Fairwinds
Still making waves
I bought Fairwinds in 2003 with my wife, Kathy. We bought her the same week we moved into our house on Seil Island near Oban. We paid £11,000 for her and were very pleased with our purchase. 23 years later I am still sailing her, currently n Norway again as I type this.
At the time I still had big sailing ambitions. I had read Anne Davidson’s ‘Out of the Blue’, David Mercy’s Berserk’ and John Neal’s ‘Mahina’ and I had helped deliver a Vega from Stockholm to Peterhead then skippered it myself from there to the Clyde, so I knew what I was buying and its capabilities. On board with the sellers in the lagoon at Ardfern I commented that they must have had some interesting voyages, in her, and asked what was the best place they had sailed to. I was a trifle incredulous when they pointed across Loch Craignish to Eilean Righ and said their favourite was the anchorage at the back of this island. I pressed them, saying they must have taken her firther afield, and they admitted to having visited Craighouse on the Isle of Jura but didn;t like it because it was rough on the way back.
We concluded the deal over a cup of tea from a china pot and took the boat away to a new and more adventurous life.
The next 10 years
Our shakedown cruise that Summer was to Stornoway, to the Hebridean Festival of Sail, where we had a wonderful time and met new friends. The Minch was just challenging enough for our first year, but the second year (2004) we circumnavigated Ireland in five and a half weeks. (Far too fast, but I was still teaching at the time, so we only had the school holidays). That voyage is documented on the old Bluemoment website at https://bluemoment.com/ireland/ but will be transferred to this site in due course.
We now decided we would attempt an Atlantic circuit in the Vega, and fitted her out with with new rigging, a new Beta engine and a Navik windvane. We set off in August 2005 and got as far as the Canaries, returning to Seil via Madeira, the Azores, Galicia and Ireland 54 weeks later. That journey is documented here https://bluemoment.com/fairwinds/ and will also be available on this site in due course.
Other major voyages included St Kilda in 2009, a trip to Norway in 2010. Again, my intention is to document these trips and others on this website. Kathy’s last voyage was to the first World Skiff Championships in Ullapool in 2013. When we had our last night spaghetti bolognaise and bottle of red wine in a peaceful anchorage under a full moon in the sound of Mull I had no idea that would be our last night on the boat together. A month later Kathy was diagnosed with recurrent br nd died in February 2014.
The gap years – 2014 and 2015
In the Spring of 2014 my two sons came as crew on the annual Chentleman’s Cruise in memory of their mum. This early nautical pub crawl was an annual tradition at that point in time. It was wet, windy and miserable, but we did it. Fairwinds was still sailing. That Summer I singlehanded her in a cruise in company with friends to Stornoway. On the way home I was on my own, as my friends’ boats took other routes. I rounded Ardnamurchan talking to myself, saying ‘well little boat this is probably the last time you are coming round here’. Suddenly friends hove into view, Chris and Ruth in Grace Darling, their old wooden lighthouse board cutter. They announced they were going for a picnic in Sandwood Bay, the other side of Ardnamurchan, and invited me to join them. Fairwinds went round Ardnamurchan three times that day, and that was the last time I ever thought of giving her up.
In early Autumn 2015 I met my current partner, Catherine. She had told me on the dating site that she was a water baby and wanted to go sailing, but Fairwinds is an acquired taste and I wondered what she would think. Our first trip together was to the Garvellachs then a night aboard in the Black Isles, and she was hooked.
2016 – 2026
Watch this space