It was so very strange. After we arrived back in Penzance in July 2016, we did not use the boat again for nearly two years.
The boys immediately enjoyed unrestricted water, electricity and internet, and discovered the joys of parties. Suddenly we found that we had teenagers in the house! So much had changed from when we left two years before. Sadly they did not want to go sailing with us, and we were not happy leaving them while we went sailing, so poor Island Swift was a bit abandoned.
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Simon on the helm
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Within a week of landing, Finbar and Lochlann, with help and encouragement from cousin Kesha, were suggesting we revive an old show, CLIFFHANGER, but this time with them performing in it. We cautiously agreed and after just one day's rehearsal we could see that they were all rather good.
So we made a few calls and arranged for some performances for us all. All very last minute, but in the end we pulled together a mini tour of about 10 performances. We got our 7m Mercedes van back on the road, and after two years away sailing Bash Street Theatre was back in business, but this time with a family show. It was great fun performing alongside our boys and cousin Kesha.
They were so good we decided to offer the show for touring again in summer 2017. The highlight of which was performing at Glastonbury Festival. Both boys had been to Glastonbury as youngsters, but it was much more fun as treenagers in a big gang. In 2017 we also developed and toured a new show called Bellevue Hotel. This took so much time and energy, there was little time to go sailing anyway.
Our big adventure seemed a lifetime ago and Island Swift had been sadly neglected. We had her hauled out of the water in November 2017, on Princess Pier in Penazance. But would we ever go sailing again? Should we sell Island Swift? What should our long term plans be? We had no answers to any of this.
This spring everything changed. We realised that our boys were older and more responsible. I hope we are right! We decided to try and go sailing again this summer, between touring. Can we tour our outdoor shows and go sailing in between? We are going to try and find out.
We spent March and April working on Island Swift. Simon rebuilt the engine which was not very happy after water getting in the oil. We changed the stern gland and the cuttlass bearing and completed many other jobs including a complete paint job.
Contemplating sailing as a couple is a big change. We realised that we should re-arrange things downbelow. Changing from a family boat was a bit sad, but had its up-side. We don't have nearly as much stuff on board, and we found that the boat is much faster!
After all the work on the boat, I was desperate to go sailing again, so we made a dash for the Scillies, on the May bank holiday, and the World Gig Championships, where my sister-in-law Isolde was racing.
We had a wonderful sail out to the Scillies. It was a bit foggy to start with, which was nerve racking, with all those ships coming in and out of the shipping zone. But with our AIS, this was a lot less stressful. Then the wind picked up, cleared the fog and Island Swift skipped along at six-and-half knots under full sail! As we approached the Scillies the wind headed us and with Simon on the helm we had a brilliant beat into St Marys under main, topsail and staysail. We realised that we had done so little of this and it is fun.
We then had a wonderful couple of days before heading back to Penzance. What a sight to see all those wonderful gigs rowing in the races. We also learned a bit about gig politics and different techniques of rowing.
Wind was fair for a broad reach back to Penzance. But an hour out from St Marys, just as we were putting on a boom preventer in the swell, something broke! The bolt at the end of the boom, connecting it to the gooseneck sheared right off!
This was our first breakage at sea, and we knew that we should have checked out that bolt previously. After cautiously lowering the main and taking the boom off, we raised sail again and continured back to Penzance boomless. This worked fine and we had a wonderful sail into the bay.
The next day Simon spent 6 hours drilling out the broken bolt. Six hours, a broken drill and many broken drill bits, but it's all fixed now and we are waiting to sail round to the Helford where we have a mooring for the summer.
Looking forward to more sailing, Falmouth Classics and maybe Douarnenez Festival!
But first we have to change focus and work on our show, Bellevue Hotel to get it ready for touring this summer.
May 2018
