This was the day that we had been leading up to for the last few months with all the preparation. The boat was stocked with supplies, the crew was as ready as it would ever be and the weather was glorious considering it was a bank holiday!
So at 10.30 am on a bright warm, sunny Faversham morning Cygnet sailed out of the creek..... well motored out actually, and we were on our way. Robert had joined us at Faversham and we set of for the 'shakedown sail'. What a glorious way to spend a day.... messing about on the water.
We decided to make the most of the weatherand kept going by breaking the journey up into 2 hour shifts of helming, standby and sleep. This worked well throughout the first day and it wasnt long before the sun was setting as we sailed past dungeness to a very misty eyed crew member who had spent many a year looking out to see watching the beautiful boats sailing by and thinking how wonderful it must be to be out there!
Night sailing was a wondeful time with such a clear sky that the stars looked so beautiful. Saw a few shooting starts that added to the magic. Cygnet was very kind and carried on uncomplaining whilst the crew took it it turns to catch a few zzz's. Which was fine until Simon woke from his doze to find not only myself tucked up in a bunk but Robert dozing in the cockpit. God bless the autopilot is all I can say. We carried on sailing through tuesday and arrived at Bucklers hard in Beaulieu River relatively relaxed after 32 hours. (Hoping Trackaphone will eventually catch us up of course) Not bad for a shake down sail. We then retired to the pub as all good sailors do to make a list of the things needed on the journey.... this included, one forgotten Bretton Plotter, one hand held compass and one pair of dividers. Well.... cant remember everything now can we
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