Lesson Two

 I had been at Poole for no more than a fortnight before I learnt a serious lesson. Read your boat survey carefully and make sure you understand it all.

In the first couple of weeks I had taken my new pride and joy out for a couple of short trips solo. I had even dared to get the Genoa up! Poole harbour is a good place to learn to sail and a place to read the charts carefully and watch the depth gauge. I was beginning to understand the tides too. I probably had three knots of tidal current on the mooring which was tricky if the outboard motor failed in the inflatable tender.

It was high tide and I arrived to take Juliet Jay out for another short trip. I noticed as I approached that she seemed to be sitting in the water very slightly differently but thought nothing more about it. On opening up the washboards I was somewhat shocked to see that there was an inch of water in the saloon. I didn’t panic but there was a certain amount of anxiety!

What should I do? 

‘Paul’ I thought, he might be able to help!

Well Paul came very quickly and we managed to establish where the leak was. He suggested, as we had bilge keels, we could ‘beach her’ nearer the shore as the tide went out. Obvious really! Hamworthy had a firm bottom inshore of my mooring. Luck was on my side again. Paul used the sikaflex I had on board to fill the offending holes and we were dry again. 

The survey had mentioned that the rudder fixings needed tightening up. This I had done but not the ones just on the waterline which I hadn’t noticed. As Juliet Jay rocked on her mooring so these fixings had loosened and with every lap against the hull a small amount of water had entered through the transom. 

This event included a lot of useful lessons, for example I learnt how to use the tender to move Juliet Jay around, drop her anchor and use the kedge anchor. Also the importance of understanding the survey. 

Paul had come up ‘trumps’.

Now Poole harbour is not without its eyes! The Guru had been watching all of this. Or perhaps I should say my Guru.