Epilogue
Moorglade's Voyage
Ted Wilson
Fri 2 Aug 2013 20:47
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A note is needed about the crew for the last leg of
Moorglade's three year cruise.
John Woolcott was first mentioned in the blog on
19th April 2012 as we made our way from Titusville to Daytona Beach and
subsequently featured as I ran along with Another Adventure up to Norfolk and we
made contact again at his home in Marion Massachusetts. One of the things we had
in common was that John and his wife Travis although born in New Zealand had
spent their early married life in Topsham on the upper reaches of the navigable
Exe. When I emailed to let him know I was heading back to Plymouth to prepare
for the return he signed up as crew. John emailed his old Topsham buddy Richard
Brown in New Zealand to say he was going back to the Exe in a sailboat. Richard
always wanted to sail back into the Exe after an ocean voyage and thought it was
worth the flight from Auckland to the Azores to join us. The third member of the
Topsham Sailing Club trio was Jack Nott who I had met when he was In charge of
the Exeter canal and basin. John and Jack went on to train together as officers
in the Merchant Navy before John went to live in the US and Jack skippered
superyachts in the Caribbean.
Sailing Moorglade into the Exe was special. For all
of us it was the end of an ocean voyage. For me it was the last passage of a
13,000Nm Atlantic circuit. For John and Richard it was a return together to a
river where they had shared their early lives. Regrettably Jack was not able to
share our sail back into the river but he had driven down to Dartmouth to join
us for dinner and a few pints of Otter Ale at the Ship Inn. Before we went to
the pub I took a photo of John, Richard and Jack which replicates one I have
seen in John's Marion house, taken when they were in their late teens sitting on
a boat at Topsham.
The pleasures of this cruise have been as much
about the people we have met and friendships we have made, as it has been about
sailing, or the places we have sailed to, and therefore it seems appropriate to
include the few days following our return in this diary.
We first encountered Yacht Starcross in Rodney
Harbour St Lucia. I went over to enquire about the name, as it was the same as
our home port. Owner Ross Wilson was a bit engrossed in fixing his Duogen and
seemed less than chatty. However he came over later to explain that Starcross
was named, by her original Swedish owner, after the breed of chicken, developed
at the research establishment at Starcross Devon, from which he had made his
fortune as a poultry farmer. We met Ross several times as we cruised North and
we became friends during our stay in English Harbour, Antigua.
Ross wanted to take Starcross to Starcross, but she is a Swann 42 with a draft
of 2.4m, not the sort of yacht which visits the Exe and Ross did not really
fancy it without local knowledge. When Moorglade returned to the Exe Starcross
was making her way back along the South coast bound for her home port Oban after
spending the summer racing in the Solent, so after a day at home to do a bit of
washing, Kay and I drove down to Dartmouth to join Ross and Peter aboard
Starcross. We all had drinks aboard Ross's cousins yacht Robin, before dinner at
the Royal Dart Y C.
Not such and early start this time and with a
reasonable breeze from the South we sailed inside Black Rock, Nimble Rock and
the Ore Stone before gybing off Teignmouth and finding the Exe Fairway buoy at
high water. No problems with our draft in the approaches and, as we reached Exe
Dock, John and Jack came alongside to welcome us to the Exe. They used their
dory to good effect, helping us to get a warp onto one of the visitor buoys in
the bight of the river. The Starcross visitor buoy would not accommodate either
Starcoss's length or draft. Jack took us all to the Floating Restaurant
for lunch before he and John had to head up river before the tide left
Topsham. Starcross sailed on her way the following morning and Kay and I took
another load of gear back home.
We arrived home just in time to welcome Joe and
Julie to stay for a couple of days. Joe is another friend made in Antigua and
who sailed with us in the Chesapeake and showed us round Washington DC. We
managed a quick look at Leicester and Coventry and some pleasant meals together
before they had to return to America.
Let's hope we will meet up again with more of the
sailing friends we made on the cruise.
 Jack, John and Richard, 40+ years on.
 Starcross ready to cast
off
Lunch at the Exe Floating Restaurant
 Joe and Julie enjoy a pint at the Woods Farm
microbrewery
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