It's Now or Never !

Wednesday, 17th  April  2013
Kings Bromley Marina.

I've always fancied being on a large powerful sailing yacht in a good blow, well heeled over with plenty of spray.

I sailed Boards for eight years both long and short, I've been out in a friends dinghy a couple of times and had been contemplating booking a round the island day (Isle of Wight) on an Open 60 racing yacht until my dinghy friend gave me his Royal Yachting Association (RYA) magazine to read, amongst the ads in the back was the answer, crewing on the Fastnet Race aboard a 72 foot ocean going yacht run by the Tall Ships Charity, so after a phone call to Richard at Tall Ships to check if I was eligible I signed up and paid up.
 

The Fastnet Race is a serious business and the organisers have rules to ensure the safety of crews, so later this month I'm off down to Southampton for RYA Sea Survival training and an International Sailing Federation (ISFA) safety course.

The following weekend its Portsmouth for 3 days training on the boat out in the channel.

During the following three months the yacht, skipper and crew have to compete in three qualifying races covering a minimum of 300 nautical miles (nm) before being allowed to start the Fastnet on August 11th.

Jayne takes the opposite view about sailing and certainly won't be joining me, preferring to catch up on visiting relatives instead.

Fortunately these events won't interfere to much with the cruising we had planned for this summer, apart from an trip along the Macclesfield and Peak Forest Canals in April/May which will have to wait.