Sailing is about the journey, not only the destination. It is an adventure of every moment. From the moment you step out of the house, with all your gears, your supplies, everything you require to last a few days at sea, to the moment you make your way back home and think about your next adventure.
We purchased our first boat, a 36-foot Dufour, a sailing boat. It’s a 2000, so not new, and she has not been looked after very well by his last owner. A lot of work is required to put her back into shape, but that is also part of the pleasure of having a sailing boat. She is now part of the family and requires as much attention as a child. There will be times when the weather would not permit us to go out at sea, these will be the times to look after maintenance, refurbs and upgrades.
But for now, the weather is perfect, and we got the chance to sail out to Fitzroy island and get the hang of our boat, just Fred and me.
As we were not able to sustain the cost of a berth, we decided to have the boat on the Trinity Inlet, and we have arranged to have a dedicated mooring put in place with a 3 tonnes block on the bottom of the river. We had to buy a tinny to get to our boat, our little zodiac (dinghy) is too small to carry all our gears and we got really wet one day on coming back to shore as the ride is bumpy with the incoming tide and wind, and we have a fair ride to do to get to the boat ramp. So, the tinny with more power was needed.
Not only we have a 36-footer, but now we also have a tinny with a 25-horsepower engine, another boat we have to get the hang of it.
First day on our own with the boat, we decided to book a marina berth, to load the boat and get some work done, like cleaning, checking how we were going to install our solar panels and the installation of the netting on the rails to make the boat safe for William (these points will be for another post). Parking a boat in a berth is much harder than we thought. We wanted to park it with the stern facing the pontoon, well after trying that 20 times, we gave up and parked the boat bow facing. Not to mention the very little space we had each time to start our manoeuvres again and again… it was putting a lot of pressure on us, making sure we were not touching the other boats parked around. Somehow, the bow berthing was no struggle at all in one go.
The next day, we sailed out to Fitzroy Island. William was being looked after by family friends, so that we could focus entirely on the boat and to get use to sail just the 2 of us first. We make a good team and communicate really well, which is important. However, we already had an issue on the way to the island, our headsail was not unfurling, we had to sail all the way with just the main sail, and with the very little wind we had, we had to use the motor sadly.
Best part of our journey, being able to go diving from the boat and from the dinghy (we made 2 dives); we also looked at the sunset with a drink in our hand from the boat; and saw the moon rising from behind the island (it was a full moon, so beautiful); then we had a gentle rocking night, which I love and the next morning, the stillness on the island and the clear crisp morning weather I love with the sunrise. These are the moments I only had during liveaboards when going scuba-diving prior having William and wished myself and Fred to live this over and over again even with a little man crawling all over the place. This is what our happiness is about and what we are aiming for with our boat.
So proud of my husband for going all the way in and making the necessary steps to become a good and safe captain; working towards a life on the ocean is not only a dream now, it’s becoming a reality. We do step into the unknown all the time, we challenge ourselves all the time, but nothing would change if were not taking risks. I am not talking about taking risks with safety, but mostly financially, work career and securing our future for the whole family. You do not take risks when it comes to safety, you take all the precautions and study well your options beforehand, you communicate and think ahead.
I have been told and well aware of sailing being an adventure of every moment, you never know what will come next, but you have to be prepared in taking the challenge that comes ahead. On our return to our mooring the next day, we struggled to catch our mooring on the river. We did not prepare a longer mooring line for us to catch easily with the boat hook. So here I am, trying to catch the buoy and lift it up to attach it to the cleat. The buoy has already some weight, add to that the 3 tonnes block on the bottom of the river it is attached to, I couldn’t get it up. We went back and forth, around and manoeuvre 20+ times, it took us over an hour to finally get it. I jumped into the tinny we had attached and from there I could get to the buoy and finally secure our boat. All this in moving boats, with wind gales and incoming tide. With lots and lots of patience, we finally made it. I lost our boat hook in the process, and the tinny made some scuff marks on the hull.
What we have learned from this trip, to get more fenders if we want to avoid more marks on our boat; attach a longer mooring to our buoy for easy pick up and quick attachment to the cleat; patience in every moment, when things are taking an hour, double that just in case.
Prior to this trip, we also experienced being out of fuel in our zodiac in the middle of the river, with no spare petrol jerrican onboard and no rowers. After 10 minutes, someone saw us and kindly towed us back to the boat ramp. It all sounds silly especially now that we go back on this memory, but trust me, now that this has happened, it won’t happen again.
When you have so much to think about, you sometimes miss little details and usually the once that makes the most sense, so from now on, we will be also working on checklists. It is so quick to check if everything is there, everything that needs to be done is done, call them cheat sheets if you want, I like the idea of simplifying where I can.
For that head sail, best would be to go up there ourselves with a bosun chair, but we are not quite ready to make that step yet. So, we’ll have to connect with other sailors around to find a person to go up there.
That’s it for now… Thanks for reading and following our journey.
Journey to Freedom Sailing 