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Thunderbirds Are Go!
Panic because I really didn’t know what I was doing in the engine room. The engine won’t start. Right, where do I begin? Haven’t a clue. Get a book out on diesel engines. Can’t find any of the problems identified in the troubleshooting section. Must be the carburettor. No wait, it doesn’t have a carburetor.
Cruising Chute & Mizzen Stay Sail
In our short sailing life we’ve had the pleasure of taking non-sailors with us on day trips and weekend anchorages. It’s always great seeing the expressions on their faces as the gib is unfurled and the boat heals over! Our visa run to Rhodes was a little different, however, as we took on board some experienced sailors and a sailing virgin. In this post we get to hear from that virgin first hand!
Don’t Worry About The Half Metre Depth
Lessons learned? Rely on no one but yourself. Beware of Turks bearing gifts: they may say ‘yes, we can fix it’ to every problem posed but this is not always the case. We have now spent £££s on this transmission issue (I no longer call it a gear-box issue as there was nothing ever wrong with the gear box) and have wasted over a week at anchor waiting for various mechanics and boat yards to fix this problem. Still, you live and learn, innit?
More Lessons In How Not To Sail
This trip was a very odd one. For starters I’m not sure I was invited. It was skippered by an old boy who, despite lots of experience, should not really have been sailing. But more importantly with hindsight I realise that some of the mistakes that happened could just have easily been blamed on myself. Let me explain some more.
Bad Skippers. A Lesson Learned
My early sailing career taught me a lot of things about life at sea. Perhaps the biggest lesson was how to get on with fellow crew members. It’s something I’m still learning. Occasionally, however, there are times when one comes across certain types of people whose behaviour is beyond one’s control. No amount of swabbing the decks or slaving in the galley will ever make life easier on board and this can be compounded by a long journey where getting off the boat is not an option.
The Swinge – Sailing Lessons Abound!
After tempers had dropped we all apologised to each other, including poor Lorraine who I think felt partly responsible for the incident, though it wasn’t her fault. It was no one’s fault, it was just a learning process but we very quickly learned that Sam’s temper can be short under stressful situations. Personally I kind of expected this and don’t have a problem with it, but I’m worried about Conny and Lorraine. Conny actually asked Sam to be more patient with us, and to Sam’s credit he apologised and said that he understood we wouldn’t learn anything with him shouting at us. Let’s hope it was a one-off incident.
Crew: Knight Vision
England To Netherlands, May 2002 We wish we’d kept a log of this trip, since this was the first time Mike, Marcus and Jamie had ever been sailing. Actually, Mike had done some sailing in the sea scouts but since this was over fourty years ago this trip was a great refresher course! This trip [...]