The Basingstoke & Reading Association of Social Sailors & Yachtsmen have just returned from their first sailing trip together. Two boats were chartered for the cruise which began in Brixham and vistited St Peter Port in Guernsey over the Jubilee Bank Holiday.

There were 17 people, mainly night school students from Basingstoke College of Technology and Reading Adult & Community College. We had chartered 2 yachts from Plain Sailing in Brixham.

The picture shows the crew of Premier Knight.

Amalia is a 40ft Beneteau First 405 which was skippered by Bob Hookings with Kim Foster as Mate.

On Amalia the crew quickly got to grips with the boat and its facilities, which proved problematic at times. The sea on the outward trip was a little rough but despite the difficulties, the crew all had an enjoyable trip to St Peter Port.

The picture shows the Amalia crew on their way to Guernsey.

Premier Knight is a 45ft Dufour which was skippered by Rod Emmer with Neil Langton as the Mate.

On Premier Knight the crew made good use of all the facilities to make good speed and arrived in St Peter Port well ahead of their collegues on Amalia. The Autohelm facility meant that they could even hand over the steering to an additional crew member that joined the boat part way through the journey.

The first picture shows the crew of Premier Knight sailing to Dartmouth.

The photo was taken after a brisk night passage from Brixham to St Peter Port (to give students their 2 overnight yachtmaster qualifying passages) on 1-2 June and as we approached Guernsey the wind died so we turned on the engine and auto-pilot.

The exhausted pigeon tried to hitch a lift with us but landed on the heaving line and when it wobbled, fell off into the sea. We thought the poor bird would drown as it disappeared astern but 5-10 minutes later it rejoined us and landed on the wheel as shown in the picture causing great hilarity to the tired sailors on board. We just hoped the pigeon was been taking in the right direction and not back to its point of departure!

As the pigeon recovered we expected it to resume its flight, but this was not to be the case. It started to explore the cockpit (renamed the pigeon pit) and cuddle up against people’s ankles. As we started to stroke the bird, we decided it must be a racing pigeon and used to being handled. At one stage it hopped up to the companionway and had a good look inside – was the cabin to become a pigeon loft we wondered? As we tied up in St Peter Port alongside “Seventh Wave” from Sweden, our passenger calmly jumped ship and walked aboard “Seventh Wave” perhaps for a tour of inspection or to make some new friends.

When we were given a berth in the QE marina we waved farewell to the pigeon and wondered whether he was just taking a stroll and intended to return home to us, sadly now we’ll never know! At least if he stays in Guernsey he might just get away without having to satisfy the residency qualifications.