6th – 9th April
We were all delighted to get back out to sea after our 2 week Easter break. The rigging was tightened up and fine tuned before we set off blindly (through ‘fog’) past Roancarrig lighthouse where we practiced our man over board drills. We’ve all finally managed to master crash tacking on to them (at least 50% of the time) and if not using the roximity to throw out the dan buoy and getting them on the next tack.
We spent the rest of Tuesday circumnavigating Bere Island before coming into Lawrence Cove for the night.
Wednesday morning was spent practicing our coming alongside into various berths in Lawrence Cove. Hugh wandered the marina with his highly sophisticated piece of equipment - the lead line, to check out where we could and couldn’t go. We got to grips with using prop kick and wash to our advantage as well as letting the wind do some of the work for us.
Once we exhausted all of Lawrences Cove’s berthing opportunities we headed out and practiced our anchoring under sail. We took it in turns sailing up to our anchorage, snagging and paying out the anchor until secure and then sailing off it again on the opposite tack.
After lunch we headed towards Bantry under Spinnaker. Noel got a nasty rope burn across his hand when trying to grab the guy as the Spinnaker flew off.
We spent Wednesday evening and Thursday on a reconnaissance mission of Bantry and its surrounds by circumnavigating Whiddy Island a few times. Niall simulated various situations to get us prepared for our exam next week. The ‘fog’ came and went for us to practice our blind nav, the man over board dummy kept falling in, the engine apparently failed to turn on intermittently and we zigzagged around to practice gibing the Spinnaker.
We spent Thursday evening in Glengariff. Once safely on the mooring we hoisted Fiona up the mast to change the bulb on the engine light. On her way back down she glided gracefuly into Hugh's open arms. We made our way back to Adrigole under Spinnaker on Friday. We’re all slowly getting more confident and competent with our skills and will hopefully sail through our exams next week!
We were all delighted to get back out to sea after our 2 week Easter break. The rigging was tightened up and fine tuned before we set off blindly (through ‘fog’) past Roancarrig lighthouse where we practiced our man over board drills. We’ve all finally managed to master crash tacking on to them (at least 50% of the time) and if not using the roximity to throw out the dan buoy and getting them on the next tack.
We spent the rest of Tuesday circumnavigating Bere Island before coming into Lawrence Cove for the night.
Wednesday morning was spent practicing our coming alongside into various berths in Lawrence Cove. Hugh wandered the marina with his highly sophisticated piece of equipment - the lead line, to check out where we could and couldn’t go. We got to grips with using prop kick and wash to our advantage as well as letting the wind do some of the work for us.
Once we exhausted all of Lawrences Cove’s berthing opportunities we headed out and practiced our anchoring under sail. We took it in turns sailing up to our anchorage, snagging and paying out the anchor until secure and then sailing off it again on the opposite tack.
After lunch we headed towards Bantry under Spinnaker. Noel got a nasty rope burn across his hand when trying to grab the guy as the Spinnaker flew off.
We spent Wednesday evening and Thursday on a reconnaissance mission of Bantry and its surrounds by circumnavigating Whiddy Island a few times. Niall simulated various situations to get us prepared for our exam next week. The ‘fog’ came and went for us to practice our blind nav, the man over board dummy kept falling in, the engine apparently failed to turn on intermittently and we zigzagged around to practice gibing the Spinnaker.
We spent Thursday evening in Glengariff. Once safely on the mooring we hoisted Fiona up the mast to change the bulb on the engine light. On her way back down she glided gracefuly into Hugh's open arms. We made our way back to Adrigole under Spinnaker on Friday. We’re all slowly getting more confident and competent with our skills and will hopefully sail through our exams next week!
Fionnuala (Commercial yachtmaster trainee)
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