Banjo is ours again :-)

After selling Banjo a couple of years back we have been sailing a little Voyager 14 trailer sailer. We had some fun but missed the Banjos comfortable cabin and ability to handle rough water.When the interim owner put her up for sale we decided to buy her back.

Gareth had made a few changes,the hull is painted blue which I think looks good and he has removed the large table and fitted a settee berth in its place which at first I planned to put back as before but now I quite like the new arrangement.

She was in Milford Haven Marina so with winter fast approaching I needed to fetch her the 90 or so miles back to Cardiff. I travelled down on the train a few tiomes to be thwarted first by strong winds then by fog.Finally the forecast was for fresh NW wind reducing to lightwinds and perfect visibility.

I arrived down in Milford in the afternoon to find the wind was still strong and gusty, stronger than forecast.Set off from Mil;ford to motor down to Dale which is still inside the Estuary but 5 miles closer to the entrance. With the wind howling I planned to moor on the floating pontoon there and potter about the boat then return to Milford the following day to go home by train.Cooked up an all in stew out of tinned meat and vegetables had a coffee then sat in the companionway watching a sailing school yacht with triple reefed main and tiny jib enjoying the strong wind and flat sea in the bay.

About 1800 I noticed the wind had dropped to very little, A quick re chexck of tide tables etc said it could still be on for the passage home, I gave it another 45 minutes and with the wind still much lighter I let go the pontoon just as it was getting dark, had to steer around the stern of a tanker coming in then set a course to round Linney head with just the genoa partly rolled out and no mainsail.

Off the headland the wind freshened again and Banjo surfed around the headland at full speed, my only reservation was that it would be difficult to get back against the wind and tide now should anything go wrong.

The wind gradually eased and I ended up under full sail then wind got really light after dawn so motored the last few hours arriving off Cardiff Sea locks at 1000 am.Really pleased with that(read delighted :-) ), Having more favourable tide than tide against me this works out to about an average of about 5 knots through the water.The very fast progress in the first few hours really helped.

Banjo is now back on her mooring in Cardiff Bay, we have sailed her a few times in the local area and will be looking forward to some cruises away in the New Year.