Yesterday I’d been lazing deliciously in the cockpit after the passage from my home port of Poole: soaking up the afternoon sun, watching the bustle of St Peter Port inner harbour, following the light dancing across the water, revelling in that sense of freedom that comes with the first landfall of a cruise. I idly turned the pages of Yachting Monthly; Idly until I spied a picture of the new Hallberg Rassy 310. It was love at first sight. A phone call was quickly made to Transworld Yachts. We agreed to meet up in three weeks’ time at the 2009 Southampton Boat Show. I’d view the new 310 in the flesh, consider matters carefully and rationally, weigh things up. The reality was that I was smitten. I’d found my new boat and knew it as I rigged up the next morning and pointed the bows south.
That day we carved across a long swell hard on the wind under a blade jib with two reefs in the main. The sea was a glorious deep blue-green marbled with white. A fine mist of spray lifted back from the bow painting fleeting rainbows as the sun caught it. Astern the smudges of first Guernsey and then Jersey dropped below the horizon. Ahead the slim grey finger of the Roches Douvres light beckoned us on towards the craggy intricacy of the unseen Brittany shore.
We look as if we might just lay Treguier on this tack I think to myself. There might be space in the anchorage under the chateau this time. Mind you; we’ve got the westbound tide under us now, so maybe we could carry it for a beat down to Trebeurden? I’d love to make it “round the corner” to Camaret on this cruise. Maybe Morgat too if the weather holds. My mind roams free - exploring the possibilities. The next thought appears unprompted: “Stargazer.” Stargazer? Hmmm….Stargazer: a Navigator, or a Mystic, or a Day Dreamer. Stargazer could be all three. A name that captures the essence of a magical Cruising moment and all those other Cruising moments just like it; past, present and future. “Stargazer of Poole”: the name for my new boat.
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