BACK TO BLIGHTY?
With overseas travel uncertain, Jack Haines and family decide whether Blues Away may be better off at home
Blues Away t this moment in time there are far, far greater concerns than the welfare of our boats but, nonetheless, it was comforting to receive an email from Marina de Portimão confirming that all was well on our Swift Trawler 34, with a handful of pictures to demonstrate that she was still in one piece. The boat tends to stay in the water for most of the winter but the marina can be hit by nasty swells during storms, so this unsolicited update from the marina informing us that the marina was closed but staff would be doing regular checks on the boats eased our nerves.
It’s uncertain as to when we may be able to get out there ourselves but a new piece of technology from a company called Chargematrix was sent to us that will ensure we can keep a closer eye on Blues Away if for any reason we can’t visit her for long periods of time in the future. It is a remote battery monitoring system that, via a dedicated app, can relay real-time battery voltage, temperature and vessel location from anywhere in the world. Keeping an eye on the health of the battery from thousands of miles away will be helpful enough, but the added security of receiving an alert if the boat’s location changes is a welcome comfort. It may be a while before we can install it but I’ll report back on its effectiveness once it’s in place.
The pandemic has also readjusted our outlook on Blues Away’s future and where she might call home. Originally, because time on the boat was restricted to weekends and holidays, we decided to move her to Portugal so that time on board in good weather was all but guaranteed. The number of planned trips in the UK that had been left in tatters by bad weather had taken their toll and, though it wouldn’t be as easy to get to the boat, it would be worth it for the reliable sunshine.
The situation has changed now, however. My parents are both retired and therefore have no restrictions on time to use the boat, and with the legacy of Covid-19 disrupting international travel for an indeterminate period, could this be the time to bring Blues Away back to the UK?
We all feel as if we have unfinished business when it comes to cruising in home waters. We dream of weeks in the West Country, visiting old haunts such as Salcombe and Dartmouth, and pushing on to destinations that we never managed to get to under our own steam. Plymouth, Fowey, Falmouth and the Isles of
Scilly still have a pull as strong as the tides that tear around their coastlines. We want to cross the Channel again and lose ourselves in the harbours of northern France and be reacquainted with favourites such as Guernsey, Jersey and the idiosyncratic gateway to the Channel Islands that is Alderney.
With a base in Poole we could rediscover the Solent, where we fell so deeply in love with boating, but this time my parents could do so without the deadline of work or school runs.
We still have at least a year left on our berth in Portimão and who knows, this mess could clear up sooner than the gloomy forecasts predict.
It’s food for thought though – a return to UK cruising suddenly seems rather appealing.