Here are the boys executing a tack in the middle of the Solent.
Don’t suspect that an adult wasn’t hiding out of view!
Category Archives: Courses
Blog posts & articles about sailing courses taken at RYA approved training centres. These could include sailing courses such as the RYA Yachtmaster scheme.
Day Three in the sunny Solent
Another beautiful day started very early in Lymington. Paul up at 6.30 to get the porridge on!
Underway at about 8.30 so we could get all the way over to Chichester Harbour – there in time for lunch on the go!
All the boys having a go at steering (helming being the correct nautical term) tacking and pulling the sails in and out (the non nautical term!).
The weather is making things very comfortable but we really need more wind to appreciate how the boat should sail efficiently without any power.
I am glad to report that my balance system is coping well and I don’t mind walking about on the moving boat as long as there is something to hold onto. Sleeping has been variable depending on the marina and whether big boats and ferries are going in and out all night long!
We’ve just had fish and chips in Cowes again and now we are off for a little night sail when it is dark enough and will be sleeping in Hamble tonight.
I think we deserve a little lie-in tomorrow as it’s been a very full day.
10 hours on the water
A long day today and it isn’t over. We were up in Lymington at 6.30 so that we had time to make it all the way over to Chichester and back to Cowes. So 9.5 hours and about 56nm altogether.
Tonight we’re going to sail over to Hamble after the sun sets so everyone gets to experience sailing at night – not necessary for comp crew but another example of how we’ve done more than the course requires.
Wish us luck!
Drilling it in to us
Well, although there wasn’t much wind today we did a fair amount of practising. After leaving the marina we practised mooring up on a training pontoon (so called pontoon bashing) a couple of times, which gave the boys a chance to take turns in stepping off and get the lines secured.
Then we moved back out on to the Solent and tacked repeatedly. Although the wind was very calm it was very repetitive and again a chance to practice something over and over again.
Finally, we did a number of man overboard drills (which freaked Helen out a bit!) – our fastest time was about 3m 55s.
Then into Lymington’s Berthon Marina to check out what was easily easily the poshest shower block in the Solent.