(When you find out all the jobs you need to do on your boat!)

Summer is coming and the weather felt kind enough for us to have our first cruise out into the Solent on our little 30 ft yacht Sancerre.

Last year was a bit of a disaster with so many things that needed sorting on the boat, we ended up with new sails when the original 1960s ones shredded after they were cleaned and dried out too well over the previous winter. Then we had a rather bizarre afternoon when we went to re fuel and had not appreciated that, since the boat had been re fitted over the winter, the yard had not bothered to re attach the fuel inlet with the fuel tank so we merrily pumped a load of fuel straight into the bilge…..that was a smelly afternoon spent cleaning it out.  Consequentially we ended up hardly sailing her at all last season.

So this year we went out to our swinging mooring on the Hamble, not far from the Pink ferry terminal in Warsash, with some trepidation. She’d been out for most of January and February on the hard at Universal where my husband had anti fowled her, changed the prop and checked her over for anything that needed fixing, however it’s never until you’re back in the water that you really know what works and what has decided to be “difficult”.

Encouragingly the engine started (2nd time) and everything seemed to be ok, apart from the nav lights and deck instruments which wouldn’t play ball (who needs them?!).  We were supposed to have some head lining replaced (that hadn’t happened) and the windex didn’t seem to be interested in wind direction (finger seemed to work fine)

We decided to bring her into Stone Pier Yard where our very kind marina manager and friend Henry let us have a berth for the night so we could sort her out ready to set sail the next day.  To my surprise (and relief) my husband admitted that we really need to keep her in the marina if we are to use her as much as we should, it seems to be the only way you can keep an eye on things.  A swinging mooring may be a lot cheaper, but it’s always such a palaver when you want to do anything on board.

The next morning it was an easy task to get our gear on and ourselves ready to cast off. The sun was shining, the breeze light and the tide with us as we cruised out of the mouth of the river and turned left for Cowes.

We had a lovely sail over the Solent, a very good night out in Cowes with some fellow boat owning friends and an equally pleasant cruise back the next day, just need to sort that job list now…..