board recording the action.
Tadek demonstrated the manoeuvre first, and then John had
three goes. After that, Emily took the helm and had her turn.
We put all eight fenders on one side of the boat, which made
us look rather like a yacht preparing for battle with a harbour wall. I was
stationed at the bow, responsible for throwing the rope and calling out the
distance to the wall.
This involved a countdown from about 15 metres, so the helm
could judge the closing speed. From the back of the yacht, the person steering
cannot always see exactly how quickly the bow is approaching the wall. From the
bow, however, you can see everything very clearly, including the harbour wall
coming towards you with increasing enthusiasm.
It is a useful job, but one that does make you think
carefully about your final words.
Later, Tadek organised a race to a cove. As we reached the
headland, we were told that we would put up the jibs and race Papaye, the
catamaran.
This sounded very exciting. It also sounded like the sort of
thing that could later be described in completely different ways by both crews.
We set off well. Papaye, unfortunately, appeared to lose the
wind almost immediately, while Petra III carried on rather nicely. Judy later
suggested that we had cheated.
In the spirit of fairness, we tacked in front of them twice
to give them a chance. This may not have been universally interpreted as
fairness. It may have been interpreted as showing off. But from our point of
view, we were simply being generous.
The catamaran, however, was too slow on this occasion, and
Petra III sailed on towards glory, or at least towards lunch.
