A Wandering Dream.....

The summer was wet and windy. Autumn looks set to continue the same. Now as the cold polar air gets sucked down by the passing depressions it's just getting colder!

Nothing much changes.... or does it? Sitting on the Folkboat “Mistress” during Folkboat week a month or so ago, I was delighted to see my old friends Alan and Jo on Wandering Dream, a Rival 38, quietly nosing up to the quay. I had first met Alan at Palmeira, on the Island of Sal in the Cape Verdes. He and Jo became good friends as we later cruised in company up through the Caribbean.

Friendships renewed, all it took was a phone call. It didn't take much to persuade me!

So it was that with the forecast of wind East force 6 to gale force 8, showers rain later, we slipped from the club pontoon aboard Wandering Dream, destination Lagos, Portugal.....and sunshine!

The tide swept us west, past the Needles, then Weymouth (the sailing venue for the Olympics), and into Lyme Bay. As darkness fell so did the rain, squally gusts of 33+ knots chased us down channel. We surfed the waves under double reefed main and a pocket hanky sized jib. Enough was enough – we hung a left and tied-up in Dartmouth for the rest of the night.