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Notes from the Skipper

As a skipper it’s a good idea to have a plan.  Coming up with a plan is often the most challenging and most rewarding part of the job. There’s a lot to think about, weather, currents and timing.  How best to combine these factors to come up with a voyage?

Provident is first and foremost a sailing boat so I always try to find a route that involves the smallest possible reliance on our engine.  Even more than this, it’s great to devise a plan that gives us a journey, even a kind of story. Often I’m asked what are my favourite places.  I always struggle to know what to say to this.  Perhaps my answer is that my favourite thing is the amazing variety.  It’s great to visit lochs, villages and remote islands.  They all have their own personality but the same island can be quite different every time we visit. I always try to come up with a plan that embraces that change and variety. This always involves engaging with the weather.  This can mean that one day we go charging along with the wind on the beam.  Another day we’ll be ghosting slowly on glassy water with every scrap of sail hoisted.

There’s so much to do ashore too.  Amazing colonies of sea birds, ancient castles, monasteries and villages,  hills to climb, trails to follow and local food and culture to explore. It often occurs to me that setting sail is a bit of a cheek.  The sea really isn’t our environment.  So I always try to devise a plan that is a collaboration with nature rather than a battle. It’s for this reason I’m always very willing to change the plan.  Just because the forecast said one thing doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what will happen.  It’s always best to be flexible and this is where the west coast of Scotland reveals its greatest treasure.  

There is always somewhere brilliant to go.  Always a headland to round, a beach to discover, an island to explore or a bay to offer shelter.  Some days we go far and fast but some of the best days on the water are the days when to get  to our planned destination takes time or a bit of canny judgement, even a bit of effort.

One of the best things about being Skipper on Provi’ is getting everyone involved.  There’s never any pressure but after a few days on board it’s great when we all start to fall in together as a team.  The crew and I are all passionate sailors and we love sharing our enthusiasm and knowledge with everyone. There’s something about sailing that reconnects us modern humans with nature and there are few things in life more rewarding than dropping the anchor in a new spot having arrived under sail, having had the cheek to help ourselves to a little bit of the energy that’s all around us all the time.  

On Provident we can do all this and at the end of the day sit down, relax, enjoy some great food and chat on a comfortable and beautiful boat that many people tell me gives the feeling of being looked after.  As the name suggests, being provided for.

I hope you can join us.

Steve Jones
Provident Skipper