For our honeymoon in June 1962, Mary and I decided to go touring and give sailing a rest. But we missed the sea and when my father-in-law’s cruising yacht became ready for collection, we cut our special holiday in Cornwall short to help him sail Wataita home from Poole, Dorset, to Chichester Harbour.
Wataita was a Dell Quay Shearwater, a 22ft cold-moulded plywood sloop of 1.5 tons displacement and 4ft draught with centreboard down.
Borrowing the boat later that summer for a short trip, Mary – a keen dinghy sailor – had her appetite for cruising thoroughly whetted and I found the responsibility of skippering much more satisfying than the navigating and watchkeeping I had done before with the Island Cruising Club.
That winter we made plans for a longer cruise. I made a chart table, acquired the charts to go with it and borrowed a pilot book. Navigation equipment consisted of steering and hand-bearing compasses.
I considered a log to be essential for crossing Lyme Bay or the Channel but it was an expensive item at over £20. Having the line and rotator already, I decided to make one myself. The design involved a magneto ball bearing, a Woolworths plastic food
