Friday 30 May
When the children were under 10 and we were young, we used to borrow David’s Dad’s Contessa 32 for family holidays in the Solent and beyond. ‘South Haze’ was a racer and never had more weight than she needed so the only cutlery on board was a tea spoon.
This meant we spent the first day loading on pots and pans and crockery, bedding and food before we set off. And, because ‘South Haze’ only ever tied up at a dock or a pontoon at the end of racing she never had her own tender.
A tender is the little boat belonging to a big boat to let you get to shore if you are at anchor or on a mooring buoy etc.
David and I bought a little rubadub jolly boat with oars to use on our holidays on the Contessa. The girls were very good at rowing, having learnt on various sailing weekends and often took us ashore. This is why we called her ‘Zigzags’.
After John sold ‘South Haze’, ‘Zigzags’ sat on our shelf in the garage for 20 years.
When we got ‘La Bamba’ we took her down and pumped her up and were amazed that she was in perfect condition. No perishing or any leaks – that’s the quality of a Zodiac – even the valves were good!
So ‘Zigzags’ has been re-purposed as tender to ‘La Bamba’.
So today, in another first, we got ‘Zigzags’ pumped up – with the most amazing tiny smallest pump you have ever seen.‘Zigzags’ has gone up in the world and now gets her very own electric engine.
We took her for a delightful spin up the Lymington river.
It was very relaxing and Lymington is particularly pretty from the town quay.
We practiced how we might sail with her up on deck. Ideally we would have her on the foredeck but we need new fastenings to stop her getting in the way of the jib sheets.
Instead we will start with her on the coach roof and we noticed that we can use her seat to protect our hatch windows from getting scratched by her transom.
However we decided to deflate her for our sail down to The Hamble tomorrow where we will do our Safety at Sea course on Sunday.
