Even here in Cornwall the month of February usually encourages one to sit in front of the fire and plan cruises for the coming summer, or just sit and think, but if one must be up and doing something, there are always bits of boat in the shed that want things done to them. Even so, while I got on with Jady Lane's winter maintenance, I kept my Tideway Dinah on her trailer all winter ready to go sailing if the weather and domestic arrangements allowed. But a seemingly endless procession of gales and heavy rain swept across the South of England until that little ridge of high pressure came along in the middle of February to give us three fine days (remember it?). The first two were spent in a long overdue attack on the garden, but the third day, Sunday 17th saw me dashing off to Fowey with Dinah in tow.

Launching at Fowey is easy, the car park adjoins the slipway and both are lightly used out of season, at least before 1000 hrs. And Fowey in winter is a very different place to the bustling yachtsman's paradise of the summer, and gives an idea what it must have been like on a quiet day a century ago. There was one other boat under way as I sailed gently down the harbour past the town shorn of its visitors' pontoons, water taxies and hundreds of white plastic yachts clustered in every available space. The sun was shining over the hills and the wind from the northeast was just enough to keep her going out to sea on the first of the ebb tide.

Outside I was just able to stand along the coast to the East on the port tack, the sea calm in the lee of the hills. Soon I was pleased to find that the light breeze was veering to the Southeast so I was able to keep my course but on the starboard tack which allowed me to lounge on the side bench and admire the beautiful variegated colours of the vegetation on the rugged cliffs all lit by the bright sun. Being still mid morning the walkers on the Coast Path, which usually provide points of moving colour to the scene on such inshore passages, were not yet up and out.

I looked longingly at the bright yellow sands of Lantic Bay but doubted if it was practicable to beach the boat with the residual swell still setting on to the beach. So I went on past Pencarrow Head that shelters the Bay from the East, and into wider Lantivet Bay where I found a tiny unnamed cove where the fields come down to a beach below Lansallos village.

There I did try to beach the boat but was disappointed to find the swell too much even there. So I had my lunch at anchor in the cove instead, sheltered from the breeze and in still water, while the swell dissipated itself by surging in and out of the surrounding rocks.

On getting under way I headed back towards Fowey enjoying the same view of the shore, now punctuated with the procession of walkers on the Coast Path, but from the greater comfort of sitting on the floor boards (with cushions of course) and my feet on the side bench, the wind now being on the quarter. I did a sweep round Lantic bay close to the beach, and vowed to land there next time, it really looks idyllic. Then on west in a dying breeze, although it just continued to give steerage way. It was still early enough when I was off Fowey entrance to continue to Polridmouth, a delightful cove just east of Gribbin Head (which graces the cover of 0.S. Explorer Map 107). There I stopped on the beach for a walk and another snack at low tide, but no swell. Then a rather slow sail back to Fowey, being passed by a fishing boat towing another and a couple of other small motor boats, which made up about the sum of the boats out on the water for the day. I was able to run gently up the river with the first of the flood tide all the way to the slipway by the Bodinnick Ferry and recover the boat with little difficulty on the now busy slipway. So ended a very uneventful but thoroughly satisfying little day cruise, long awaited through the miserable winter.

And as it turned out, it was also my last cruise with Dinah which has been not very seriously for sale for two years. A week later I had a telephone call from Germany which resulted in my handing her over to new DCA member John Mason for a long journey to new waters. So ended my devoted affair with Dinah which saw her resurrected from oblivion and me launched on a late flowering of the delightful pastime of dinghy cruising. I will miss her as we have had some lovely times together, but at least Jady Lane will not have another boat to be jealous of - well, not as a cruising dinghy anyway. There is Fanny of course, but that will no doubt be another story.