How ‘Dad’ didn’t mean to go to sea! by Lochlann

Looking at photos of Mum when she was a little girl on the boat Mjojo (named after her), made me and Fin jealous. We also wanted to sail round the world.  We knew that Mum would love to, but Dad would need some persuasion.

JoJo on Mjojo aged about 4 years

Mjojo in Durban, South Africa

At this point I should mention that Mum and Dad run a street theatre company and perform all over Europe.  We were doing a show in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal when we heard that Mum's old friends Humph and Maggie were on their sailing boat, in a town called Tavira.  We drove down there from Lisbon and set up our tent at a campsite.  The campsite had gravel ground with a layer of concrete underneath so we had to drill holes for the tent pegs!

We walked down to the sea and there was their boat, Miracle, a 32ft gaff rigged, steel boat, the design is called Wylo II.

They took us out for a sail and we all loved it.

Slide show movie - Our time in Tavera with Humph and Maggie.

As we were on the long drive all the way to Brittany, Fin and I decided that we were going to get a boat.  Dad was too, even if he didn’t know it.

When we got to our house in Brittany I disappeared upstairs to look on the Internet for boats for sale.

Mum hated them all.

“Too big. Too small.  Made of plastic. Too fat. Not pretty enough. Too many gadgets.”

Mum wanted an old fashioned type of boat with gaff rig and paraffin lamps!

I despaired and got quite depressed for a very long time, until mum found two boats in Falmouth that might suit us.  We had a look and made an offer for one, which was rejected.

Mum started talking to Humph and decided that a Wylo was the boat for us.

Wylos are usually gaff rigged, which was important to Mum.  They are made from steel, which means they are very, very strong, which was also very important to mum.  But most important, was that they are pretty.

So she looked and looked, until she found two promising ones for sale.  One was called Island Swift and was in the Isle of Wight, and the other was called Tuatara and was in Norway.

In June 2012 Mum and Humph went to see Tuatara.  They both said it was good, so we made an offer and it was accepted!!!

Then we found that it didn't have VAT paid status and Mum didn't want to take the risk of having to pay possibly thousands of pounds extra, so it wasn't confirmed.

We went to the Isle of Wight to have a sail on Island Swift and have a good look at her.

Saying goodbye to John on Island Swift after our trial sail.

We liked her so put in an offer but this was rejected because it was not enough.

We felt like we were back at square one.

However, at Christmas we were all going on a walk and Mum said jokingly to Dad "so, have you got me a boat for Christmas?"

Dad said he had secretly tried to buy Tuatara, but the owner had made other plans.  So instead Dad had bought Mum a sextant.

Mum was flabbergasted that Dad had tried to buy Tuatara despite the VAT problems!

But now we had a sextant we HAD to buy a boat!

So we put in a higher offer for Island Swift, and it was accepted!!

We officially bought her on the 26th February 2013.

We scrubbed her off and waited for work and weather to allow us to sail her back to Falmouth.

Slideshow movie about when we bought Island Swift

We went out for a day sail with John, the previous owner, and he showed us the ropes (literally).

We then spent a week on her mooring on the Isle of Wight and went for a day sail all on our own.

It was very scary because there are lots of boats on the Solent (luckily we avoided them all).  Mum said it was not the best place for sea trials.

So we decided to pack our bags and go out of the Solent to Falmouth!

But that is another story, and if you would like to read it please see my next blog.

Written by Lochlann