Our journey in to sailing began when we found a beautiful Catalina 36 for sale on Lake Windermere. The boat was perfect for us, and we were able to by it at a great price, due to it having been de-masted by a previous owner.
As complete novices, we were both excited and apprehensive about what lay ahead for us. First things first, we needed to work out how to manoeuvre a boat! Lake Windermere gave us the perfect opportunity to get to grips with helming, docking and mooring our boat in a safe environment.
However, on our first trip away from our mooring ball, we successfully docked up against a jetty, only to break the steering as we tried to pull away. This felt like a massive disaster to me, but Russ got straight in to pulling things apart, emptying lockers looking for spare parts and tools, and managed to save the day. And already we began to learn more about the boat and how it worked, discovering the emergency mechanism to steer, so we are now prepared for this if it ever happens again.
Following this first adventure, we spent many weekends over the coming years making the 6 hour journey to the lake district every Friday night, and returning home every Sunday, experiencing the joys of being on the water, as well as getting to know the boat, and planning for all the repairs and rig work that needed to be done.
