SailTales - Before Puffin

Before Puffin

Beautifully written and illustrated account of a family's sailing experiences in the 1950s on the Norfolk Broads and in the Solent. Written by Jocelyn M Greenway, Illustrated by her husband Robert and edited by their daughter Cathy, this free to download digital book is guaranteed to whet your appetite for 'Puffin's Log' by the same author chronicling the family's later adventures in their 22-ft Hillyard yacht, Puffin.

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Puffin's Log

'Somehow the two of us and our three children managed to squeeze into a yacht designed for two, and have been able to sail to France, Belgium and Holland inexpensively, if somewhat uncomfortably. Once across the channel all the ports between Cherbourg and Flushing were open to us. We visited the Bayeux tapestry from the little harbour at Port en Bessin, sunbathed on the beach at Deauville, enjoyed moules marinières at Nieuport, and entered the lovely Dutch canals at Flushing and visited Middelburgh and Veere'.

Puffin's Log is published by Delfryn Publications www.delfrynpublications.co.uk
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Extracts from Puffin's Log
From the chapter 'Family Holiday Afloat 1953'

Robert at the helm with Simon and the girls

Later we moved to the south coast and there we had a sailing boat of our own. We kept Puffin in Poole Harbour, and we could almost see her from our house. She must have been designed for two, as she had only two bunks, but her previous owners also had a family to accommodate, and we found that she had a splendid mattress in the forepeak, where our two small daughters, Jill who was eight and Catherine who was six, could sleep in comfort. Our son, Simon, slept on piles of gear, and sails between our two bunks, and he said it was not really too bad, and rather better than a naval hammock, which he had sampled when he spent a week in a training ship.

Sometimes conditions were uncomfortable. It would rain for a whole day and we would be very crowded on board. Sometimes the sea would be rough, or tides might necessitate a dawn start from port. Such difficulties only enhanced the joys of a fine day's sailing, the arrival in a new harbour, or the warm comfort of the cosy cabin. Ports of call reached by our own efforts had a charm beyond those more easily reached.

Our sailing holidays were very inexpensive. The wind was our fuel apart from a little petrol for the auxiliary engine; we bought food in the markets and cooked our meals on board. They were happy times and we were all learning valuable lessons.

Rowing practice

This summer we began preparations for our cruise by buying a large number of tins of food. We stripped off the paper covers and painted the initials of the contents on them - PB for pressed beef, BB for baked beans, and so on.

Had we not done so a sodden little collection of wrappers would have been found in the bilges at the end of the season, and a lot of unmarked tins, all looking alike, would have made catering very difficult. These tins we put in the spaces under the bunks, and took aboard all the hundred and one items without which one cannot go on a cruise. Puffin was a great deal lower in the water when we had finished, particularly when the five of us were aboard as well.

From the chapter 'From Poole to The Hague 1955'

The canal was very peaceful as we motored along with our mast lying along the deck. We managed to pass under quite a number of bridges, and others opened up when we blew three blasts on our foghorn. The children did the blowing in turns; it was very popular.

We saw a few barges going about their business, and a good many fishermen sitting on the banks among the reeds beside their rods. That night we moored up to the bank near the Belgian frontier, and went for a stroll through the nearby village.

We had not far to go before crossing the frontier into Belgium. Here we made a mistake. The canal lay parallel to a road, and we saw a police post stopping cars at one point. As there were no notices to suggest that this was the place for vessels to be inspected, we passed gaily by and continued on between the reedy banks, deserted except for the occasional patient fisherman, sheltering beneath an umbrella from the light rain that was falling.

Pedalling hard against the rain came a French policeman

Suddenly, after we had gone another two miles or so we happened to look around, and coming up the road behind us on a bicycle, pedalling hard against the wind, came a French policeman. He was waving frantically, but was too out of breath to shout. We stopped at once, and came in to the bank, remembering, rather guiltily, about the road stop, and wishing that we had made quite sure that it had not applied to the canal. And of course it had. A yacht had been seen going past, and our poor friend had been dispatched to stop us at all costs.

We were very sorry indeed about his enforced ride, and we offered to take him and the bicycle on board for the journey back to the post, but he did not seem to think that this would be quite right, and so, having turned around, we made our way back, the policeman keeping just ahead of us, glancing over his shoulder every now and then to see that we were still following. At the post we handed in a slip of paper, and were then free to proceed.

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