The “first day”

So today we officially “left”. Actually we flew from Germany to Scotland last week and spent the week at Ardfern Yacht Center working on the final preparations to the boat.

In a brisk wind we reversed in to the marina pond and then spent half an hour trying to escape. No matter what I tried the boat would not turn her nose up in to the wind. This was the dreaded “Rustlers won’t go backwards” syndrome that every one warns about. Eventually she was facing to the entrance and we headed for the refuelling jetty to “fill her up” with 111 liters of diesel. After a little bit of being “blown around” we managed to berth to the pontoon. Stuart McDonald came over and thanked us for the entertaining show in the marina and politely asked if we were aiming for the fuel jetty or if we had just taken refuge here. He then congratulated us on achieving our aim without causing any damage.

Getting away from the fuel jetty was less difficult as we now realised that going aft in to the wind and doing anything else forwards was the only practical solution. So we headed off in to Loch Craignish and motored three miles against the wind before unfurling the genoa and sailing much faster back to “the pool”. One small disaster was when we were trying to roll away the genoa and the block we had fitted fell apart. None the less, we were sailing. Our sailing adventure has begun

In the pool we picked up a buoy for the night and closed the log after about five nautical miles. It might not have been far but we are now opening a bottle of wine to celebrate.