What am I doing here?

[beancounter]

MONDAY MAY 19th: 2.00pm, off Felixstowe. The boat is standing on it's ear, bouncing on wind (32knots) over tide. The Stugeron aren't working, so I'm feeling a bit sqiffy. It's raining. And cold. Bugger. I look down (!) to the opposite cockpit coaming, where the Memsahib is grinding the genoa in, with a look of grim determination on her face. As we get soaked by the next wave, she turns to me and gives me what is known chez Beancounter as "The Look" - in this case, a look that says "I told you we should have done these sailing courses in the Canaries..."

TUESDAY MAY 20th: Having slunk into Shotley the night before, we now poke our noses out into the open sea again. I'm supposed to be doing my passage planning and navigating (to Bradwell) today, but the current and forecast (f7 SW) wind means that our instructor decides to stay and play in the rivers. Damn, says I. Good-oh, says my stomach, not relishing sitting at a chart table which can't decide what altitude it is flying at. So we we do mooring & man overboard in the Orwell, followed by a thunderous beat up to Ipswich (38 knots indicated on occasion).

WEDNESDAY May 21st. More like it. The sun shines, the wind has abated, & I do some navigation at last. The Memsahib turns out to have a gift for steering a compass course, & we make our target positions bang on the nose. This is despite some intitial calculation errors on my part - well, after 20 weeks of using RYA training charts 1 & 2, a chap is bound to get a bit confused when faced with different blue & green bits...

THURSDAY May 22nd. Our YM candidate on board has his exam today. Another pig of a day weatherwise, and the MOB goes a bit wrong . Navigation by our YM is fine & following the verbal exam, he is deemed to have passed. Many drinks at the bar that night.

FRIDAY May 23rd. Final boat handling, anchoring & pontoon bashing. Still blowing a small hoolie. I manage to run us (momentarily) aground inside the marina as we return. A tricky stern first berthing, and then it's over. The Memsahib gets her Comp Crew certificate, & I get my Day Skipper.

In the car on the way home the Memsahib is very quiet...."was it that bad ?" I ask.

"No - I was just working out how we can afford some chartering - sell the dinghy, save on the sailing club subscription...."

Whoopee!


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[Twister_Ken]

One channel race, started Gilkicker about 2000 Friday. It's now midnight, we're beating under shortened sail in the general direction of Fecamp, but have still got Bem Ledge flashing merrily to starboard, and the Nab blinking away to port. It starts to rain. Horizontally. I now quote the owner.

"Anybody enjoying this? No? Right. Let's bugger off home then. Stand by to bear away and gybe."

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[vyv_cox]

Bet you're glad you didn't have to go to Bradwell! Every cloud has a silver lining.

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[Sybarite]

Sounds like you have a pretty special SWMBO. Mine says if you wanted a sailor you shouldn't have married me. Mind you she says the same about being a housewife !

John

The number one cause of divorce is marriage.

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[jonhenderson]

Okay, newbie here

Can someone explain SWMBO???

Ta!

<hr width=100% size=1>I can't see the whites of their eyes, I'm not tacking....

 

[jac]

Re: Okay, newbie here

Lol - No one can explain a SWMBO.

(She Who Must Be Obeyed) After the character in a Rider-Haggard Book I think. AKA 'er indoors, The Missus, The wife, Ones Beloved, Darling etc.

Have to say My Fiance is as keen as I am - Wants to start saving for a big Halberg Rassy to go round the world in on retirement and she's only 31. Thats going to be one hell of boat if she's serious!!

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[tcm]

Re: Okay, newbie here

hi newbie. swmbo =she who must be obeyed, after Rumpole i think.

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[nicho]

Congratulations, sounds like your Day Skipper was hard won!!

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[jonhenderson]

Re: Okay, newbie here

I getcha.

Have to agree that a keen "SWMBO" is always a bonus. I took mine out for one cold/wet weekend (7 gusting 8) in the solent in a 34' Westerly Falcon, and after that she agreed to spend a blinkin fortune to spend our honeymoon on a Bav34 in the BVI's for two weeks. Never looked back!

<hr width=100% size=1>I can't see the whites of their eyes, I'm not tacking....

 

[longjohnsadler]

What are we doing here? This, I have to say, should be exercising our minds a little more on this forum.
Every country has its great thinkers; Nietzsche in Germany, Gurjieff and Ouspensky in Russia (who thought the human state could only be understood by noting man's place in the cosmos), or that great Scottish philosopher, Caledonian MacBrayne ('No man is an Island...').
On a recent cruise on the west coast, heading south down the Sound of Jura with the ceaseless motion of the sea below, and the great bowl of stars above, our thoughts as one turned to that great eternal Question: could we make it to Gigha before last orders?

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[Heckler]

'99, year of, just finished mayoral year and 4 th year of being town councillor, busy restaurant owner, swmbo busy hairdressing salon owner, just finished rebuilding derelict stable for my new computer biz, staff at one of the biz say more money or else. im fed up tired and want to get of the tread mill, OK go and or else, they do,
i say to swmbo lets sell up, buy a boat and sail around the world, she says OK.
put 2 biz on the market, phone a live aboard friend who says go to gibralter at half term with mam and the binlids and do a weeks sailing course. look in pbo and see an ad for rya sailing courses, phone jack and chris peat up and book a sigma 33 for the week. first time on big boat for mam and binlids, arrive in gib to a taxi strike, struggle on board mini bus and traverse the front and there she is, a magnificent sigma 33, all 4 of us on board, havent a clue what we are going to do, mid october and the sun still shining, look across the straits and see a brooding continent in the distance.
jack takes around the bay in gib asking us to do boat handling etc and see what we can do. no sea sick nada. looking good. we are off to africa tomorrow! sail across the straits to ceuta, do the souk etc with the family, arabic starts to come back, (used to work in middle east) any way night sail back to soto grande, come out of ceuta at 6.00 pm, starts blowing 5 - 6 , me and mam hooked on taking a reef in, night falls and we dodge all sorts, freighters ferries etc, finally 2.00 am and soto grande, mam and kids hit sack, me and jack party time (im 52 hes 74) go to watch the totty girating in the local bar, youthful skipper of sister boat with us pulls, me and jack all we can do is talk about it !!
next day to duquesa, me in charge as part of exam, get caught in fog but manage to get there ok. (sneaky looks at my garmin) next day back to gib.
big question how did we do? suspense was terrible, me and mam are now official rya day skippers, binlids competent crew, immensely proud, swmbo can we charter in greece now? we did for the next 2 yrs, finally the 2 businesses sold and last november we bought our own beneteau 351, sonsy lass. now in pwllheli waiting for the binlids to fly the nest to uni and me and mam are off to the med! and then who knows?
stu


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[Gunfleet]

Dear Beancounter,
You wrote << I'm supposed to be doing my passage planning and navigating (to Bradwell) today, but the current and forecast (f7 SW) wind means that our instructor decides to stay and play in the rivers. Damn, says I. Good-oh, says my stomach, not relishing sitting at a chart table which can't decide what altitude it is flying at. >>
If your day skipper instructor gave you the impression there was more than 10 minutes of 'passage planning and navigating' between Shotley and Bradwell you should ask for your money back. People do it in Wayfarers. Seriously, I hope he did leave you with the impression that navigating there is 90% MI eyeball - anything else would be letting you down.


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[oldsaltoz]

G'day John,

Congratulations to you and SWMBO, good effort..............



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[kynaston]

Join the club

I have been sailing all my life but my now wife had never been on anything closer to a sailign boat than the tripper between Torquay and Brixham. Our first holiday was in Milford Haven with my Drascombe Lugger. I managed to make her seasick going round Thorn Island but she enjoyed it. Honeymoon was a charter in the BVIs - absolutely incredible. Now we have a Hurley 22 in Poole and she is all excited about cruising to Weymouth this weekend. I bought her a sailing course in Plymouth for her birthday last October and although the beginning was a bit marred by the major storm of last October, she enjoyed it.

Plans for the future are to sail and visit her Parents when they have retired to Jamaica. Very soon if Mssrs Camelot or Ernie cooperate, in a few years time otherwise.

PS I love the term binlids which I have never heard before!

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[Ohdrat]

One summer I signed up for a "cruise" to St Kilda fully expecting to be the baby (experience/skills wise) only to find that I was the most experienced.. crossing the Minch after 2 nights of sleeplessness (rather loud snoring from Skipper) and realising that there were 2 absolute beginners aboard feeling more stressed than when before this so called holiday.. I get my first ever seasickness... Believe me the "what am I doing here" question dominated the entire 2 weeks and no we didn't get to St Kilda..

Have to say the diet (way to much bread.. wheat intolerance) and the boats motion, (a Westerly tank) didn't help ... oh and did I mention the ridiculously short berth I had...

My conclusion was that I needed a boat of my own!