Feeling fab

I’ve just returned home from my second week of training to find a very quiet, empty house as my husband and the boys are still driving back from my mother in law’s house. So I thought I’d use the few moments of peace to fill you in on how it went.

In short, it was AWESOME!

Last Sunday I set off feeling very tired and slightly nervous but a bit more prepared for what lay ahead of me. I felt far more confident about what to pack, meaning I could get away with a bag half the size of the one I used last time. Which in turn meant I could actually carry it to the boat without pulling a muscle.

Arriving on the pontoon I discovered that I would have the same skipper that I had on part A, which was great as it meant one friendly face. Then, even better, the marvellous Chris - aka Captain Turbo - another member of my group from part A was also on my part B. I immediately felt at home. Unlike last time, I was one of only two girls with many strapping young men to do all the heavy lifting. Another bonus!

Much like last time, we started off with team building exercises which at one point involved my face being inches away from a stranger’s crotch as we all attempted to stand on a very small dot on a sail, so the ice was well and truely broken by bedtime.

This time we stayed on (and sailed) the actual boats we’ll be going on for the race. They’re a lot bigger than the others with slightly more room below deck - like toilets you can actually sit on without your feet sticking out the door (not to mention toilet door zips that actually zip up). I was quick to nab a bed that was in the middle of the boat to ensure maximum stability but given we didn’t do any night sails, it didn’t make too much difference.

Day 1 involved a good long sail out through the Solent to the Needles to refresh everything we’d learnt on Part A training. Standing on deck in torrential icy cold rain that stung my eyes as I attempted to look up at the sail certainly brought back memories and once again I questioned my sanity in doing this.

But once the rain cleared and we got a fab view of the Needles, it all started looking up.

Day 2, the sun was shining and we got to learn all about spinnakers. After a morning of cleaning (a non-stop job on a boat) and theory, we headed out to try out our spinnaker hoisting skills, which were somewhat lacking. Luckily so was the wind so we were able to play around with the huge sails without too much drama. Well except for one of the spinnaker sheets getting stuck in the prop and the skipper having to dive into icy water to sort it out. Here he is emerging a bit chilly from the water:

We also got to pack the spinnaker’s back into their bags. Imagine a sail the size of a tennis court. Now imagine trying to get that amount of sail cloth folded the correct way in a confined space while going over waves. It involves a lot of patience. Here I am with crew member Jen folding one of the spinnaker’s up. It’s hot work, hence the red face:

Day 3 we had a fabulous sail down past Selsy bill. Sitting lined up on the side of the boat with the sun on our faces and a breeze blowing us along while we gazed out to sea was bliss. I also got to hone my skills in the snakepit, the part of the boat where all the halyards and lines come in to and can get themselves into a massive knot unless you’re constantly flaking them out on the deck behind you. It’s a job that requires you to know which rope to pull when while you communicate between the foredeck crew and the helm. It’s normally girls who get to do this job well because it involves communications skills and the ability to multi-task. I loved it!

I was also on Motherwatch duty which involves cooking food for the entire crew and cleaning up. Unlike last time, this time I was able to cook in relatively calm seas although if you look at the pic below, take note of the angle of the cooker in the galley - it swivels to the angle of the boat so that the pots don’t slide off it when the boat is heeled over. Still not exactly an easy cooking experience but at least this time it didn’t end with me vomiting over the back of the boat.

Day 4 was another light wind day but we got to race the other training boat in some seriously competitive races. I really enjoyed the racing and the fact that we were finally starting to work together as a cohesive team without millions of mistakes (not entirely mistake free but we certainly looked a bit more professional). It felt far more like what the real race will be like and for the first time I really started to understand why doing this is going to be such a blast.

That night we moored up in East Cowes and had a fab night out eating and drinking and generally behaving the way sailors normally behave when they’re remotely close to a bar.

Day 5 We set off first thing in virtually non-existant winds and tried to understand tide charts and weather systems before setting off on another race, this time a long one some way out to the East of the Isle of Wight. We won by ten minutes - yay! By now the wind had picked up a lot, with gusts up to 35 / 40 knots. And I got to helm. Gulp.

I know how to steer a boat. But steering a 68 foot, 35 tonne boat in big seas and strong wind isn’t easy. By the time we got to the first mark my shoulders were rock hard, my arms and legs aching. And then we got to do the downwind leg. For anyone not familiar with sailing, this means you have the wind behind you and the potential to gybe at a moment’s notice (which is when the boom swings across the boat taking out everyone in its path - not a good thing really).

So we’re heading downwind fast, surfing big waves, the wind threatening to gybe the mainsail. Coming directly towards us was a rather large container ship. Coming at us in the opposite direction was a fast ferry to the channel islands, with the boat we were racing coming at us on the opposite tack (and they had right of way). Let’s just say that I needed a stiff drink by the time we got ourselves out of that sticky spot. That night I slept very, very well.

Day 6 Was our last day of sailing, but the winds were very light once again. After a final bit of racing, we got back, derigged and had to write an exam.

Then it was off for our big crew supper that involved plenty of chinese food, lots of wine and lots of talking seventeen types of shite.

And talking shite was a major feature of the week. Not a single meal went by without a discussion about poo. Get 8 men together and talk tends to gravitate to poo and willies. Remarkable. I thought it was simply a phase my 3 and 5 year old boys were going through but apparently it’s a lifelong affliction.

But I can honestly say that I haven’t laughed as much in years. It was a great taste of the comaraderie that develops on board. You meet brilliant characters like:

and

These two are known as foredeck monkeys, mastmen or grinding gorrillas i.e. they’re the hired muscle. But every job was done with a chuckle and a joke about poo, willies or testicles.

Living on a boat with a bunch of strangers has all the makings of a potential disaster - but you live in this amazing bubble where the rest of the world ceases to exist. You become an entirely different person to the person you are in your day to day life. I’m known as Mel on board. I’ve never been Mel. But somehow I am Mel when I’m on the boat.

You revert to the person you were before children, husbands, mortgages, school runs, work or being a grown up. It’s like being 20 all over again. It’s completely liberating. You focus on the task at hand - sailing a boat - and you forget about everything else.

So while I am back, tired and covered in bruises and have aching muscles, I look and feel healthy, happy and relaxed.

I dread the huge amount I have to do in the next two months but the old adage of a change being as good as a holiday really does hold true.

Now I just wish I was doing more legs of the race - but there’s always 11/12 race for that….

Tags: cowes, isle of wight, sailing, spinnakers, Training

5 comments May 3rd, 2009