Star Date 19042008
2140hrs
Leg 2 Crew collective
blog
Well, it’s 8pm on Saturday evening and we’re glad to be
snug (12 of us) in the saloon. Emma
and Louise’s tomato and ham pasta is bubbling in the galley (they did volunteer honest!).
And now for the important stuff of
how the day’s sailing went. We felt that we off to a flying start because even
Josh was on time (Early in fact - Josh). Most of us had been on the Easter sailing
week, specially designed for team-building the Leg 2 crew. This weekend Alan from Leg 1, flew down
from Scotland, to join us for his first
day’s sailing.
After a victualling (Louise and
Andy drove to Morrison’s Gosport branch at the peak of Saturday morning’s business to buy
enough to feed 12 people for all meals from scratch for 2 days), pre-sea checks and selecting and bending
on the No3 Yankee (Radio 4 Shipping Forecast: north-easterly, Force 6, gusting
F8 at first ; veering SE F4/5 later), the warps were prepared for the yacht to
slip. Our destination was the
vicinity of the Nab Tower, off Bembridge Ledge at the east end of the
Isle of Wight.
The wind was strong and very cold
for the time of year. Notably, the
visibility was extremely poor. For
those that know the area, the Portsmouth Harbour entrance forts were invisible
until we were right alongside them.
We encountered a large number of huge merchant vessels of all types
anchored around the eastern approaches to the Solent, near Seaview. Only when we were quite close did these
loom threateningly out of the fog.
For this weekend, Sail Training
Craft ‘Adventure’, had taken delivery of a new Man Overboard System. Each crew member is issued with a small
sender unit, designed to be worn round the wrist which alerts the control unit
on board if a crew member is more than 20 metres from the yacht. Each wrist unit also activates if it is
immersed in water. Leg 2 skipper,
Windy Gale, planned to do an initial test of the system, while we continued to
improve the sailing skills learned in the week at Easter. We very soon
discovered that there was no signal in the vicinity of the ship’s wheel, so
whoever was on the helm set off the alarm! We attached one of the wrist sensors
to Ruth and eased her over the side.
Don’t worry Ruth, is a fluorescent
dummy! As she floated away from the
yacht we had no alarm at all. Attention was now turned to recovering Ruth; jobs
were given out to the crew as Windy was driving. As we approached Ruth
everything was going well until the point where we had to get her onto the boat.
At this point the plan fell apart meaning we missed her and Mr Gale ran to her
rescue diving under the guard rail and grabbing her by the scruff of the neck.
We had hold of her at last!! So picture the scene Windy on his belly with Ruth
by the scruff of her neck, the next stage of this picture is to imagine Josh
climbing on top of windy to attach a more secure line to Ruth. Which he did
eventually! Then we could finally haul Ruth back on to the boat. We practised
this evolution a good few more times .
Each time the crew drills were getting much faster and
better.
Louise took the helm for the sail
back to the Hornet in continuing poor visibility. She brought ‘Adventure’ alongside
expertly to complete the sailing part of the
weekend.
On Sunday we practised rigging the
stormsails and triangulating the boom alongside. Tom and Andy were winched to the top of
the mast.
L/Cpl Allan Macdonald (52 Sqn, 32 Sig
Regt). This has been my first time out on the Challenge 67 at sea
since the on side training in March. Let’s just say being in the bow of the boat
trying to sort a foresail in a swell concentrates the mind and shreds the nerves
wonderfully. But a real buzz and
good fun. Getting round the boat whilst at sea was a bit of a confidence test as
well. The team I have worked this weekend have been great and helped to keep me
on the right track. I have learned a lot on my first day at sea including
dealing with sea sickness and am really looking forward to my next weekend in
May and my comp crew course in June. The expedition is coming over the horizon
fast. Sailing the Atlantic is going
to be awesome and I am really looking forward to few more freeze frame what am I
doing here thoughts in future training.
