an interesting 9 days

[phanakapan]

Briefly... 1st solo passage Brighton - Newport, escorted by dolphins through the Looe channel; 5 days on a sea school boat in the solent with force 6/7s and gusts of F8; demolished an electric stand when practicing single handed pontoon mooring; man overboard drill with fender and warp resulting in a propwrap and tow, had to swap boats; instructor fell overboard in Haslar marina leaving me and 2 complete novices on board to rescue them; fantastic weekend with Zephyrsailor,Juniorsailor and Powerskipper on a 49' Jeanneau; back to Brighton from Newport, dolphins in the Looe channel again but for much longer- good motorsail making great time until half an hour out of Brighton when the engine died -(plenty of fuel, tried bleeding it no luck)- sailed slowly to marina but wind bang on the nose for marina entrance so ended up with a tow in hours later..sunburn, bruises, wasn't sick once (a first for me).... a few days I won't forget in a hurry.

 

[powerskipper]

Glad you got back safe, its been one of those week. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[romany123]

Talk about a steep learning curve

instructor fell overboard in Haslar marina leaving me and 2 complete novices on board to rescue them;

Hope you charged him

 

[romany123]

Talk about a steep learning curve

[ QUOTE ]
instructor fell overboard in Haslar marina leaving me and 2 complete novices on board to rescue them;

[/ QUOTE ]

Hope you charged him

 

[Sailfree]

Did the "experienced" skipper that fell in immediately inflate his life jacket or try swimming?

 

[phanakapan]

It took the instructor a few seconds to remember that they didn't have to tread water and could inflate the life jacket- just shows you what a shock cold water is.... but they stayed calm and shouted instructions from the water- for which I was very grateful, because despite quite a few man overboard practices my mind went a bit blank at first and I didn't immediately stop the boat. Although it was in in sheltered water, one of the problems was shouting at other boats turning into the marina to keep clear.

 

[fireball]

Heh - I did MOB years back in Wayfarers - I was teaching, had a couple of excellent lads who enjoyed picking up this half filled drum, but I thought they should try the real thing - so fell in!! Without Warning!! I was in a dry suit ... the patrol boat zoomed over to me so fast I couldn't believe it!! Anyway - after a few aborted tries, the boys eventually picked me up - Just goes to show - practices is one thing, doing it for real is totally different!!

 

[phanakapan]

We got a spinnaker halliard to them, but even with me winching and a strong man pulling them up it was quite a job. They also found that getting the halliard attached to the D-ring was a problem because the inflated bit covered it up. Everyone 'froze' a bit/a lot- I kept on the helm and told one of the crew to find a halliard- their mind went blank and couldn't think what it was, so more time went by whilst we swapped jobs. A QHM rib came by and asked us to inform QHM next time we wanted a swim in his harbour... so add that to your list of things to do when someone goes overboard- radio for a nice chat asking permission!

 

[fireball]

MOB recovery

Hmm .. interesting - how was the MOB after you got him on deck? Probably shows good reason for changing the main sheet to a quick release and use the 6:1 purchase to lift a MOB ... but then we have a bathing platform and ladder - so unless they are incapacitated its easier to use that....

 

[Nickel]

Sounds like you had an interesting time of it. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

How long did it take you to do the Brighton Newport passage? We're planning a reverse of that in a few weeks time.

 

[phanakapan]

Left Brighton at 0330 Sat, 1 hour of little bit of tide against and 6 with; motored at 5 knots or so until through the Looe Channel and into daylight and good winds whenI got the sails up and gybed along the Solent;had a couple of hours to play with in the Solent as I couldn't go up the River Medina until 1 1/2 hours before HW. So it could have taken about 10 hours but was about 12. Coming back I left at 1400 from Newport (just after HW) and would have been back at 2300, spring tides helped a lot, but motored all the way until the engine packed up.

 

[Nickel]

Thanks. I like the sound of dolphins in the Looe Channel. Will have to keep our eyes peeled.