My wife Vicki passed away in the early hours of Sunday 7th June. Although l am sad l was relieved Vicki wasn’t in pain anymore.
I was trying to keep myself busy, to avoid moping around the house. After tidying away some of Vicki’s clothes and had to drive over to the health centre to drop off her unused medication. On the way back l planned to pickup the outboard from St Anthony beach as the fuel system needed to to cleaned out. When l arrived at St Anthony the tide was in and l thought l should check out Elektra while l was down there.
So l launched the dinghy and set off out to Elektra’s swing mooring, l hadn’t gone far when the outboard gear selector broke. With no forward gear, l had to row from there, there was plenty of wind, so not much effort was needed. Out aboard Elektra, l started on my checks, no water anywhere forward, but water under the floor below the companion way hatch, not surprising considering the amount of rain we had over the last 10 days. Having baled out about half a bucket of fresh water, l was looking out at Falmouth Bay thinking l could go for a sail. This hadn’t been my plan and l was in two minds if to go or not.
But in the end l thought, why not. I just started the engine to get Elektra away from the moorings, but once clear stopped it again, there was plenty of wind, vearing from west to north the top of a force 5, l only set half of Elektra’s genoa and she was logging over 6kts quite a bit of the time. It was a little too much for the tiller pilot to cope, so l was helmingʻ most of the time. I sailed her into the Carrick Roads and north to St Just in Roseland before turning Elektra around. I was enjoying myself, and on the way south out of the Carrick Roads again, Elektra was logging 6.5-6.8kts. Back across Falmouth Bay to Gillan, it was great sailing and l hadn’t planned to go. I rolled away the genoa at Carcroc Cardinal Buoy and motored her slowly into her mooring, Elektra had logged 13nm over 2.5hrs.
I knew now, sailing was going to continue to be part of my life. When l first met Vicki in 2003 l was playing golf. We looked for something we could enjoy together, l suggested sailing as l had sailed dinghies from the age of 12. So we hired a sailing dinghy a few times though the early part of 2004 before buying a day sailer called “Acorn”. This we sailed for 18 months before buying “Gala” our Hurley 22 to go cruising. We sailed her for 11 seasons before buying Elektra. I think it’s fair to say l wouldn’t ever have gone cruising without meeting Vicki and the many cruising friends we have made over the last 22 years, wouldn’t ever have become friends.
I will miss Vicki
Love Sailing 