I elected to skipper my first Channel crossing from Gosport to Cherbourg. My reasoning was that this would be a daytime passage whereas skippering a first Channel crossing at night would be pushing it. Since acquiring my day skipper ticket I’d logged around 1,300 miles – a good proportion of that as skipper. So I felt ready – what could possibly go wrong? Continue reading First skippered Channel crossing
Tag Archives: incidents
Night time anchoring vigil in Petalas Bay
We knew there was bad weather further north near Corfu and we could get more wind than usual that evening and we did!
It was okay as we ate our tuna and pasta on board and had our regular game of Texas Hold’em poker. Then all to bed by 2330 but the wind was really blowing by now and all I could do was listen to the noises of water splashing, ropes creaking and the boat turning from side to side on it’s anchor. Continue reading Night time anchoring vigil in Petalas Bay
Mechanical failure is very stressful
We sailed from Zakynthos to Poros today and after about 2 hours on a single close hauled tack headed in exactly the right direction decided to take the sails down so we could have a late lunch as we motored in for the final hour. Helen rightly preferred to prepare and eat lunch with the boat level rather than heeled over! Continue reading Mechanical failure is very stressful
Our first (and last) accident
Well, today we did have an accident which taught everyone a lesson and Tom in particular.
Coming into the port of Sami, the weather was calm and we had plenty of time to reverse to our mooring as we had done several times already. Tom and Harry were standing by at the stern with their mooring lines ready to step ashore. To be fair, on most other occasions they had passed the lines to someone onshore and they’ve passed them through the mooring rings and back onboard to the boys. Continue reading Our first (and last) accident