Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure
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Great stuff !! I could geek out all day on just safety equipment alone!
Technology just keeps getting better and better–-and smaller which is good as well.
I would be doing the same thing---especially when it will be just the two of you for probably most of your trips.
I mean lets face it Giles ---you hit the Lotto with your retirement dream
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Haha— much like IH—- you always “ NEED” something
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Raymarine’s catalogue is the bomb—- I mean, if you’re into that kind of thing
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@Nik:
How did the two of you feel about it? Fun? Scary?
In the worst of it, I got really quite upset, felt very nauseous but not sure whether because of the movement of the boat or because I was scared! The really bad patch lasted about 10 minutes and we now know that was the worst of it out of the way, but because we're such newbies we didn't know that and I was anxious for the remainder of the journey that we'd encounter more of the same.
We've discussed it at great length, and we're both embarrassed and annoyed with ourselves for making some basic mistakes which put us - potentially (although on this occasion I don't think we ever were) - in danger.
Anyway, all's well that ends well and we definitely learnt a lot of lessons. The friend we travelled to meet up with is a very experienced sailor, and as well as helping us dock the boat in a very crowded marina (thank you David and well done @Giles) he gave us masses of great advice, and treated us to a wonderful Thai meal near his (very lovely) home. And yesterday morning Giles did a truly excellent job of getting us out of the marina and the journey back was a great deal more pleasant
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Thanks for sharing this story. It's all completely understandable. I bet next time you hit heavy weather it'll be different, and you'll probably feel more confident. Pretty cool to be out there in those strong forces, as long as it is safe. And it sounds like you've got the training, the tech, and most important the attitude necessary to get through the tough stuff.
When Clara and I visited my Dad on the sailboat he retired onto and we went sailing for the first time we got caught in a thunderstorm with heavy rain and lightning. Clara and I have zero experience on boats and we were both scared. She went down below with my Dad's two boat cats, and I took directions on getting the sails down and keeping the boat bow into the waves. At one point I couldn't keep her right and had to ask my Dad for help, which I didn't want to do, but he was good about it. It's a good memory now, but was not at all good at the time.
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Oh noes!!
I suppose things could’ve gone worse than your recent adventure.
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what are the 3 glyphs under the name?
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them…
Well, I have others. -
@steelworker said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:
what are the 3 glyphs under the name?
SAKURA in Katakana...
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Crushed it!!!
I remember one of those katakana characters from when I used to do sumi e calligraphy and drawings. I loved writing “ya ku za.”
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Part of the Yachtmaster Offshore practical course will be to be randomly assigned a port or marina and be told to chart a course to it and draw up a pilotage plan to enter the harbour/marina. Paula and I have decided that we will do as much "practice" of this between now and October. There are about 20 likely ports/marinas that the instructor will throw at us, so we have a lot to do.
Today, we plan to go from Gosport to Swanwick Marina on the River Hamble. We have not done this before, nor entered the River Hamble, which is one of the busiest leisure boating rivers in UK. The channel is narrow and tricky to follow at times, so we are going in on a flood tide, so if we do run aground, we'll float off.
