Poles in the Solent
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Not a reference to cold places in the
North and South, or people of East European origin, but to the deployment of
Spinnaker poles and all the associated knitting and spaghetti: essential
training for those on Leg 2 of Ex Midnight Sun, who should find themselves doing
plenty downwind sailing. The usual walk-through talk-through took
place alongside, before both watches had a go. Pole lifted out by each foursome, and
deployed perpendicular to the mast, uplift attached and secured, followed by the
guy and down ropes, checking the latter was under the foresail sheets (“don’t
say fore sale” says Paul “you sound like a used car salesman”), everything
winched on and ready to go and the pole lifted at the boom end. Pulled in on the uplift and then
with tight coordination on the winches the pole was swung round very carefully
to Port, making sure not to damage the nice little boats moored next us. Then it was take it all down and stow
away before putting to sea and heading for the Before long we were deploying the pole
again, and this time attaching the fore sale so more spaghetti to watch out
for. First the A Team of Kev, Tom,
Greg, Eddie and myself had a go, before handing over to the Andy watch, of Andy
M, Andy W, Andy (it’s my birthday) R, Louise and Emma. It actually looked pretty
impressive and well worth the effort. Having said that myself and Andy
Whitmore – is that Andy 1, 2 or 3 are on leg 1, so don’t expect to put this rig
into practice, but still you can’t complain, messing about on the water, lovely
sunshine and everyone starting to turn varying shades of pink. If all else fails, Kev can deploy his
shiny solar panel and power us back into Gosport, at the end of another great
weekend of sail training and the last before we head off for real on the
expedition. It’s been an interesting weekend,
getting used to and working with a whole new set of people which just adds to
the experience. Next time I see the
Leg 2 crew we’ll be doing HOTO in
Linda
Smith |