Gerunuk Delivery

Yesterday I went to Brixham and sailed Gerunuk back to Dartmouth and up to Totnes for her survey later this week. The owner had very trustingly let us sail her under his insurance in order to get the survey carried out while he was away in France. If all goes well she will be kept on the hard for the winter at the Baltic Wharf boat yard where I will be able to carry out some work on her. She is in very good condition already, however some organising needs to be done with the lines, bringing them aft to make suitable for single handed sailing, as well asother safety equipment etc.

We set out at 9am to Brixham where we saw Gerunuk lying in the morning sun. It was a cold and crisp morning with some definite excitement in the air! I could not contain a huge childish grin as we moored alongside; I opened her up and was itching to get out on the open sea. We rigged her up and got the engine going with remarkable ease considering we had never sailed her before and with the owner being in France he couldn't lend a hand! We tentatively took our first steps out of Brixham harbour and raised the main, with little wind we motor sailed the first bit until the breeze picked up. The wind did fill in later and we had a fantastic sail in 10-15 knots of breeze, upwind, in the groove at a steady 5 knots. She was a beauty to helm, far heavier than anything I have ever sailed before but a real gem once she gets going. The long keel makes manoeuvring difficult, I found this out as we reach Dartmouth and moored alongside the visitor’s pontoon to meet Phil Scoble from the local newspaper. It was a real eye-opener for me as I was used to spinning a J80 on the spot, this took far more care in manoeuvring than anything I had ever done before.

After getting some lunch we slipped our lines and slowly made our way up to Totnes. It was a great feeling, working our way up the Dart on a boat I will be going on such an adventure with, Dad and I changing from driving to navigating on the way up the Dart, we had to be very careful as we were sneaking up on a rising tide. Having lived in Dartmouth for 2 years I had never gone up the river to Totnes and was amazed at how beautiful it was. We got to Baltic Wharf without any mishaps and got lifted out and put into a cradle safe a sound. She will be surveyed later this week and if all goes well she will be mine before the week is out!