Personal,  Sailing

Back To Sailing

After over a year living in the marina of Viveiro, I re-discovered that my home can move and yesterday, I took it out for a spin to a nearby anchorage.

My hands where a bit shaky when I texted my friend “On my way!”. You see, I had a fellow sailor coming to visit me for a few days here in Viveiro. We had a lovely time but she had a little bit of a tighter schedule to head towards A Coruna and I did not quite feel ready to leave just yet. So we departed and the next day I asked here where she was. “A beautiful anchorage just 8 nautical miles further west, come by”, she replied.

To occupy my mind and preventing it for finding excuses I immediately started preparing my departure. Taking the sail covers off, setting up VHF, chart plotter and tablet, threw something to drink, my life vest and the bluetooth speaker into the cockpit, started the engine and cast the lines. My heart was racing like the very first time I sailed. My mouth was dry and my body tensioned like a loaded spring. A weird and uncomfortable feeling, but also a well known reaction of my body. It felt like last year when I left Dieppe after a 10 month stay.

And I knew it wouldn’t last long. After I exited the narrow river with my engine now smoothly running for more than 15 Minutes, I gained more and more trust and suddenly it was like I never stopped sailing. I felt comfortable, set the sails, plotted the route and enjoyed every Minute of that short leg. Everything came back to me, including the shear joy of just sailing.

The Anchorage

Barely two hours later, I arrived at the anchorage where my friend was, and was about to drop my anchor for the very first time, when a nasty little cloud decided to soak that poor fella readying the anchor in water. Well done! I proceeded to drop the anchor and everything went smoothly from there on. the electric winch worked like a charm and Serenity was safely on a leash in 5m deep water.

And that is pretty much all I wanted to say. That it was a great little subconscious kick in the behind to get Serenity moving. After some goodbyes and a little swim around the bay, I sailed back to Viveiro to wait for the next best weather window to go further west and then south towards Portugal. 

I really can’t wait to get out there again!

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