Gales Every Weekend

This book is a compilation of Blog posts made during 2015, relating to sailing on Robinetta, a small wooden yacht built in 1937. Robinetta is not the obvious boat for long passages. She is short, wide, deep and heavy with a small engine. She can do 6 knots off the wind but that does not happen to us very often, so we passage plan on 4 knots and motor sail when we have to. The crew too are not the obvious choice for long distance cruising. We didn't sail until our late thirties. We get on famously but we do bicker. We are clumsy and forgetful. So we try to sail within, or sometimes just beyond, our comfort zone. In some ways Robinetta is the ideal boat for coastal passages. Her limitations force us to plan conservatively. We don't go out if bad weather beyond our experience is likely and we don't try to go further than the crew are fit for. Most importantly we never promise ourselves that we will be in a certain place at a certain time. These limitations are liberating. Without fixed goals, failure is impossible.