The way you learn about your comfort zone and where it stops and what you can accept is by exceeding it by small amounts and for short periods. The easiest way to put someone off sailing is to take them well outside their comfort zone too early in their learning but once they are comfortable in order to progress if that is what is desirable then they must dip their metaphorical toes in the turbulent waters so that the next time they experience them it's not so traumatic. However there is nothing wrong with permanently staying within your comfort zone and enjoying your time there.
Pray tell me how do you do that if you go for a sail when the forecast is well within your comfort zone and the wind decides to ignore the forecast and blow twice as strong or more?
Some less observant skippers allow themselves to drift down tide much further, so were in greater need. Besides, like all yotties, there’s a certain pride and satisfaction to be had from self reliance. We don’t all want to be baby ducks.
Because you will start off in sheltered waters for short journeys progressively lengthening them and increasing the conditions. You are more than extremely unlucky if you are sailing in F3 or less within a couple of hours of safety to experience much more than an increase to F4 taking into account your own ability to manage the boat and interpret the weather, forecast and local topography. If you can't do that you shouldn't be teaching a complete novice or timid person.
Not everyone develops at the same rate. A great deal of a coaches job is recognising who needs a push, who needs a hand and who has found out they don't really like it after all.
For both of them I got them to go on a competent crew course first one insisted I go with her, that was fun
Teaching couples can be hard yakka sometimes.......For both of them I got them to go on a competent crew course first one insisted I go with her, that was fun
I kept my head down and had to explain to the instructor why I was there, I bunked off after 3 days to turn up for my certificate on the Friday evening
I didn't get itI kept my head down and had to explain to the instructor why I was there, I bunked off after 3 days to turn up for my certificate on the Friday evening
So are you on the register now, or not?I kept my head down and had to explain to the instructor why I was there, I bunked off after 3 days to turn up for my certificate on the Friday evening
You second guessed meI didn't get it
Depends which register. There must be one for defrocked priests?So are you on the register now, or not?
One of the memorable moments of our current Caribbean sailing was last week. We left Samana, Dominican Republic with the idea of taking three days to do a passage of only 18 hours. We thought we’d break it up in three short legs with anchorages we identified as possible en route. As we rounded the headland before the first anchorage possibility we realised it wasn’t even worth looking at it was going to be far too exposed in the swell so we headed on to the second. We got to the second headland at dusk and realised that although we could possibly have anchored the charting was non-existent and we were going to navigate on hand sketches and satellite pictures into an area of reefs that we would’ve preferred to be able to identify with sun on our backs so we pressed on. This meant we could either stay at sea overnight or enter a sheltered harbour of which we had scant navigational knowledge but good aerial photographs and an indication there was at least a light on the end of the wall. We approached cautiously discovering that there were numerous lateral marks that were lit and with the surf behind us entered the harbour into calm Waters. It was pitch black and slightly buttock clenching, but we had a get out plan and were safe.From sitting for days I wet u der pants as your oilskins leak to mild terror or anxiety entering an unknown harbour at night in a rough sea…..choose your own scenario
I am not talking about teaching a novice or timid person.
Well I have not got much to do & the F1 Sprint is not on C4 until tomorrow morning
In terms of not following the forecast then you need to be significantly away form your base or a place you can seek refuge, it's perfectly possible to sail progressively in places like the Fal, Plymouth sound, the Clyde and Solent and similar with a good inshore forecast and particularly in low wind strengths. That is the acclimatisation / learning period some will stay there some will gradually progress. It's when yo start to get into the F6 /7 that you may find the jump in conditions stressful but if you have processed such that you are confident it will stretch you and you will look back on it with a deal of satisfaction and even then it's possible to experience strong winds in places like the above where refuge is not more than half an hour or less away.
Hmm. You did ask. Mrs. M and I left Milford Haven one morning about ten years ago and sailed across the Bristol Channel towards the Isles of Scilly arriving off Lands End as it became dark. We had a bit of a moment with a ship that didn’t appear to see us but having resolved that we then saw lights that I had to think hard about before identifying it as trawler nets stuck fast. Didn’t help that they’d got all the deck lights on as they struggled to free themselves. After those moments of excitement we approached the Isles of Scilly looking for somewhere to stop. The obvious place approaching from the northis North Grimsby Sound but there are no navigational lights at all. So with no moon and in pitch black with radar, echo sounder and GPS all being watched very carefully we felt our way in. It’s quite scary with high cliffs either side of you as you enter in the blackness. We then discovered the place was full of moorings and boats at anchor. Trying to find a place to anchor amidst mostly unlit boats at anchor or on moorings in the dark is an experience I don’t want to repeat. At one point we tried to pick up a vacant buoy and managed to lose the boat hook overboard! My bad! In the end we managed to find a space to anchor and as we awoke the next morning discovered a beautiful sheltered natural harbour where we were surrounded by boats. We went ashore and at a small boat yard managed to buy a secondhand boat hook which is still in use to this day. We had a meal in a local pub and the next day at high water we made away across to Saint Mary’s. Enough?Well I have not got much to do & the F1 Sprint is not on C4 until tomorrow morning
What ?
