My four year old daughter Niamh and I attended our first WCOA cruising event on the 7th Sept having had some email contact with Jon Ponsford, the organiser for the Poole Harbour cruise beforehand, picking his details from the WCOA cruising programme web page.

Having very limited experience of sailing Wanderers previously, only two outings in fact, one with Gavin Barr and his crew Mark at Bewl to rig for the first time and check set up, plus a rather horrible experience of the steep shelving beach at Pevensey Bay in East Sussex, Niamh an I arrived good and early at Baiter slip near the Old Town Quay in Poole, to make sure we had time to rig at leisure and not hold everyone else up...

Despite arriving at around 9:00 for a 10:30 launch we were still the last of four boats to be ready for launch by around 10:45. John and his crew arrived with Celandine shortly after us, and gave excellent service in the mast raising activity which I have yet to master single handed, despite the weird and wonderful transom contraptions supplied by the previous owner for this activity. Once the boat and crew were suitably rigged attention turned to the prevailing weather - or lack of it. Wind strength - zero. Some thumb twiddling and a trip to the loo with the crew raised a puff or two and the boats all launched down the gentle slip (again with welcome assistance from other boats for me operating with my young crew
handicap).

Following a brief delay when launching trolleys were secured, the small fleet set off westwards with the aim to lunch at Shipstal Point. The fitful breeze came and went as we made our way through the fleet racing between Brownsea Island and Hamworthy. The gentle conditions meant Niamh had a go at the helm (she was SOOOOO keen to try) and I was able to investigate the friction device on the centreboard which you can't get at with the dinghy on the trailer. 5 minutes with a long screwdriver had the centreboard tamed, which we celebrated with a packet of crisps and a carton of apple juice that Niamh foraged from our substantial stores up in the eyes under the foredeck. (Being an ex yachtie I have yet to overcome the urge to load up with stores necessary for trans oceanic travel, meaning Joshua Slocum was rather over provisioned for our brief cruise around the harbour.)

Feeling pleased not to be languishing at the rear of the fleet, Niamh and I drifted closer to Shipstal Point whilst John and his crew went about to bring in the rest of the boats. Arrival on the beach was rather less organised than planned - the jib furled OK (Thanks to CDs on the top swivel and forestay tensioner cobbled together after advice from Gavin Barr on Bewl, however the main refused to drop at the appointed moment due to horribly tangled halyards and I took to the water rather hurriedly to prevent us surfing up the beach, as the wind returned at a critical point in the approach, with some enthusiasm.

A relaxed picnic on an almost deserted beach followed, with the dinghies lying off the beach to anchors. This was my first opportunity to get to know the other crews who had turned up for the day, who were all welcoming and pleased to chat about their Wandering backgrounds.

Once lunch was finished the wind had settled to a more steady and useful F3-4 southerly, with clouds gathering and threatening rain. The young crew was duly trussed up in layers of fleece and windproof before the fleet set off again to navigate the shallows to the west of Long and Round islands, before a planned south about tour of Brownsea and return to Baiter. John warned the fleet that there would be shallows to negotiate and once underway it was soon evident that he was not joking. The board never went fully down until we picked up the big ship channel off the South East end of Brownsea, some hour or so away.

Initially we beat gently south between the reed banks behind Long island, John in the lead with Niamh and I in close attendance, the other two boats picking their way carefully astern. Some interesting lessons about dinghy handling when aground followed (much healing / no progress) but decent progress to the south was made. Apart from an alarming moment when John's rapid tack was hidden behind the jib and a hasty manoeuvre was required to pass astern of him (no time for col. regs) we were soon clear of Long island's landing stage and looking to ease the sheets to reach south of Round island towards the "Blood Alley" channel south of Brownsea. To improve forward visibility and to slow up progress to allow the other two boats to catch up I furled our jib (second attempt as the forestay had now gone slack and tangled with the jib on the first try - mental note- more tension on forestay next time) and stooged around looking for water more than 12" deep for a while, broadly following John's Celandine. As the tide continued to fall and there appeared no decent water anywhere to be found we bore away to the East to continue the journey round Brownsea.

The continuing shallows taught Joshua Slocum's crew another useful lesson at this stage, as with little water under the keel (board almost fully raised and rudder released to float out astern), single sail raised (main) with considerable weather helm as a result, and outboard motor rigged ready for action, following the calms earlier in the day, I tried to bear away to pass astern of Celandine who had luffed in a gust ahead of me. For the second time in 30 minutes I had visions of me concluding my first cruise with the WCOA with a collision with the cruise's lead boat. No matter how hard I heaved, Joshua would not answer the helm and bear away astern of Celandine. Not believing the degree of weather helm I had encountered in this brief gust, I cleared astern of Celandine by dumping the main and only then realised that the raised rudder blade was prevented from swinging freely to Port by the leg of the outboard. Lesson number two for the day learned - You can't turn sharply to port in shallow water with the outboard rigged.

In a rising wind, with the following boats hidden behind the reeds of Round Island, rapid progress was made into the channel south of Brownsea. With jib unfurled to maintain station astern of Celandine we continued in shallow water close to the south shore of Brownsea, being passed by bright yellow island ferries and a fluorescent Hobbie cat.

Once clear of the Brownsea island shallows, in the big ship channel to the south east of Brownsea ferry landings, John went about to allow the only other Wanderer still in attendance to catch up. The wind was now fresh, with the occasional white horse and Niamh found sailing to be rather more wet and exciting from now on than the leisurely drift to Shipstal this morning.

Once Anne and Alex were in attendance, we all turned downwind to run home to Baiter down the big ship channel and through the trots of moorings off Sandbanks. Apart from a horrible gybe (Lesson Three) to make Baiter Slip, the trip home was fast but uneventful and with more generous help to get the boat onto the trolley from the crew of the fourth cruise participant, who had come back North about after encountering the shallows to the west
of Long and Round islands, it only remained to thank the organiser for his help during the day, de-rig and buy ice-cream for the crew before heading home and planning our next outing - Whitstable to Leysdown - at the end of September.

Thanks to all who made us welcome and I'm looking forward to our next outing - with a tighter forestay and no outboard - plus more practise at gybes.

Tim Robertson

W1038 Joshua Slocum.