Last Saturday I had a day of ‘own boat tuition’ with an RYA Oceanmaster Instructor – to blow away the cobwebs and to refresh things I’d long forgotten.
We spent the morning going over the boat together, ensuring everything was shipshape, safe, ready for use, etc. Then we covered some radio procedures and the emergency DSC settings on the onboard VHF (Good Mood has an onboard and a handheld VHF radio). Then we uncovered the mainsail, I started the engine and we did a bit of investigation into which side the prop-walk takes the boat. Then we did some 360° turns in the marina – she turns on a sixpence.
I radioed the marina, said we were leaving and I’d try not to hit anything expensive on the way out. Oh how they laughed, probably. We motored up the river Conwy and once we were out of the navigation lanes/channels, I cut the engine and the mainsail was hoisted and set. Then the foresail (Genoa) was unfurled and we were actually sailing.
It was a day of very light wind, next to no breeze at all, but the boat still managed to hit 5kts a few times, comfortably cruising at 4.5kts the rest of the time.
After we’d covered about 15nm we headed back to the marina where we took onboard some diesel then headed back to her berth. Once we were securely moored, the instructor spent some time rejigging the mainsail and redoing the reefing battens to his satisfaction. Then we did an audit of some of the boat’s lockers – what a treasure trove of things that turned out to be.
About 5pm-ish we called it a day; because of the unchallenging conditions I’ve booked the same instructor for another day of tuition in a fortnight. I don’t want gale force winds, and learning how to set sails and trim the boat in very light air was a valuable lesson, but a stiff force four/five would be nice.
Sounds like a good day!
It must have felt great, finally getting her out into open water.
It’s excellent to get out and about. The weather was terrific (if light in the wind department), but to get out into the open sea was brilliant