With a Small Splash

With a Small Splash

Sailors have a lovely word for the moment a boat returns to the water after spending winter in storage, or “on the hard.” They call it the splash.

Which is slightly ironic. Because getting a boat from the hard back into the water is actually a remarkably precise operation involving a carefully organised team of professionals, heavy machinery, and a lot of quiet competence. And… there is absolutely no splash.

It’s a bit like opening champagne. In the movies there’s always a dramatic pop! and foam everywhere. In reality, the experts gently ease the cork out with barely a sound. No fuss, no drama. Just calm professionalism.

Our splash day, however, did not go entirely according to plan.

As all good adventures seem to do, it added a small twist. Tim was taken rather suddenly and spectacularly ill with food poisoning. Not ideal timing when you’re about to re-launch your home and sail it out of a busy boatyard.

So we did what sailors often do when plans change — we asked for help.

Enter Luc, a calm and capable captain who stepped in, took a huge amount of stress off our shoulders, and helped guide Novera safely from the yard to her mooring at Port Napoléon.

And just like that… we were afloat. (watch video clip from our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1MQ5QzZCYJ/ or our Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/p/DVyiZh2ipQa/?igsh=MTQyNGR2ZnoxNjlyZw==

It feels like a huge milestone, although in many ways it’s only the beginning. There are still plenty of jobs to finish before we set sail properly. On Wednesday we have a four-hour session with Luc to brush up on our sailing skills and learn a little more about the practical side of navigating Novera from A to B with just the two of us aboard.

There’s a lot to learn.

But the biggest first step is done.