When we got together in 2004 we identified a shared enjoyment of sailing!
Chris had sailed with The London Sailing Project (now called Rona Sailing Project) and was lucky enough to get selected for a leg of the Cutty Sark Transatlantic tall ships race in 1992 (See Tall Ships Race) from Puerto Rico to Boston with a New York and Long Island sound stopover, but had done nothing since.
Jenni had completed her RYA competent crew in the Solent in the Spring of 1995, but again had done nothing since.
Chris was studying at night school for his day skipper theory at York Sailing Club for ten weeks and then achieved his day skipper on their yacht based in Troon in the west of Scotland.
We decided we wanted to do more sailing and set out to do as much as we could. This included dabbling with a yacht share of a boat in Ipswich where we had a year of enjoyable sailing on the river Orwell, however, as she was an old long keel boat it was also very difficult.
Jenni gained her day skipper with Girls for Sail, during a very windy week on the Solent.
We enjoyed multiple Flotilla holidays in Turkey with Budget Sailing and also in Croatia.
As we gained more experience we undertook more courses and mile builders in Lanzarote with Endeavour Sailing with Chris gaining enough miles to take his Coastal Skipper course.
We did a milebuilder from Plymouth to Oban, via Dun Laoghaire with Velvet Lady.
Chris also volunteered for Catzero and was watch leader on their Dutch Dash and the first sail of a Fastnet campaign.
In 2020 we left Harrogate and moved to Poole on the South Coast of England. Our intent had always been to sail the South coast (See how we got to this point) and we were able to buy our first yacht Sansovino, a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 35.
We accumulated miles, sailing the Round the Island Race twice and gained our skills by sailing with Poole Yacht Racing Association, Chris eventually volunteering to be class 4 Captain and Jenni became Social Secretary. PYRA was a great way to build confidence, and also friendships!
We sold Sansovino in 2023 to prepare for the purchase of Yanula Blue and were able to continue sailing as crew with PYRA: Chris on a Figaro II called Vents Des Globes, completing the Round the Island Race (again!) as well as cross channel races to Cherbourg and across Lyme Bay to Dartmouth; Jenni crewed on Hope and Glory Offshore Racing to Cherbourg, Alderney and Dartmouth.
Meanwhile there were lots of work to do on Yanula Blue and we eventually finished work on 31 May, started finisalising things at home and visiting friends and family. We set off for a very big “shake down sail” following the PYRA crews to Cowes on 7 September, and saying goodbye when they returned to Poole on 8 September.
