Chapter 3

I didn’t know what to expect when I called round to see Wendy. What I saw when she opened the door set the tone. Wendy is fairly tall – about five foot nine, with short, dark, curly hair. When I’ve called to do some work, she’s usually been dressed to accentuate her excellent figure, but not that night. Oh, no. Arran polo-neck sweater, quite loose, cords (baggy) flat shoes ... actual deck-shoes. Not a trace of make-up. Not that it bothered me, I hate it when I get makeup on my shirts. Or my face. Or my hands. Anyway. She invited me into the living-room, sat me down and offered me a drink.

“Thanks! Could I have some of your Bushmills, please – just a little water?”

When she came back, some time later, with my drink, she was carrying a mug of cocoa. I don’t know about you, but I associate cocoa with boats; in fact, it’s about the only time I drink the stuff, when I’m sailing. Tired out from a hard day lurching about a tilting deck, winching, setting sails, furling sails, and getting facefulls of sea water, being rained on and generally getting chilled to the bone (ah, the joys of sailing in English waters) ... there’s very little better than a mug of hot cocoa. I’ve said it before, what man hasn’t, we may not be very good at picking up the non-verbals, but sometimes the message is so obvious even we can get it, and I was pretty certain I was getting a very definite message. Perhaps more than one.

She began. “Had you any particular plans?”

“Not really,” I said, “We were just going for a jolly about, anchor in quiet places, watch some bird-life, maybe do a bit of fishing. Was there something you had in mind?”

“Well,” she said, “I’ve never sailed the East Coast. South coast, yes, and up the West to the Hebrides in the past, but there’s some places along here I’d love to visit. Pin Mill, Wivenhoe, Walton Backwaters, the Ore and Alde. Any of that would be lovely.”

I spread the charts – Imray C1 and C28. “I only brought the small scale ones,” I said, “ but we can get some ideas and worry about details later.”

I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and Wendy seemed happy too. We didn’t, in fact, make any firm plans. The saying ‘Man proposes, God disposes’ is never more applicable than at sea in a small boat, especially a small sailing boat, but we agreed on an early start from Levington to catch the tide... 0600, to spending some time at sea feeling out the boat, then when the tide turned, deciding where we wanted to spend the night.

“Just a couple of points,” Wendy said, “is there anything you don’t eat?”

“Oh, yes,” I grinned, “raw celery!”

“You don’t like celery?”

“Sorry, but no, I don’t. I’ll put it in a casserole, or soup, but I just don’t like the taste on its own.”

“Oookay ... I can live with that. What about sleeping on board Thursday night?”

“I was intending to. You’re welcome to join the ship any time from about 1700.”

“That’s good. Would you like supper together, say 1930, Thursday?”

“I’d love to. Would you like me to pick you up, or would you prefer to make your own way there?”

“It would make sense to go together, wouldn’t it? I’d like to be there by 1800, if that’s alright.”

“Sounds good! I’ll call for you 1730.”

I left shortly after that, pleased that we’d been so (apparently) comfortable together.

I might have spent the next two days worrying or getting excited ... probably both, but Katryn and I had our hands full. First thing in the morning, Katryn informed me that she’d agreed to a priority job for someone who was selling their house and needed some work doing yesterday if possible. It’s unusual for me to work a full eight hours, let alone ten as both of us did on Wednesday. Katryn dealt beautifully with a succession of joinery problems including a wobbly banister rail and several missing spindles in the balustrade, loose cupboard doors and defective door-latches. As for me ... I got the dirty work. Okay, the dripping taps were not a challenge, but the waste fittings, traps and drains ... how do people let things get into such a state? Then there were the loose ceiling roses ... Not to mention crawling around in the loft to get at the cisterns to replace the ball-valves.

We started early on Thursday, so I could finish by three pm, have a long shower, change and pack before picking Wendy up to go to Levington. Arriving back at my house, Katryn smiled, and said;

“Go, have a whisky, shower and do what you need to do. I’ll put everything away and tidy up. Then, have a great holiday!”

I was at Wendy’s a minute or two early. She emerged from the house with two bags of food, which she put in the back of the car.

“Could you give me a hand? There’s several more bags to come.”

I hopped out of the car and followed her back to the house. It took two trips each to move everything including her own kit. I did wonder where it was all going to go...

Wendy seemed to be positively bubbling with excitement. We drove out along the A14, turning off a couple of miles outside Trimley on to the old Ipswich road, then turning off again along the narrow road to the marina. The water was high and we found Curlew bobbing alongside the pontoon, which was almost level with the pathway. It still took half an hour to transfer everything from the car to the boat before finding a parking space.

An Eventide is not a large boat. For the technically minded, she has a single-chine construction in marine ply over oak frames. About twenty-eight feet long, the bow space contains the anchor-chain; behind that, the forecastle has two single bunks which make a ‘v’ shape, then, on the port side the sea-toilet, on the starboard a ‘wet-cupboard’ for oilies. The saloon has two single bunks, the feet disappear under a sink on one side and the cooker on the other. In Curlew, the Starboard bunk has been reduced to a two-place seat to make room for a small wood-burning stove. Beyond that is the cockpit, beyond that the afterdeck and lazarette – beyond that ... water.

I suppose this is the best place to comment that the fo’c’sle has a board and shaped cushion that fills in the ‘v’ to make a double bunk...

I’m not sure who was responsible for the original design, which appeared in a monthly magazine called ‘Yachting World’, but whoever it was, they created a remarkable boat. Relatively simple to build, compact, manoeuvrable, quite fast ... a delight to sail, and surprisingly comfortable, though it would be nice to have a little more headroom.