Building miles as a Skipper …

This sailing stuff takes all my energy … blog posts few and far between! Fabulous week sailing down to Salcombe and back. Here’s a picture of Salcombe – incredibly beautiful and ridiculously busy! I skippered the boat from Salcombe back to Weymouth – dolphins, Queen Elizabeth ship and the Red Arrows all performing for us – amazing day!!

Couldn’t get away from the boats, even in Tuscany …

Wandering around Viareggio – on the Tuscan coastline.

Back to Cowes

Its 5.35am and I am up bright and early en route for Cowes once more. I’ve had 2 days of School since my last post – got my First Aid Certificate and VHF Radio qualification and then took a break from the sailing – back to London for a week of work and then off to Seytroux for a couple of days with our lovely friends – Shirley and Rob. From France to Lucca in Tuscany for the weekend – joined by Tim, Lynn and Jane, we had a night at the opera as part of the Puccini festival celebrating his work each year, some wandering around and a lot of eating and drinking! All good things come to an end and here I am – looking forward to a week of building miles at sea and being skipper on a long passage or two – I have my sea sickness tablets all ready!

 

Royal Ocean Racing Club Fast Net Channel Qualifier Race

9 fabulous women crewing a 40 foot yacht from Cowes to Cherbourg and back via Littlehampton – 200 miles in total and it took us 36 hours with a force 5 to 6 wind most of the way. Leaving at 10am, we headed into the wind all the way to Cherbourg. On 4 hour watches through the day and 3 hour night watches, I got very little sleep! A fantastic experience – very exciting, exhausting, occasionally scary, mad but good fun – definitely hones the sailing skills!

Coastal Skipper!

Yesterday’s long day got longer – set sail at 9pm after a couple of hours briefing and planning – sailed to Newtown River and then to Beaulieu and home to Cowes arriving after 2am. Up again at 7am for more sailing drills. Feeling exhausted but passed the course so now officially a Coastal Skipper. Brilliant! Onwards and upwards – RORC race this weekend – final qualifier before the Rolex Fastnet Channel Race. Will be on my knees by Sunday night!

Day 4 of week 2

After 6am shower we sailed round the south side of the Isle of Wight in force 7 winds with the wind against the tide – big waves and lots of weather! Recovering in Yarmouth with tea and cake before night sail – can’t quite believe I volunteered for this!

Back to Cowes for week 2 …

An early start to head down to Cowes on the 7.03 to join GirlsforSail for my Coastal Skipper week. After that it’s racing across the channel at the weekend … feel exhausted at the thought!