JP's first yacht race - Part 2: Learning

Sitting on the rail for my first yacht race was a bit of a learning experience.

Firstly I learnt about what happens when you miss the most important meal of the day - you get very hungry.

Then I learnt that sitting still looking at grey water on a grey September day can lead to you getting cold despite having what felt like lots of layers on.

Later I was also discover that even if it was a grey September day you can still get sunburn.

I hadn't been much involved in the rope pulling side of things. There had been a rush when the spinnaker had been hoisted (above) but this was clearly complicated and the newbie's input hadn't been welcomed.

So I learnt it would be a good idea to do some yacht sailing courses.

Bored of sitting still I chatted to one of the crew. It turned out he lived very close to my sister and I was hopeful that this would be an opening but alas he had an important task to perform.

He went all round the rigging of the yacht wrapping masking tape (or duct / gaffer tape, I wasn't sure which) around the shrouds and their connections to the deck.

I was very intrigued by this. As the newbie, hoping to learn from these experienced sailors, I wanted to learn what the benefit was in wrapping masking tape around the shrouds and deck mountings.

Even after many many years I am still trying to understand this.

Was it a distraction from sea sickness maybe?

He wasn't the only one. The navigator had been feeling a bit dodgy and had gone down for a lie-down and we hadn't seen him for a bit.

Then there were some bangings from below: it appeared the navigator had locked the door of one of the cabins and now couldn't get out.

I was pretty sure this wasn't a good sign.



Concludes here