Excuse my French.

After 3 months of repair, adjustment, poor weather, I finally get the boat out on the water.

It is a truly glorious day, bright sunshine, not too hot but shorts and Tshirt all the same. The engine starts on command, I get the sails up with no difficulty and off we go. There is only one snag; there is very little wind. To be honest, this is a good thing as I would much prefer to amble along on my first outing rather than battle it out on a heavily heeled boat in high wind.

I motor out and once clear of the harbor, I stop the engine and silently ease out towards China.

The Norfolk gypsy is a comfortable boat as you can put your back against one gunwale and stretch out your legs onto the lockers on the other side of the cockpit. You are nearly lying down as you watch your legs frazzle.

There is now a bit more wind and we tear along at 2.5 knots. A 30ft boat motors out of the marina and comes past. She finally raises sail when she is 200 metres ahead of me. I thought she would race away but in fact I gained on her! Such fun.

Here is a very bad clip. I updated the operating system on my Mac last week and this brings a new version of IMovie. I can’t work out how to use it! Apologies.

So good to be out on the boat again! Lots of adventures coming up.

P.S. I have since watched some “How to use IMovie” videos on YouTube. The clip is not so bad now.