Blog

The weather couldn't have been better with clear skies and varied wind conditions. Using the remaing daylight on Friday evening to get a feel for boat handling in confined spaces, we turned in for a three-course dinner and a theory refresher. Starting early the next day, we turned the safety brief into practice, with a fender refusing to stay put and everyone taking turns rescuing the "man overboard". At the time calculated by Karol, we departed for the open sea and had an uneventful passage to picturesque river Deben, our progress monitored closely by at least three different methods at any time. Karol took us through the tricky maze of sandbanks and tidal eddies, and we were soon tied up to a buoy and enjoying lunch on deck. Refreshed, the students quickly discovered how easy it is to sail onto mooring buoys in the strong tide, the enjoyment only interrupted by Carlo's tidal calculations urging us to leave soon after. Carlo took charge on the way back to Shotley and remained calm despite ships of intimidating dimensions complicating our passage. Here, we bid farewell to Dmitriy for whom it was the last day of training, and after a short break we were out again, watching the sunset while applying the previously learned skills to more mooring buoys. Having being on the move for the last 12 hours hardly diminished anyone's enthusiams, and so after a quick but tasty dinner we proceeded upriver to Ipswich, pilotage in the dark presenting entirely new challenges. A short night's sleep later we were on the move again, maneuvers becoming more routined and hardly giving away the training nature of the trip to an unaware ovserver. Mooring, locking, hoisting, jybing, anchoring, reefing, tacking all where over too soon, leaving the participants extremely tired but happy.

Congratulations to the newly qualified Day Skippers and good luck to Iris, Carlo and Giulia who will be continuing their training.