Sailing
Sailing - It was really scary fantastic, awesome and fabulous. We arrived in
Portsmouth on Sunday evening and slept on the yacht overnight, if you can
call it sleep. It was so noisy from the rope blowing and I was really nervous
about the next day. Our second night in Cowes marina was much better, helped
by the fact that we were all knackered.
The yachts
were 37 foot long and there were 6 boats in total. Over the
2 days we had 4 races and out team came 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, and
1st. Saved the best until last. Overall that put us in second
place, which we were really pleased with given that 4 out
of 6 of us hadn't been sailing before.
We had
an experienced skipper and 6 other crew members on each yacht.
Luckily fort us one of our crew were very experienced in
smaller boats, and used that knowledge to good effect at
the helm (the person who steers). IN the first and last race
I took control of the mainsheet (Main big sail). I had to
pull the boom in and let it out according to the wind and
make sure the pulley came around when we tacked and jibed.
When we keeled over on our side I had to control the traveller
that is attached to the very end of the mainsail.
I spent
the majority of the time at a 90 degree angle to the water
helping us not capsize by letting it off when we were really
pushing it and then pulling it back so it didn't slow us
down too much. It wasn't too difficult on the brain; you
just pulled up and down as you were told. I was ballast
for the second race, which just involved crossing the deck
during
a tack or jibe, ducking to miss the boom, and then dangling
my feet over the high edge of the boat. This was by far
the easiest of my roles on board.
The first
race of the second day was most difficult for me. I was helping
Gavin on the winches that controlled the Genoa (small sail
at the front) and the Spinnaker (big kite type sail). All
I had to do was wind the rope on correctly and Gavin then
took over winching while I climbed up to the other side of
the boat after a tack. This doesn't sound that tricky and
it's not really. It was the first time we had the spinnaker
up and I was asked to let the pole holding the spinnaker
out a bit so it went further forward. I hadn't done this
before and didn't realise how much tension I needed to hold
on the rope as I let it out.
Consequently
I flicked the rope out of the jaws without any tension, and
the wind took the
pole and I was violently pulled forward, luckily I let
go of the rope so my fingers didn't go through the winch,
but
I grabbed at it as I fell backwards and it tangled around
three of my fingers, knocking me off my feet and onto the
side of the boat. By now everyone had abandoned their jobs
as much as possible and were grabbing at various parts
of me. Gavin untangled my fingers before it became too tight,
Nick had the back of my life jacket and one hand on the
wheel,
Sandy, who was doing the mainsheet, had my legs and Steve
had one of my shoulders. The wires around the side of the
boat
had my back and my head was poking through. Despite all
this I didn't ever fell there.
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