Probably everybody can remember things which make you say months later: if I hadn't done that at that time things would be a lot different now! Usually this has some negative implication like "If I hadn't spent all my time doing fun things I would have passed my exam". Sometimes there are the good things however, and subscribing for the RYA theory course in Lent term was one of those. This was a theory course for sailing in yachts (navigation, collision regulations, meteorology etc.). Even better was that after the theory course plans were made to go for a trip after term finished, to put some of the theory to practice. Coming from a background of dinghy sailing (and a bit of keelboats) I decided that it wouldn't do any harm to try out a yacht for real, so I signed up.
Three days before leaving, I'm biking with a friend outside Cambridge and telling him about this trip I'm going to go on. Sailing near the Isle of Wight - how cool does that sound? The response was not as jealous as I had hoped for, he had been sailing there before and got horribly seasick. Of course I laugh at him for that and assure him I won't get seasick like he did.
Early in the morning, three days later. On the one hand excited about the trip, on the other hand a bit scared: apart from Hywel, the skipper who also taught the course, I don't know any of the people going on the trip, what if they are all scary?
No time now to worry about that though: why do I always leave it to the last moment to pack? Andy, a guy who is also going on the trip and whom I should know from the theory course (and of course don't), is going to pick me up in an hour and I still have to pack. I vaguely remember all the mails with detailed lists of what to take but decide instead to use my own common sense, no time for checklists. An hour later I catch my lift to Gosport! Andy turns out to be a nice guy, that is one to cross off my list of potentially scary people.
After a couple of hours driving we arrive at the marina, Haslar Marina, to meet the rest of the crew (none scary). Let me introduce you to them as well. Next to me there is one other girl, Diana, and this is her second time sailing. Then there are two Chrisses, one is a friend of Hywel, with loads of cool kit because he is going to the Artic soon after the trip, and the other is a student from Cambridge who owns a boat for himself as well. And finally there is Jonathan, the neighbour of Hywel.
It is already starting to get dark when we are done with some planning, getting the kit on board and getting the food on board. Since there is hardly any wind, we motor out of the marina and keep on motor-sailing from there on. Out of the marina I am slightly surprised (and a bit scared to be honest) by the in my eyes huge amount of ships around. Ferries, other yachts, container ships, how are we supposed to get out of here? (to put this in perspective: dinghy sailing in the Netherlands is on shallow lakes, biggest ferries contain 12 people, biggest ships are inshore container ships)
First thing to do on the schedule, with the marina barely out of sight, is practicing man overboard. Not very hard, but is costs some time to switch my mind from dinghy man-overboard conditions (flat water, light boat, no motor) to yachting conditions (likely huge waves, motor available, big bows of the boat). Having done that it is already really dark and we decide to motor on to do some night hours sailing and practice with navigational lights. To my big surprise the nicely ordered lights visible on the chart have rearranged themselves on the water to a chaotic mess of flickering lights in all different colours! Remembering the navigational lights of the different kinds of vessels brings some order in it: three red lights in a verical row: not a buoy, good to know. Now it becomes clear why our planning made this afternoon was maybe too light-hearted: instead of going from one buoy to another and wanting to recognize them by the characteristic alone is a bit hard, it turns out to be a lot easier to find if you calculate at which bearing you expect to see it! Getting tired I'm glad that we navigate our way into a little creek to pick up a mooring buoy at around 2 am.
Waking up the next day is a strange experience. I don't know where I am and I hear water quite close to my head! Getting up on the deck I know why sailing is merely a day activity: the creek is gorgeous! Nobody around, nice sky, nice nature and best of all: nice wind! Practicing our conversions from wind speed to the scale of Beaufort over bacon and eggs and then we are ready to go.
A nice force five when we get up anchor, this day promises to be good! We go into the west Solent on a beam reach, planning to go round the needles and round the Isle of Wight. The closer we get to the needles, the more we have to harden up and the more we meet the waves of the channel, rather than the flat seas of the Solent. Who laughed again at getting seasick around the needles? Somehow my mind "I am NOT getting seasick" loses from my body and I spend hours sitting against the railing wondering why again I liked sailing so much? Sailing is cool? Cold and miserable seem better descriptions at that moment!
However, I am not the only one feeling bad, and after a vote it is decided to give up the plan of going round Wight and to bear away to Poole. The broad reach turns out to agree considerably better with my stomach and being put behind the wheel, I slowly begin to enjoy the sailing again, trying to surf off the waves: sailing is the best thing!
In Poole we radio several marina's to find the cheapest one and we find one that even has a yacht club. However, endlessly better than the yacht club seemed the showers at that moment: nice long hot showers whilst Chris and Hywel are making a massive amount of curry: enough to feed twice our crew and two different choices! A good meal and a can of beer, all seasickness is forgotten. After the meal we head for the yacht club, where we are the only customers at this time of year. At eleven the bartender decides we have to go. Instead of trying our luck at a local club we decide to go for another beer in the boat.
At 00.48 successful attempts to wind Hywel up have to be put aside because the shipping forecast broadcast on Radio 4. Having never heard it before, the shipping forecast is a quite confusing experience. The forecaster reads (or rather rattles) out a whole set of sea areas and for each he gives general precipitation, visibility, and wind direction and force. Then there follows a selection of weather stations for which the barometric pressure and tendency is given as well. This then allows you not only to get a weather forecast for the next day, but also a drawing on a map of Europe of the high and low pressure area's and where they are moving, which then gives you an indication of a long term forecast. After the first shock of the amount of data per second is overcome, it is really cool! We figure out the weather for the next couple of days and then finally time for bed, tomorrow we already have to head back for Haslar marina!
The next morning offers a nice bit of tacking out of Poole, especially since we try (and succeed) to overtake this nice (presumably faster) yacht with a crew that looks professional wearing all the same kit. "Nice kit but poor tacking" judge the Cambridge students. Finding our way up the west Solent again the wind eases to a gentle breeze and the sun comes out as well, really nice! We have to go back along the shortest route (which is a straight line in this case) but that doesn't reduce the fun. Trimming the sails, including putting Hywel up the boom to improve the shape of our mainsail, and some discussions about how a keel works, all accompanied by some nice biscuits and cheese and pepperoni as an alternative lunch. All too soon we arrive back in Haslar Marina.
Although in a boat you adjust your time schedule to the speed of the boat, back on shore appointments take over again and several people have to rush to be back in time. On the way back in the car sunset makes me regret I'm not on the boat and I decide yachting is just as cool as dinghy sailing. May-week sailing and Scotland are coming up, some nice trips to look forward to! At the time this is written, those trips have been run already and they were well worth coming on (who invented the anti-seasickness pills should get the Nobel prize!) Now new trips are being planned, and on a more practical level, study has taken over again. But now at least I have a reason to study: to get a nice job to pay for my own racing yacht!