Way back in the 1960s and 70s I did a little dinghy sailing with the Scouts in Edinburgh. At the end of the 60s I also enjoyed cruising on the West Coast of Scotland on Derek's motor yacht, Tigon. However, I was never that keen about being on the water - I was too scared. WIth age the fear seems to have receded.
After my sub-aqua holiday in Croatia in 2001, when we had lived aboard a boat, Sylvia persuaded me to try sailing again. Since then I have done several courses and have also had holidays with friends on sailing yachts. Here are the details of my main adventures, added to which is sailing on the Chiemsee (often with my sailing club, the DHH).
2002 - I had two trips to the Bay of Biscay that year, both organised through Wifried Krusenkopf's sailing consortium, France-Atlantic. The first was sailing on Wilfried's own Gwenavel (a Hallberg-Rassy 35 in those days). With two other experienced sailors making up the crew, I was very much the ship's boy. And I felt that on the second night out when we sailed from Belle Île to the north coast of Spain. The yacht survived my mishandling and we arrived safely, only to have the Gwenavel stuck high and dry when the tide went out and the river current in the harbour at xxx pushed the yacht onto a sandbank. However, we all survived that excitement too with only our nerves strained and eventually sailed back to Brittany.
- The second sailing holiday, about a month later, was with my friends Sigrid Rudolph-Sprunk and Sylvia Rothe. We sailed on the Noroit, skippered by Loïc Clément.
2003 - Around Easter I went to Slovenia with a group, sailing from Portoroz. For some of the group, including me, the aim was to take the test for the Sportküstenschiffer-schein (≈ Coastal Skipper). We were ably instructed by Gerd Kleinhans of the Segelschule Prien am Chiemsee, so that everyone passed the test.
2004 - I had two great sailing adventures in this year. The first took me with Sylvia, Detlef and Donald to the Seychelles. The fact that we ran aground on a reef the first night did not stop us having a wonderful fortnight there.
- My second sailing expedition in 2004 was even longer. I joined the Endurance at Oban and we sailed the waters off the west coast of Scotland, joining other yachts on the Classic Malts of Scotland cruise. We enjoyed the ceilidhs at the Oban, Talisker and Lagavulin distilleries - and there was great sailing in between too.
- The Classic Malts cruise took a forthnight but that wasn't enough for me. I stayed on the Endurance for another two weeks and sailed to the Bay of Biscay, down through the Irish Sea and past Land's End. Falling into the harbour at Port-Tudy on the Île de Groix didn't dampen my spirits, though it ruined my camera and I lost my wallet.
2005 - In January I sailed in the Caribbean, in the British and US Virgin Islands, with Bobby (skipper), Rhona, Eileen and Donald.
- Instead of a little yacht, in October I sailed from Sicily to Kerch in the Ukraine on the Ukrainian square-rigged sail training ship, the Khersones. You certainly have a great view from the top of the mast! Sadly this was the Khersones last voyage, for various shenanigans have meant that since our trip the ship has been chained up, rotting away in its home port, Kerch. A sad end for a fine ship - perhaps it will sail again someday but I am beginning to doubt it.
2006 - saw another expedition led by Bobby, though this time Donald and I had a yacht of our own, the first time I had skippered. We sailed in Croatia and before my Scottish friends arrived, I had had a week sailing as a passenger on the Excalibur, a steel ketch belonging to Petra and Detlef.
2007 - In autumn I drove down to Elba. At the DHH base there, I studied for and took the test for the Sportseeschifferschein.