Hermione Does ---is the culmination
of a plan developed nearly twenty years ago to take a yacht to the
Mediterranean via the French canals. The planners are Caroline and Dom Kilbride. The plan has developed during our long, difficult and sometimes frustrating careers in public service. Sailing was the escape. Finally we have shaken off our jobs and found a yacht called Hermione, suitable to Mrs Kilbride's specifications and are about to set sail.
Over the years Kent police, Wilsonians, Segas, and not to mention the Royal Engineers sailing clubs, all on the River Medway in Kent have all played their part in turning Caro and myself into sailors (sort of.) Similarly many people have been vital in the development of this voyage, whether crusty old sailors who patiently
taught us skills and encouraged us as we plan or being pressed as crew. Many, the
children particularly, laughed at our mistakes as we learnt ensuring that we
don’t do the same again, (well almost.)
The number of old
sailors who have said that they might have done something like this, but their
wives would not set foot on their boats has been surprising. Of course Caro was
carefully selected for her sailing potential all those years ago. She has
always been a bit of a Swiss Army Wife with a 'Mary Poppins' handbag. Very useful
to go away with.
Hermione (pictured below) is my 28 year old other woman with beautiful bilges,
fantastic thrusters and a lifting keel. Or, for the sensible, a Southerly 115
sailing sloop with all sorts of clever equipment that we are trying to master and were not present on our old creek crawler.
She is 37 feet long and almost 12 feet wide. She weighs nine tons and
has an air clearance of 16 metres. Despite this with her keel up she can float
in less than three feet of water. The ideal boat for the French canals.
The first stage of the plan is to get to Paris.
But first.....Hermione Does Honfleur
