Boating adventure

Continued from Sailing yet again... Let me say up front here that anyone who says 'she's an old boat on an old trailer so what can you expect' is not aware that we have towed Eun na Mara many miles across the country so were not expecting anything to go wrong this time. But it did.

We were about fifty miles into the boat delivery journey, still en route to Glasgow, and driving up to the highest point of a mountain pass known as the 'Rest and be Thankful' when the unthinkable happened. The boat trailer shed one of its wheels.

I just caught a glimpse of it bouncing down the road in my rearview mirror and thankfully was only driving slowly at the time so was able to pull over to the side without any difficulty. A quick glance at the damage told me we were not going anywhere. All four of the studs fixing the wheel to the hub had sheared completely and the wheel itself had disappeared into a ditch at the side of the road. At the moment this happened there was one car behind us, waiting to overtake, and thankfully the wheel's flight path had missed it - a great relief - but the more important question was what to do next. We were completely stuck, on a main road, with cars and lorries rushing past at speed although fortune had smiled on us a little as it had happened on a fairly straight stretch of road. We immediately switched on our hazard lights then got on the phone to try to find a recovery firm who could pick us up. We knew immediately that this would not be a roadside repair as the wheel bolts had sheered and new ones would need to be sourced then replaced.

One important factor for us was to keep ourselves safe. We were now blocking one of the two lanes so when vehicles approached simultaneously from opposite directions one always had to pause until the way ahead was clear. Simple enough, one might think, but many drivers do not feel they should have to slow down and will try to sneak past by accelerating if they think they can get by despite this putting them head on to the oncoming traffic. Any misjudgement would result in a crash so sitting comfortably in our van was not the safest place for us to wait for the recovery truck to arrive. Instead we stood on the verge, a place from where we could always dive into the ditch if the need arose.

Then again, thinking safety, we also called the police to report what had happened and around thirty minutes later they turned up, blue lights and all. Once they had parked behind us we felt much safer and we shared a good jovial natter with them until the recovery truck arrived half an hour later. This came fully equipped for the job and in minutes they had our trailer loaded on their truck.

Their base was in Dumbarton on the outskirts of Glasgow but rather than follow them in our van we turned around and drove home as we knew the repair would take a while.

Which brings me to the next problem. The garage told us they could not source replacement wheel studs (like headless bolts) of the right size for our trailer. Only when these were fitted would we be able to resume our boat delivery journey. Fortunately from the comfort of our home we eventually managed to source these from a company many miles away in England but we then had to wait for them to be delivered by post. How long this might take on the run up to Christmas was anyone's guess.

Eventually we got an email message telling us the day and the time that our parcel would be delivered which meant we could plan our trip south again. But when the day arrived, nothing. All plans were on hold whilst we waited for the simplest of things, a small parcel containing a few bits of metal. Thankfully our boat buyer was a very understanding man and he was willing to let things stand until the boat arrived at his door and in any event we received seemingly endless weather warnings about rain and strong winds affecting our route so we began to think that perhaps the gods were actually working in our favour when they pulled the wheel off the trailer.

A second email arrived with an new delivery date and the online parcel tracker now showed the package as having arrived in our village, a cause for some optimism. But by mid afternoon this had faded. Fortunately, however, we have real human beings who run our local post office and by late afternoon I get a telephone call saying our package had been located. Having picked this up we drove off immediately so we could present the new wheel studs to the Dumbarton garage first thing the next day, which we did. Sadly however this soon brought us to problem No.2, the absence of wheel nuts, the originals having been lost when the wheel flew off, and strangely our garage couldn't source these either so we had to buy them ourselves from a nearby shop. They were not quite the right type but they would do.

Finally by ten o'clock in the morning we were on the road, a trailer full of boat following closely behind us. We now had some seven hours of motorway driving to negotiate and, our own speed being limited, this put us in the company of an endless line of heavy lorries belching fumes all over us, for hour after hour. It was after dark when we eventually arrived at the Derbyshire home of our new boat owner and carefully reversed the trailer into his drive. At this point we were totally exhausted, miles from home, and feeling unwell after hours of exposure to motorway madness. Living where we do we are immune from this. Our roads are bendy single carriageway things, the nearest motorway being around one hundred miles distant. We had agreed to do all this to make ourselves boat-free, which was always the plan, but do not ever again want to go through the process that got us here.

After staying the night near Leeds, my brother having offered to feed us and put us up for the night, the journey back home, minus boat and trailer, was uneventful although again tiring as we met strong winds, heavy rain showers and yet more lorries. But at least all our wheels stayed on!

Sailing yet again - or not

Our leisure activities change over time. Up to about a year ago I was looking forward to spending more time on the water, sailing on our brave little boat, but since then, after cycling around Holland (not to mention the preparation for the trip) taking up so much of our lives, sailing has been little more than an occasional temptation.

Then, quite unexpectedly, a friend who lives locally asked if I would be prepared to help him with rigging a Mirror dinghy which he had recently acquired. Why me, I asked myself, when I have no experience at all with this particular craft. Well it seems that the many years spent on and around boats has given rise to a body of knowledge that I did not know I had and without me realising it I can apply this to water craft of all shapes and sizes.

The Mirror is a classic of the dinghy sailing world, a little under eleven feet feet long with red sails that distinguish it uniquely. The design goes back to 1962 and although it is still popular as a class racing boat it is stable and comfortable enough to make it a good choice for beginners and for those wanting a pleasurable day out on the water.

So this is how I ended up helping to rig a Mirror dinghy in our friend's garden, learning as I went along but at the same time dipping into my own accumulated knowhow. What came next was inevitable - an invitation to sail the boat to help an inexperienced sailor and friend.

Our village being a natural harbour we are blessed with a sailing club which has its own fleet of small dinghies ('Toppers', for those who know these things) and Friday afternoon is the time the local youngsters go out sailing. Rescue boats are on hand to support this so it seemed sensible for us to join them in the Mirror for our first sail. Having towed the boat there from the garden where she was stored we then spent some time getting her rigged, dealing with all the ropes and shackles that need to be attached, before rolling her down the slipway into the water. We had not, however, picked the ideal day for our first sail. The wind was quite fresh, gusty blasts coming in from the west straight onto the slip, which presented difficulties getting launched with both of us on board. But somehow we managed it and spent the next hour pottering about in the harbour entrance, tacking and gybing without totally capsizing. A Mirror dinghy is really a little too small for two adults to sail in and it can require quick reactions to keep the boat upright when a strong gust fills the sails and body weight has to be moved quickly to balance. But we were learning and did improve as time went on.

Once back on shore and packed away we both agreed that the wind had been too much for us and we really needed a light wind day if we were to make further progress. Two weeks later a seemingly perfect forecast tempted us out again but by the time we had everything rigged the wind had freshened so this second attempt was abandoned. Then finally we had a day when the wind was light and it came to us from the east, a much kinder direction for launching off the slip. It was also scorchingly hot so a few hours on the sea, where it was cooler, was quite welcome. This time we tacked about in the harbour mouth, each tack becoming smoother as we each learnt the movements needed when we moved our weight from one side of the boat to the other. Finally we ran back into the harbour with the warm wind at our backs.

By this time is had occurred to me that what my inexperienced friend needed most was to handle the boat on his own, without me cluttering up the Mirror's tiny cockpit. He still needed direction, however, so I worked out that if I moved forward and sat in front of the mast, facing towards the rear, my weight would be centralised and the cockpit would be free for him to use. This worked quite well and by the end of an hour or so on the water he was sailing quite confidently with only the occasional word of direction from me. We even managed between us to bring the craft back onto the sailing club slipway in such a way that we could both step off without tipping the boat over and getting totally soaked. Progress indeed.

Sailing opportunities like this might arise again but the bigger question facing us is how much use we are making of our own boat and whether this is the right time to sell up. Part of this conflict is due to the place we now live. Tarbert is on a sea loch, the longest in Scotland, and on each side the hills rise up steeply to create an easy route for the wind so that it generally flows lengthwise along the loch or comes in gusts over the hills. This can make for uncomfortable sailing in a small boat when you are just out for a short day sail. Or maybe this is simply justification for saying our lives have moved on. For both of us this is a massive life-changing decision as one boat or another has been a part of our lives for most of our time together.

Whatever the reason, after much consideration, we very bravely put Eun na Mara up for sale, although we soon discovered that the second hand boat market was almost dead. It was only after many months and several price reductions that we finally struck a deal and we are pleased to say she is going to someone who plans to use and care for her. All that remained was for her to be delivered to her new home, something we had agreed to take on as part of the deal.

She had been loitering on her trailer in a neighbour's garden since the summer so we we start planning for the journey by removing her cover and made sure everything is on board and lashed down. We attach the lighting bar and check the tyres are pumped up ready to set off the next day. Not for the first time the remoteness of our home comes at a cost as quotes for professional delivery run into thousands so the easiest option is for us to hitch up and do the drive ourselves, to Derbyshire in far away England. We made a plan which involved fitting the delivery into two days with an overnight stop en route but then, fifty miles into the journey things started to go wrong.... Continued.