HOMEWATERS BIG ADVENTURES, LITTLE PEOPLE

Would a charter in British waters be a happy experiment for Georgie Stocker and her family? Future cruising plans hung in the balance...

- Georgie Stocker

The first evening on board was just like coming home, it felt like we had never been away from life on board and was so wonderfully familiar. Sipping hot drinks in the cockpit under a blanket after an evening swim in glassy water, with the children asleep down below, was just perfect. The sky was pink and seagulls bobbed nearby. Our first passage may have been a mere three miles from Plymouth to Cawsand, but being back afloat was every bit as magical as I remembered.

We looked at each other, slightly frazzled after a day of packing, driving, shopping and coaxing two little ones into lifejackets with all the inevitable meltdowns. Only time would tell whether a week’s charter in the UK would be the end of our future family sailing plans, or the start. Theo and I have always been a team on board, loving the thrill of wind, waves and open horizons, but sailing has changed dramatically for me since having children. I’ve become more cautious, fretting over the angle of heel and imagining the many ways our precious cargo could go overboard.

Still, we were keen to prove to ourselves that we could cruise as a family in the UK, though not without trepidation at the thought of trying to contain our four-year-old son, Reuben, and two-year-old daughter, Lily on board while I was six months pregnant.

I watched the forecast obsessively as the week in June approached, crystallising to promise plenty of wind, but with a Bavaria 36 booked from Liberty Yachts in Plymouth, it was too late to bail out now. We packed everything from buckets and spades to thermals and woolly hats, and as many colouring books and toys as we could cram in. Now, how to wear the children out enough to keep them happy on passage? I had a plan…

A CUNNING PLAN