Pellin Harbour, since 1984
Captain Aubrey Marrit sails Wren, his family’s 52 ft wooden ketch, around the Skerrow Islands the way his father and grandfather taught him: to the anchorage that is flat on today’s wind, with lunch on the table by one.
Full day $2,400 for up to 8 guests, lunch and drinks aboard. Half day $1,400, sunset sail $850.
There are skippers with bigger boats in Pellin. There is no one else whose grandfather named half the rocks on the chart. What you are paying for is the knowledge that comes with three generations on one stretch of water: where the tide turns first, which cove the wind cannot reach, and where the seals will be at half past two.
Aubrey’s grandfather fished lobster off Beacon Point for thirty years and knew every ledge in the Tarrows by the colour of the water over it.
Eben’s son found her laid up on a mooring, bought her for the price of a pickup truck, and spent a winter making her fit to carry people.
The deck you will sit on was laid plank by plank over one winter. The brass on the companionway is the original from 1961.
After crewing for his father since the age of fourteen, Aubrey skippered his first charter at thirty-three. Callum still comes down to the quay to check the knots.
The captain’s routes. Each one has been sailed hundreds of times by one Marrit or another. Tap a route to see where it goes, where we anchor for lunch and when it is at its best. Or leave it to Aubrey on the morning, once he has seen the wind.
Full day
Best months: June to September
Pellin Harbour
Slip the lines at 10, sails up once we clear the breakwater.
Beacon Point
The old iron beacon my grandfather set his lobster pots by.
Smugglers’ Bightlunch stop
Anchor in four fathoms over sand. Lunch, and a swim for anyone brave.
The Narrows
Eighty yards wide at low water. We go through at slack tide, under sail.
“The one I sail with first-timers. Any wind but a hard easterly works, and I time the Narrows for slack water so we go through without the engine.”
A ketch spreads her sail over two masts, so she sails upright and steady, and there is room for eight people to sit in the cockpit without anyone being in the way of a rope. Aubrey’s crew does the work. You are welcome to help.
Surveyed every spring, hauled out every winter in the same boatyard she was re-decked in.
Wren only ever carries one group, so you pay for the day, not the seat. A 25% deposit holds your date. The rest is due on the morning you sail.
$2,400
For the whole boat, up to 8 guests. $300 each for a full boat.
10am to 5pm, about 7 hours
Any of the four routes on the chart, or Aubrey’s pick for the wind on the morning. Anchor for lunch, swim, and sail home in the afternoon breeze.
$1,400
For the whole boat, up to 8 guests.
9:30am to 1pm, or 2pm to 5:30pm
Three and a half hours under sail. The morning usually goes up the inside passage to Sallow Sands; the afternoon gets the better wind.
$850
For the whole boat, up to 8 guests.
Two hours, leaving an hour before sunset
Out past the breakwater, round Beacon Point, and back in as the harbour lights come on. Bring a bottle if you like; the glasses are aboard.
Longer days, proposals and family occasions: ring Aubrey and he will work out the day with you. Wren sails from May to mid October.
Nobody has a good day on a boat in a gale, and a captain who takes you out in one to keep the fee is not one you want. So the call is his, and the risk is ours.
In a stiff westerly Aubrey takes you inside Great Skerrow, where the water stays flat. That is what the local knowledge is for.
Aubrey rings you by 7am. Pick any open date this season, or have your deposit back in full, the same week.
Lifejackets in every size, a liferaft, VHF radio and an emergency beacon aboard, and a skipper who has never needed any of them.
Sample reviews, for illustration
“We booked the Seal Ledges for my father’s seventieth. Aubrey cut the engine and a seal surfaced ten feet from the boat and just looked at Dad. He still talks about it.”
“My parents sailed with Callum in 1991 and kept the photo on the fridge. Thirty years later we went out with his son, on the same boat, to the same cove.”
“The forecast said rain, Aubrey said it would clear by eleven and took us inside Great Skerrow. It cleared at a quarter to. Best lunch we had all holiday.”
Wren lies below the harbourmaster’s white hut, the only wooden ketch in Pellin. Look for the tan sails and the red pennant at the top of the mainmast.
Be there 20 minutes early. Aubrey walks everyone through the boat before the lines come off.
Park at the Quay car park, $8 for the day, two minutes’ walk along the harbour wall.
Soft soles, a warm layer, a swimsuit. The teak is 28 years old and Aubrey would like it to reach 50.
Usually the same evening, once Wren is tied up. July and August weekends go by March, so if you have a date in mind, ask now.
(555) 014-1984Rather talk? Ring before 9am or after 6pm.