The most AMAZING thing happened on our FIRST long sail No. 134

Oh my god, hi! It has bent Becca. It has? Yeah. I think it was from all that slamming. We're Becca and Zach, a couple who recently, after years of dreaming, bought ourselves a beautiful 40 foot Colvitt Victor sailboat. Life is short and the world is wide and there are so many lessons to be learnt, laughs and shared, people met, adventures had and nautical miles to be sailed and this is our way of sharing it all with you. Welcome to the Tayley. I'm bloody doing it. This is Tayley, just to let you know we are heading on an overnight sail so it won't be in our berth for the night. Over. Okay, thank you very much for letting us know Tayley. Over. Look how strong this is. Yeah. That was the smoothest we've ever come out. It's easy. I think it's good for me to try and hold the boat in the berth, just, you know, on the controls I have because then you can just do things like this and we didn't have any prop walk then, did we? No. Because I literally just kicked it forward. Look at that thing. So we've just been told by a police rib, they were really nice, that there's a big naval ship coming and you can see it just over there and for us to stay on this side of the buoy for a little bit. Probably the closest to rocks we've ever been but we're doing great and it's all good practice and we do not want to get in that naval ship's path. We're actually taking a different route out of the Sound this time. We're going through shallower waters but because it's high water we should be absolutely fine. But we're actually on our way to our first long sail on Tayley. We're going, I think it's about five hours down to Foy for a few days depending on our battery levels and the weather. We'll either stay one night or two nights but yeah, it's really exciting. We've got the sea ahead of us and an actual destination so really excited to be on our way. Are you excited? I'm very excited. Okay, let's go. Okay, if it won't go off it's because the reefing lines will be too tight. Okay. I'm trying to figure out reefing lines. Didn't have any in though? No, it didn't have any in. There were so many things on the boat that were so bizarre. So someone was like, you know your mainsheet's upside down? And we were like, sure. And it was, I've changed it now, but it was upside down. So the previous loader had it upside down the whole time. So he had the locking jaws on the top? Yeah. And we were just rolling with it because why would anyone change that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was done and then there wasn't any reefing lines on it. Now inheriting someone else's stuff when it's not right, how would you ever know? Yeah, exactly. And there's a lot of things on the boat. There's just so much stuff. So much. So yeah, just figuring out all the quirks and learning so much. Nice thumbs. We initially set off to meet some friends at Foy, a historical harbour town in the south of Cornwall. However, with it being the Queen's Jubilee weekend here in the UK, we suddenly realised just how busy that would be. So instead we picked Polkerras, a much quieter bay a little further along the coast, which would offer us great protection still from the easterly wind we had. Oh my gosh. We were just sailing along and Zach said, Becca quick, grab the camera. There's a porpoise. And it just kind of hopped out the water right by our bow. Oh my gosh. I thought it was going to be so much longer till we had that experience. Oh my God. That was by far the coolest thing. I watched them under the bow and they were just all swimming around our boat. We later looked this up and they were in fact common dolphins and not porpoises. Known for being incredibly inquisitive characters, we were ecstatic they could join us so early on in our journey. So we haven't got loads of wind, if I'm honest. Slow and steady wins the race. But we've just tried putting our genoa on the other side because it just seems like it's laughing on this side. So we tried swapping over but wasn't happy on that one. So we put it back across. That was a catch that just came up alongside us. They were just really sweet and they were like, we love your boat. We've never had someone tell us that while we're out sailing. That was really nice. They've got a big stay sail so they're going a little bit faster than us, but they're a family of four and just really sweet. They are really overtaking us. They were flying the Cornish flag so they're probably heading home. We found a comfy spot there. Yeah. It's actually really comfy and in these shoes they're really grippy so it is definitely not a tonne of wind. And we're just in no rush. No? I can't do anything with this now. I can't cleat it or take it out. I can take it out but I definitely can't cleat it. Okay, well I mean it was upside down. Can you cleat it for me please? Yeah. So we were joking around about the mainsheet system being upside down but once we corrected it, it actually became impossible to single handedly adjust the mainsheet and also kept coming uncleated. Very annoying. I guess it would take a bit more fiddling to figure out how to stop this. However, there was no time to stop and think about it now as our mainsail had suddenly come loose. It has bent Becca. It has? Yeah. I think it was from all that slamming. Because it's low wind and quite a big swell, we're rocking loads which is making our boom slam across so we've tightened it in even though we're going downwind and it's still slamming quite a lot and what happened just then is the shackle slammed and it bent and came off which isn't ideal. What we've done is we've put the engine on just for a little bit, just to motor sail for a little bit so we can have autopilot and just think for a sec. So we're just trying to figure this out, we're navigating it, learning, figuring stuff out, trying for mistakes. Yeah, that's where we're at. So our friends Ella and her family are just there. They left about two hours after us and they've caught up with us. I think we've realised from this trip that we need more downwind sails. Okay, so I think we're about an hour away. The swell is hitting our side on so we're just really, really, I don't know if you can see, but we're just really rolly. There's a big one. But it's just meaning our sails are all just slapping around. Ella and her family are up ahead and they overtook us a little while ago and they've got a big spinnaker out and that's just pulling them through the waves faster than we are getting pulled through. The wind's picked up really nicely. We're probably about half an hour away and I can just about see around the headland now from where we're actually going. Somewhere over there. Sea state's also got a bit rougher and the waves has picked up. Now the wind's picked up, but we're doing good. Yeah, so we're about to jibe one more time and then we'll probably motor in and then anchor up. There's a lot of colours. I don't know where to go. See a lot of colours. Only feeling blue. There's a lot of colours. Lost within a day. Don't rely on others. To get you through the night. For the first time. The dreams are not the same for me. Hey! We made it! Standing by the shore. While you're on the sea. Cannot take this anymore. We've just had the most wonderful evening at Ella and her family's boat. They're just over there. We motored back and now we're just in the dark with our foam torch on, which is conserving all the battery we have and currently boiling a kettle for a hot water bottle because it's got kind of cold tonight and we went for a bit of a swim earlier. So we're going to warm up and hit the hay because it's tender and the sun is still going down which is just insane. We saw some fireworks and it was just a beautiful evening. See you tomorrow. Good morning. So we've just woken up and we actually slept really well. Well, really well. I woke up about three times just to chat but it was beautiful. It was like midnight and I looked out and it was just the most wonderful stars I've ever seen. I tried to get a photo and it just didn't do it any justice but almost I could see the Milky Way and there was just no light pollution. It was silent. There was no swell. It was just still and it was amazing. I woke Zach up and I was like, Zach, look at the stars. He was like, what time is it? So we've actually had a bit of a change of plan. This is what happens sometimes with following the weather. The winds are very low today but tomorrow they're quite high and we've kind of made the decision to head back today. We're going to head back towards Plymouth and stop off in an anchorage depending on the tide times. Slack tide is at 3pm today. It's currently 8am and we're about to leave. Yesterday it took us seven hours to get here in low wind and today looks even lower. So we've given most of the day to get back in daylight and depending on when we actually get near the marina we'll assess and we can always drop our anchor a bit closer and wait for slack tide. So that's the plan. Ok Zach are you ready? Yep I'm going to go forward slightly. You're doing great. In neutral? Yep. So it's quickly becoming my absolute favourite thing, just that engine turning off and just listen. Well you can hear my prop spinning which a few of you said put it in a stern. We did that, nothing. It still spins so anyone can let us know why. Two knots, never felt better. I find it funny because in a car if you're going this slow, like 10mph, people are like come on, go faster. And us we're like, so relaxing. What did you catch? I got leafy greens. You're a forager, not a fisher. We've just worked autopilot on for a little tiny bit just whilst Zach's fishing, just to have a little breather. And the wheel is barely moving, we've balanced the boat perfectly. So satisfying. I think finally it's time to put the engine on, we're usually reluctant to do that but we are literally just flapping around in the ocean so I think it's engine time for a little bit. Oh yeah, am I trying to do it blindfolded? There's the line, there's the sweep. Just put your foot in to see how fast the current is first. No boats around. Yeah I think this is as safe as it can be to do, there's no wind. Feeling happy? Yeah. Okay cool, go for it. I don't really want to jump in, it's getting really cold. How is it? It's really cold. You're barely moving. Cold? That's so nice. What the hell is that? Looks like a plastic barrel. Yeah it might be. That's a bit of rope or something. Pretty big. Yeah. Well at least we're getting some trash out of the ocean. Yeah there's a fishing net. Put that in the bin yeah? Oh we got pranked by the ocean. The line's in the water and we're trying to catch a fish, we haven't caught one yet and it's been in there a few hours but we're watching this trawling boat out there winching its net. Loads of fish. Is it cheating? Just a hot filter the ocean. This must be the spot for a fish though, who knows maybe we'll get a bite in a second. Maybe one will escape their net and swim to us and be like I want you instead. You thirsty? Like how fast are we going? Is it faster than walking speed? No. Yeah Zach he's got it! He's actually got it and he's eating. Zach we might have just saved this bee's life. He's loving it Zach. Oh he's loving it, oh my gosh. Oh he's got some energy now, he's running. Oh he looks a bit drunk. Oh he's gone, see? Hi. Zach that was me, I just saved his life. He looked on the verge of death, I gave him some sugar water and now he flew off. Just call me a vet. Cheers. So the time is currently half three and we're still going but we finally found some wind. We were going along at about one knot for only two hours and now we're finally going 4.3 knots. It's lovely, don't know where it's come from but not complaining. So I think we've got about two hours until we get back but we've just really enjoyed switching off from everything and just taking the time just to breathe. Zach say bye. Bye.