Paul

 

“Robert, Robert, I’ve found the boat for you” a firm voice from aloft hailed me.

In my landlady’s barn there had been a fine old folk boat in poor condition awaiting renovation by a keen and talented person. At last Paul had bought it and was doing a fine job. I would walk pass this operation every day on the way to my studio and he was there most Thursdays working on it. We had discussed my new found passion for sailing after my wife had died. 

“eBay......a great boat, ideal for you”. 

He gave me a link to a Moody 27 named Juliet Jay. Well I looked and agreed it looked a nice boat. My initial prejudice at buying a boat on eBay was soon put aside. She was on a pontoon in Brixham in Devon so not too far to go and see her. 

As of course you would expect I fell in love with her. I had over the previous four months seen a host of Hunters, Sadlers and Westerlies. True she was the only Moody I had seen, but as green as I was then, she seemed to be streets better than anything I had seen. She had been well looked after and was for her age in excellent condition. 

So it was that I visited the Brixham marina in November 2009 and fell for Juliet Jay. It was difficult because my recently departed wife was called Juliet. I am not sure whether this had an effect on me or my three children. None of them were very keen on their wayward Father taking up sailing. Expensive, risky and beyond their control!

At the same time I took on a reluctant new crew member for company, Juno pictured below.

She helped me right from the start. My father had been a keen fisherman and said that dogs and fishing did not work well together; this is also true of sailing for some dogs. Juno never really took to sailing, her legs were too long and gangerly. She, like the rest of my family, went along with it under protest and wished somehow I would get over it sooner rather than later.

 Juliet Jay was surveyed by a great guy from Exeter. He came down to Brixham and looked at her secured to the harbour wall afloat and dry. The result, to cut it short was that I became the proud owner of a Moody 27.

Having a bilge keel was to prove a blessing, making me a little bit bolder when I eventually got her to her home mooring in Poole Harbour.

I did a lot of reading about sailing, took a lot of advice from professional and non professional guys. 

I kept her on a pontoon in Brixton until February before sailing her East the 75 odd nautical miles to Hamworthy.  New alternator, starter motor and a host of other improvements in addition to an engine service, the fuel tank and injectors were cleaned. 

I did not feel confident enough to take the trip on my own, so it came about that I asked ‘Paul’ if he would come with me. I would pay him and cover all travel costs.

This he readily agreed to do. How trusting I was, how naive I was, how lucky I was! That’s when someone somewhere looks after us. 

I didn’t know Paul, he just appeared out of nowhere. Yes he had found a sound boat for me. Much later he told me he couldn’t crew on one occasion as he was in court and was likely to be away for several months. Much later I found out that he was about to attend one of Her Majesty’s Prisons for the tenth time due to violent related incidents largely as a result of drink and drugs.

I was Completely oblivious of this as we set off from Brixham one late night in mid February. Yes it was quite cold but we did have appropriate clothing. The weather was good, misty patches, slight or moderate, variable F2. It was important to pass Portland Bill with the tide in our favour. 

This was 2010, there were several oil tankers anchored in Lyme Bay waiting for the price of oil to rise. These were visible from a long way off especially at night with many lights. I had gone down below to make tea and when I came up again I was shattered to see one of these tankers at very close quarters. Paul had steered Juliet Jay right up under the stern of one, the funnel towering hundreds of feet above us. This was not very clever. We were in the lee of her and the sea was oddly choppie. The arch lights lit us up and blinded us, night vision evaporated. 

If your first sailing experience is at night, in February, crossing Lyme Bay with one other guy (an almost total stranger) with a serious violent criminal record, it will put you in good stead for future night passages! 

It was off the Dorset coast that Paul told me how he had lost his last boat. Apparently he was sailing off the beach at Eastbourne when he lost engine power in a F8 gale and his subsequent rescue by the RNLI was show in dramatic detail on BBC live television. He was rather annoyed that they refused to take his boat under tow as it was considered too dangerous. They save lives not boats.

But on this occasion, Paul behaved very well. He didn’t really read charts but relied more on an understanding of navigation buoys. I knew to give Portland Bill a wide berth, finding the Shambles buoy was easy, but the race off St Alban’s ledge and Anvil Point was quite exciting with waves rocking us about in a most alarming fashion. 

We did the whole trip without sail which in retrospect was strange. He could have made it much more comfortable with a little bit of Sail up. We did have a very good plotter and charts and I had done a lot of practice using them, navigation was not a  problem for me but understanding races and tidal currents was new to me. The entrance into Poole harbour is tricky if you don’t know it and haven’t read the pilotage advice. - Three ferries at the same time at the entrance to Poole below.

We found the mooring in Hamworthy eventually and he shot off home quite happily. We had made a very satisfactory passage without any real problem.