I am part of the Blue watch,
which consists of Anne, Linda, Peter, Mike and of course yours truly. So far, our watch appears to have done
relatively well in the sea sickness stakes. I believe we have the top contender (for
most overboard deposits) out of both watches, but then the remainder of our
watch appear to be coping remarkably well, which doesn’t seem to be true for Red
watch (some though seem to be on the up). I believe that much of the sickness
can be attributed to an evil tea towel hanging at the wrong angle in the galley.
As for me, I personally opted for the chemical defence strategy which seems to
be working so far.
Being a complete sailing novice I
have found things to be somewhat ‘interesting’ with more to learn than my brain
is willing to take in. On top of
that of course, getting dressed, eating, crewing and self-maintenance all take
place at the oddest of angles which keeps the brain entertained trying to manage
the balance sensation as well as general co-ordination.
During the daylight hours of one
of our watches I was pleased to be given the opportunity of helming the yacht –
it’s a novel experience driving a 50 ton vessel heeled over at an angle that the
over active brain believes is defying physics despite understanding the theory
of how it all works. There is
certainly a sense of freedom, power and fun, but that all has to be wrapped up
in deep concentration for the novice helmsman. It turns out helming is a lot trickier
than it looks as there is a lot to take in – potential collisions, maintaining
course (generally with nothing more than the horizon or some clouds for a point
of reference), keeping an eye on the wind direction, and probably a whole lot
more.
I wasn’t too sure about our first
late night watch, but it turned out to be a pleasant evening after all. We were on from 2300 to 0300. We played spot the vessel and guess the
cardinal as part of our learning.
We’ve just completed the morning
shift, where we learned the valuable lessons of good preparation and talking to
one another. During a tack I was
lucky enough to discover the foresail sheet had been loaded incorrectly on to
the winch – no surprises I nearly gave myself a hernia trying haul in on that
sheet! Thanks to the skipper for spotting it in time.
It’s time to get some shuteye in
my coffin (which is also tricky but something for another blog entry).
Oh – and if you’ve ever wondered
what the skipper gets up to while we’re all hard at work on
deck….
Byrne G
