50:6.51N 001:6.9W
Linda winching, supervised by
Blue Watch Leader - Anne.
Today is my third day ever on a boat, and first time putting to sea. Along with several of the other novices
there is a great deal of excitement, anticipation, and eagerness to get under
way. My previous experience
of sailing consists of watching dodgy 80s soap Howard’s Way, but so far no
evidence of any beautiful people, big hair or shoulder pads.
After setting off from our mooring at Gosport we headed out into the
Solent to learn various drills. First of all
we tried tacking, then gybing, both of which involved a great deal of letting
out and pulling in of sheets (only one of the terms used for what I would
usually call a rope), and a lot of winching. Needless to say a lot of sweating and
puffing and panting accompanied the unaccustomed exertions, but a lot of the
sailing jargon and terminology started to fall into place.
In between the serious work, we were treated to yet more tales of
vomiting and how to avoid it by Windy and Daz. One particular story came true shortly
afterwards, and describes how to maintain the illusion of normality when you are
below decks, in spite of the fact that you and everything around you is being
swilled around like the contents of a washing machine. Top tip is not to hang anything up which
will give away the fact that you are not, in fact on terra firma, e.g tea towels
in the galley.
Lunchtime duly came around and Mike, who was on mother watch, and was
therefore not privy to Windy’s words of wisdom, was the first to feel
queasy. While manfully carrying on
with his job of feeding the rest of the crew he suddenly announced that he had
to go up top to throw up. The assembled company simultaneously pointed and
shouted out “the tea towels!”
The next and very important and serious task was Man Overboard
drills. During this exercise the
fore and stay sails had to come down to at allow the boat the manoeuvre more
easily to retrieve the casualty.
The bright orange clad dummy was duly tossed over the side and at the
second attempt was duly retrieved.
Having been deemed to have survived the ordeal he duly went in again, and
this time we got him first time.
Needless to say what had come down had to go back up – ie the fore and
and stay sails – cue more puffing and sweating.
Meantime, red watch who were the off shift at this time started to
experience sweating for a different reason, being one of the typical early signs
that all is not well in the digestive department. Mike was first to succumb, and
spectacularly so, followed closely by Dave, Khush, Kheira and Ram. Those of us who were up top were just
thankful that we were being kept busy – thinking of something else being a good
way to keep thoughts of your churning stomach at bay.
Various other skills needed to be learned and we discussed the various
other vessels which could be seen in the distance, how to assess which posed the
most threat in terms of potential collision courses, and how to identify where
they were headed, how fast and how the picture would change once it got
dark.
Finally it was time for dinner, which Kheira and Khush had somehow
managed to help prepare in spite of feeling very much the worse for wear. Spag
Bol was served up by Windy who had by now assumed Mother duties, and while most
of red watch had decided to pass,
the rest of us tucked in enthusiastically, keen to stock up on calories after a
hard days work – with lots more yet to come.
All in all a great first day, with lots to learn. After all this talk of vomiting I think
I might have to go for some fresh air!
Linda Smith
