Early mistakes

Trevor Martin recalls a testing voyage that taught him almost all he needed to know for the next 20 years of sailing

- Trevor Martin

After years of dinghy sailing and kayaking, I bought a 1969 Snapdragon 24 fin-keeler in Plymouth and we bonded through navigations up and down the River Tamar and around The Sound. Many a happy night was spent on the Yealm, and anchored off Cawsand, along with the occasional trip to Salcombe or Fowey.

Rather than having Draken lifted for the winter from her river mooring at Calstock in Cornwall, I decided to overwinter my Snapdragon at Emsworth marina-in my old stomping ground and nursery sailing classroom of Chichester Harbour, to take advantage of their affordable winter rate. Much had been learnt at Calstock about overhanging trees, vicarious channels switching sides in a parabolic path and rates of the ebb. My first fin keeler had certainly focused the mind!

Passage planning

As the winter of 2021 approached, I laid my plans in what I can only describe self-affectionately as naive optimism. I had done my Day Skipper, updated theory and both the very high frequency (VHF) radio operator and digital selective calling (DSC) update courses, plus a sea survival training certificate. Yet I had the view that Start Point was 'just around the corner' from Salcombe and The Solent wasn't that far either, with lots of places to stop on the way.

So, armed with the knowledge 'go eight miles off Portland, it can get a bit wavy', I set off. I had charts and a new Garmin 128 GPS that I hoped to master en route.

Leaving Calstock, I made for the familiar Yealm for my first night. That was easy. Next morning, I set off for Salcombe on the rising tide. That was easy. From there, I was bound for Dartmouth or Brixham. After crossing the bar and hugging the coast a mile or so off, it got increasingly wavy, so I went offshore a tad more and played rocking-horse at sea.