Yachtmaster
Well it's been sometime since my last post, but I thought I would update everyone with my latest achievement.
A couple of weeks ago I took my Yachtmaster and to my surprise I passed...
The preparatory course took place over 12 days. The five of us: Lucy, Sarah, John, me and John Roe (the instructor) spent a great 10 days practicing various things. The weather in the Solent was a little cooler than I’ve been used to in Oz but for the UK it wasn't bad. That was until the day of the exam. We were due to start our exam at 20:30 on Wednesday and we woke on the morning of the exam to strong winds and heavy rain. We still had lots of things to practice so we suffered the weather and headed out getting back to Cowes at 18:00 - just enough time for a shower and some food. At 20:30 we were all on back on the boat and ready to go. The examiner joined us and at that point there was no going back. The winds were getting stronger but at least the rain had stopped. We headed out of Cowes and off to the Hamble, Lucy having the misfortune to go first. It was a very stressful few hours for us all but eventually we arrived at the Hamble. By now everyone was very tired but there was no time for a rest; Sarah now had to take us back to Cowes. It was another very stressful time and after arriving in Cowes at around 04:00, you can imagine that we couldn't wait to sleep.
The following morning we were up at 07:00 and ready to head out of Cowes by 08:00. John was the skipper this morning and the winds were the same as the previous day - still at force 7. Just to make things better, half way though Johns passage the fog set in. After stopping in Newtown river for lunch I knew it was my turn. I took us out of Newtown and sailed onto anchor, then to Lymington in the fog, with a nice MOB in the middle. After sailing up the river into Lymington I had to take us to Yarmouth, which should have been very straight-forward however someone had sunk a house boat right in the entrance the week before so we had to take a slightly strange course. I successfully moored up for tea in Yarmouth and I could relax a little. It was over to Sarah; she was taking us on from here. The fog was now very bad and we could hardly see half a mile. Sarah took us over to Beaulieu river and from there Lucy took us back to Cowes. By now it was getting very late - I think we got back into Cowes at about 21:30. It was at this point that I was told I had passed, which I was very happy about to say the least. I have to say it is the strangest thing I have ever done; it's certainly unlike any other exam I can remember taking. The best I can do is to compare it to a really long driving test but without some of your senses. I say this because I was sailing with a crew that all knew each other well and sailed together as a good team, but during the exam the teamwork is really compromised by how much help the crew can offer to the skipper. I can imagine that if things were not going too well on your skippered passage, it could feel quite lonely.
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