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We
listed a set of qualities that we would require in a first yacht which
included performance, comfort and safety. The smallest suitable
yacht appeared to be the Moody 31 and it would need a lot of extras.
We had seen one at the Southampton Boat Show a few years earlier but by
now Moody had stopped building them. I saw one advertised on the east coast. The yacht was in excellent condition and
it had the majority of our required extras. We didn't even haggle about
the price and paid a deposit on the spot. We arranged for her to be berthed at Shotley Point Marina.
At the time I
probably would have had difficulty chartering any yacht from a reputable
charter company. I was aware that my experience in tidal waters was
limited but I felt that I was an adequate helmsman and I enjoyed
navigating. Provided that we were cautious initially, we should be safe
and not too much of a hazard to others. My main initial worry was the
lock at Shotley, but I found this usually fairly straightforward; I have
seen as many experts as novices in difficulty there.
In our first season our only really anxious moments were caused by some inaccurate weather forecasting, which I correctly chose to ignore. We had planned to sail from Burnham into the Medway and the forecast appeared to be favourable. However I was worried by the gale warnings in the west, so I decided to return home. Ultimately the decision proved to be wise as the wind rose to 35 knots with some very unpleasant Thames Estuary seas. I have always been very safety conscious and that day I was delighted that I had in no way skimped on the seaworthiness of our yacht. We returned to Shotley safely, though rather nervous.
The following year we made our first foreign passage. We had previously met another couple on a flotilla and we decided to invite them to join us. Lesley was often subject to sea sickness, and we were keen not to be limited by lack of manpower. We also did not have an autohelm and would need to steer all the way. We had a decca but I had hardly ever used it and it would be our first night sail, and almost the first time we would be out of sight of the land. We sailed across to Ostend with Shotley Point Yacht Club. We had a good outward sail in F 4-5 winds over the beam, although Lesley spent much of it hallucinating under the influence of the seasickness medication! Unfortunately the weather worsened while we were in Ostend and blew up to a gale. We were forced to abandon T'Narra there and return home by ferry, so that I could return to work. The following weekend we were able to sail her home.
As our experience increased over the next few years we made several more foreign trips. The Schelde estuary was a common destination, but we also sailed up to the Isselmeer and down as far as the Channel Islands in her. But during a wet holiday in the Netherlands in 1997 we began to hanker for a bigger boat. The pound was very strong and we whiled away some wet days browsing around various Dutch brokers. We didn't find anything we liked, but the seed had been sown and when we returned to England we started looking around in earnest for a bigger boat.
