Salara at anchor with her new jazzy tender on the cabin coachroof, all ready to go cruising.


At the end of April I was lugging a holdall and backpack full of yacht equipment and spares through the rush hour crowds on the London Underground on my way to catch a train to Gatwick Airport where I had a flight booked to Faro, Portugal at 0600 hours the next morning. This trip always seems to coincide with the rush hour maybe I should try to retime it. Once I had arrived at Gatwick and checked into the Premier Inn Hotel I relaxed and had a beer and an evening meal, the plan was to have an early night and be up ready to check in at 0400 hours.
I had been in bed less than an hour when the fire alarm started to wail. With much cursing I stuck my head out of the door, there was no smoke and flames in the corridor so I reckoned that I had time to get properly dressed, grab passport, tickets and money before heading for the stairs. In the street it was raining on the scores of guests that had assembled outside, some in their pyjamas. The Premier Inn staff handled it all very well handing out aluminium thermal covers to everyone. After about an hour the Fire Service declared it a false alarm and we all trooped back inside to resume our interrupted slumbers. The next morning, without asking, I received a full refund.
The Easyjet flight left on time and I was soon in Faro and back aboard Salara unpacking my luggage before going out to shop for food.
During the next few weeks I completed all the regular maintenance on Salara as well as installing an Icom AIS system as additional equipment, it seems to work well and should definitely improve our safety at sea. The final task was to do the antifouling and Salara was ready to go.
Salara was launched off at noon on the 2 June. Never before has it been so late in the year. However I was happy to be once again afloat and in company with a Rustler 36 called Nutmeg we made our way to the anchorage behind Culatra Island where most cruisers stop for a few days at the start of their season to make final adjustments to gear and to recover their sealegs. On Salara I needed to refit the mizzen boom and sail which fouls the boat hoist if it is left in place.
Once that was done I discovered that seawater was finding its way into the bilge in worrying amounts. Salara was slowly sinking. The cause was a corroded fitting on the galley sink drain so I shut the seacock to stop the flood and carried out a temporary repair until such time as |I can renew the failed item.
The following day, after a restfull night at anchor I unpacked and inflated the new dinghy that had been despatched here from UK. The name Salara needed to be painted on the transom so I set myself up on the fordeck to do the job just as the wind started to freshen. I had just completed the first letter when the french yacht ahead of me started to drag anchor. There were no crew aboard and I had to fend it off Salara as it drifted by. Being alone I could not do much about it apart from sounding my foghorn to warn other crews downwind. The french crew must have been alerted as they drank their lunchtime coffee in the cafe ashore, they chugged past aboard their tender in hot pursuit with lots of shouting and arm waving.
Unfortunately as the french yacht dragged past Salara she must have hooked our anchor out because five minutes later and with the wind increasing Salara started to move. That caused a rush to clear the foredeck of the dinghy and the paint pot before I could use the anchor windlass to recover the anchor. This is a difficult operation in a crowded anchorage as I only have a manual windlass and so it requires much dashing about between foredeck and engine controls. Thankfully it does not happen very often.
I then anchored in a spot with no yachts to windward to reduce the risk of this happening again. By then the wind was gusting to 30 knots. I have used this anchorage many times before and I know that the holding is not good until the anchor can penetrate the weed on the seabed. Newcomers are constantly caught out when the wind rises as it often does in the afternoon.
So that was my first full day afloat, lots of excitement and action to get me back into this cruising lifestyle, although I hoped that every day would not be as frantic. I intend to head for Spain when wind and tides are suitable as I need to break Salara`s stay in Portugal before the end of the month otherwise Salara could become liable for the Portuguese Cruising Tax.