Denis is a good friend that skippers a Lagoon 62 and has been back in Cyprus for a couple of weeks and although we managed to get down to the boat for a first look we haven’t been able to get out until today.

The weather forecast didn’t look very good at all today but we were running out of days before he needed to fly back to work and so we agreed light airs is better than nothing so agreed I’d pick him up at 9am and we would make a couple of stops on the way, one to TNT to pick up a parcel which should be my carbon fibre matting for some work on the boat and some lunch from a bakery as I knew he would have the beers because he doesn’t like Keo which is always on the boat for me ????.

When we arrived, there was already more wind than the predicted 8kt max for the day but still not too much at all. I’d made up a couple of aft warps that will end up the perfect length so when I’m bringing her in on my own everything is ready and easier, so we fitted them to the shore first to test them out on our return and Denis had a quick familiarisation of the boat before we were ready to cast off the lines.

This will sound crazy but this was the first time that she has left the birth since the delivery trip three months ago but in my defence we have bought a house and moved in as well as the build up for Christmas and today was needed.

We had about 10kts NE as we motored out of St Raphael so on the nose but we soon had the main up and once the headsail was unfurled I handed over the tiller to Denis and sat back to let him enjoy himself. The wind started to fill in a little but no more than about 15kts as we sailed through the Covid19 anchored cruise ships that are just off the shore and into a building swell but she didn’t have any issues and we were enjoying ourselves.

We as usual talked rubbish and just enjoyed the sea and the sailing, marvelling at the fact it is the end of December with 18 degrees Celsius a moderate breeze and we were the only people out on such a perfect sailing day.

We’d only been out about an hour and a half when Denis said, “is the wind dying” as she had gone rather sluggish and lost her umph. Looking around it honestly didn’t appear to have changed but then Denis nothing that the headsail tack had separated from the furler because we the pin was missing. We quickly furled her and turned for home sailing just with the main and a following sea which was still moving us along at about 6kts so we weren’t complaining at all.

We started the engine just before the entrance and dropped the main before motoring in to our birth without any issues having had a short but really good sail. Having tided up we sat in the cockpit with a cold beer chatting shit again which finished off a good day with a good friend.