Not until 1914 had the use of the word ‘posh’ been first recorded in English. “The cavalryman”, said E.C. Vivian, “far more than the infantryman, makes a point of wearing ‘posh’ clothing on every possible occasion”. Since then, the word eventually came into prominence. There are different theories to explain the origin of the word ‘posh’. The more popular one is that, the word is the initial letters of the phrase ‘port outward, starboard home’, with reference to the more comfortable and more expensive, because cooler, side of ships once travelling between Britain and India. Tickets for such cabins were supposedly stamped with the letters P.O.S.H., hence the word. Motivated by such a historical connection between nauticality and luxury, I decided to theme my second sailing event ‘P.O.S.H.’.
The basic idea was that we would go away sailing in style. In particular, we’d wear sophisticated clothing wherever possible, on board our beautiful yacht ‘Tapornini’. We would pursue good manner, cook finest food and drink good wine while listening to finest music.
I started by publishing the event’s poster on Facebook. The idea slowly turned itself into reality when more and more people expressed their interest until it was oversubscribed. At that point, I realised that I would have to schedule another one and called it ‘P.O.S.H. II’. Half of the people were those who’d been sailing with me on the earlier trip ‘Chasing Pirates’ and wanted to come again. As said by Jonathan, the owner of Tapornini, that something must be right if a skipper could convince their crew to come sailing with them again. But I think, it was more largely because of the beauty and ergonomics of his yacht and charm of the East coast of Suffolk.
The P.O.S.H. I Crew
On this voyage, I had a crew of four. They were Marcel and Anett, who were on the Chasing Pirates trip, and Lisa and Krit, unexperienced but very excited by sailing. We arrived at Suffolk Yacht Habour in the late morning, bringing a lavish amount of food that could keep us fed for many days. Weather-wise, it was such a sunny day but with uninviting rain forecasted for later.
After the engine check-up and safety briefing, we had a quick lunch in the cockpit together. It was a good opportunity to decide where we’d sail to, between the yet-to-explore river Deben and the sandy-beached Islands in Walton Backwaters where the previous trip took place. With wind force 3, which means light wind, and rain shower forecasted for the afternoon, Walton Backwaters would be a more practical choice because it is closer.
With very light wind behind us, we were sailing against the tide down the river Orwell. With a speed less than 3 knots (nautical miles per hour), we were making little progress in an attempt to escape the approaching rain clouds, until it finally began to drizzle upon us. In addition to wind power, I decided to turn the engine on to speed up, hoping to arrive before low water at 6pm when Tapornini’s keel would touch the seabed. If we had gone aground, we would have been ‘Sitting, Waiting, and Wishing’ for hours and hours before we could move again. Completely unaware of what would happen to the engine later, we continued to sail to our destination.
Wet but warm, rain but no storm, helming and singing to Jack Johnson’s Banana Pancakes was a rather enjoyable experience. Marcel and Anett went down below to avoid the rain while Krit and Lisa were sat down and curled up comfortably in their waterproofs, under the rain shelter on either side of cockpit, looking like sleeping puppies.
Engine Overheat
Checking the engine exhaust
The engine began to get noisier, making the now-awaken puppies slightly disconcerted. I worried that the engine had overheated, so I checked the exhaust outlet at the stern. Proved by white smoke coming out, it was really alarming. I quickly killed the engine and opened its cover to cool before anything fatal could happen. The cause of the overheating was a mystery until a week later. I found out that when the yacht was under sail, she heeled (tilted) so that the seacock, which is the seawater inlet for engine cooling, was above seawater. As the engine was running at the same time, seawater could not reach the seacock.
The black clouds finally succumbed and let the timid sun come out to play. But we can’t have our cake and eat it, the wind gradually died out as a result. Tapornini began to slow down, we had no choice but waited for the wind to pick up.
Let the fun commence!
Slowly and smoothly, we were getting closer to Walton Backwaters. With no fears of getting stuck in shallow water anymore, sailing under the sunshine we felt the urge to go a little bit p.o.s.h..
Bow ties and high heels, braces and red dresses, suited lads and ladies flowered hats, we were sailing up the estuary together in style. Caught by curious neighbouring eyes, we waved ‘hi’ to other sailors surrounding us. In amazement, a man grasped a binocular, possibly to check if what he was looking was real. Another talked to us loudly, seemingly singing a song, to direct our attention. We looked at him and danced to his song, he laughed, we laughed. It felt rather eccentric but sailing with a bit of a kink was definitely so much fun. Walton Backwaters possibly hadn’t seen anything like this before either.
We moored to a mooring buoy further up the estuary to stay over night. We hung out on the deck for a while watching the sunset, before cooking together. Our menu was:
Honey Dew wrapped in Parma Ham
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Couscous, Cucumber, Roquette & Avocado in Pesto
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Sea Food & Chicken Paella
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Brownies & Strawberries in whipped cream
Wine: Campo Viejo Rioja Tempranillo Rosé (Spain)
Cooking and Dining on board
Based on the feedback from my crew, the trip turned out very successfully. Because the weather wasn’t always sunny, they were also exposed to a mixture of different sailing conditions. The most rewarding thing for me was that after the weekend Lisa decided to take sailing seriously and Krit even wanted to take sailing courses with the University Yacht Club.
Sailing Tapornini back to her home marina
- Chasing Pirates (onboardphilosophy.wordpress.com)
