We are sailing, no on oor boat but its still sailing

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What a fan dabby dosy day  This is Windotter She was built in 1990 . A replica of the dutch fishing vessels. Petras friend Jane owns her and Petra has been doing abit of maintainence work on her. Family had sailed her last week and had left her at Brightlingsea. It is a huge marina and even has sea taxis to get you to your boat. We got a lift from one of Petras friends.
Today we were crew for Petra who will be our pilot for the channel crossing and has been the biggest of helps and i am pretty sure a forever friend.She her self owns a original dutch barge which is 114 yrs old and she is also dutch.
I was abit worried about crewing , really because i didn't want to disappoint Petra . She is one of those superwomen who most women would like to be but can rarely achieve..I don't normally feel like a girly girl but next to Petra all i need is the inch long bright pink acrylic nails and i am there.
I also didn't want to cause harm to Janes beautiful barge and Jane is also just such a lovely person. I didn't want her staring at scratched paintwork while Petra hovered behind me with an axe about to kill me for upseting her best friend.
And this would be the first time i would be at sea in a boat. I didn't need to worry, the weather was blissfull a light south westerly which was in our favour as we were heading from Brightlingsea north to Titchmarsh and glorious sunshine all the way.

 We got out in front of a dinghy race that was about to start and had loads of little dinghywere skooting about heading out to the start point.
We were one of about 26 yachts heading out to sea and we were infront for a long time. but we were having a leisurely sail so alot of them passed us on the way. Petra didnt worry about them passing on our sea side but got rather competitive when it came to them passing between us and the coast and threatening to steal our wind.

 Mark had a good go at the tiller and even i had a go. one of my goes was heading into Titchmarsh marina when Petra all of a sudden remembered there was choclate below decks. can't really blame her we are both choco freaks.. It was grab this and she disappeared. Jings, I didn't know what i was doing or more importantly where i was going and then she was helping Mark with the fenders, I don't think i breathed till she took it back. I did like it though and was doing ok. amongst all the moored up boats.

 Goose winged gaff. Breathtaking. we all had the wind behind us so we were all doing it and it was so impressive. Just had to watch for jybeing, where the boom swings across harshly if not controlled and can harm mast and rigging. It did feel like we were in a fleet.

 this is the above boat passing us and shows what the goosewing looks like from the side.We weren't going slow but with the wind behind us it did feel like it. We got up to 7 knots and you could feel the barge surge through the waves but we quite respectably kept to about 4 to 5 knots. Petra is an excellant sailor and instructor , she asked us to do things and said thanks, cheers etc if we completed it Her instrction was valid and accurate and we both felt like we were on a relaxed sail. Felt guilty actually. did feel like i wasn't doing enough..Did give me a good chance to look at the lee boards that are on the side of the boat , a sheet[rope] lets you work it from the cockpit but it does require a push down with the foot on first dropping. It always is put down on the lee [ sheltered from the wind side] side of the boat and acts like a keel steadying the barge as it is flat bottomed and has a draft [the bit thats in the water] of 2ft [60 cms] . they are beautiful to watch as a swivel joint allows them with speed to hug the boat and at low speeds to drift out like a whales fln.

 Windotter will do a decent lean when the sail is closehauled, and that will take abit of getting used to. i mean how are you supposed to make a cup of tea for everyone when everything is leaning. Well you can't but it is a good way of cleaning the worktop after you have spilt water everywhere.. She has a toilet . Made for hobbits , even i had to take my trousers down in the hall bit and back up a step to get to it hunched over. Promptly forget stand up and smash my head
There is also a fridge. Its like a drawer and i am nagging to Mark about it. his solution to my marg going like soup and my milk going off every day is to give up dairy. Nae chance..

overtaken again  but i get a lovely shot of the boat. I must explain i am guessing most of these photos as i cant see what i am seeing because of the sun on the phones screen

 Marks usual response to me taking his photo. Can't complain he has been ever so patient with me . Especially as i am trying to get the funny ones.

Well you can see the perfect day for yourselves. It couldn't have been better. It ended lovely . We took the saild down and motored the channel to Titchmarsh. Petra did some wicked  reverse mooring with just a little help from the bow thrusters. Want them. Bit of advice  to boaters out there. Never let someone help you moor. Accidents can happen very easily and you know your boat and where you want it. I also heard if you break down at sea and another boat offers you help and throws a rope to you, they can technically claim salvage rights on your vessel. They can't if you throw them your rope.
Abig thankyou to Petra . Great experience today and i didnt get seasick one bit.. Going to bring Windotter from Titchmarsh to Walton next CAN'T WAIT. YEE HAH TALLY HO  and all that