3 Weeks of Holiday & Induction

I'm here !! I've had a magnificent 3 weeks since leaving work doing Cowes Week, a holiday in Greece and then Fowey Week (another sailing regatta in Cornwall). Cowes Week was manic, the racing is one thing but it's the drinking, late nights and sleeping in cramped yacht conditions (with 3 snoring blokes) that really take their toll. The boat that I raced on (Carolina) came 4th overall in it's class which was a surprisingly good result - we came 12th last year. It was a windy old week, two guys from our class were flown off their boats by helicopter after being hit by the boom (big metal thing, not big sound thing) and unfortunately one of our crew broke his finger in three places. I managed to escape with a hangover and a smile.







This is what Cowes + beer + sun + racing does to two, previously fit, upstanding members of the community !!






Naturally I needed a holiday after Cowes so off I went to Greece and more specifically an island called Skopolos. The weather, sea and food were all just what the doctor ordered and I also managed to read a couple of books in readiness for the course - Weather at Sea & Rules of the Road for Seamen, if you're interested. We stayed right in the main town with it's bustling little harbour which allowed me to do lots of boat spotting. I could be heard to say "oh that ferry just did 3 short blasts on it's horn, it's going astern" whilst sitting on the balcony sipping gin and tonic.

Fowey Week was "quaint" in every respect, the racing was much more chilled than Cowes, the town itself is very olde worlde and the atmosphere is more holiday like. The picture on the right is Fowey and I'd recommend a visit. The Red Arrows did a display which was awesome as usual. The unique thing about watching them at Fowey is that the town is surrounded by hills so everyone hikes up the top and the Red Arrows dive down into the town so for some of the time they are actually below you. It's traditional for the pilots to go to the Fowey Yacht Club for drinks afterwards. On hearing this all the women in our party said "oh, really" and were suddenly interested in dropping past at some point in the evening, however, on this occasion they had to fly off to another display - oh well girls !!



After the Red Arrows we had dinner in a quaint (told you) pub where the food was great but the chef seemed to put chilli in everything. Anyway, here's a picture of dinner and some of the people I sailed with. The first couple on the left are Annie & Vernon, two of the nicest people you could wish to sail with.




So now I'm at the UKSA (UK Sailing Academy), it's the second day at school and both days have been very laid back - lots of induction and tea but not much else. There's 15 of us doing the Ocean Graduate course and another 10 that are doing Inshore Yachtmaster, they'll be with us for the first 12 weeks. It's a very international mix with students from France, Mexico, Poland, Russia, the US, Finland and even the UK !! I'm at the "older end" of the age scale, most are in their early 20's or younger but there are a couple older than me. I've got the course programme now which consists of 12 days ashore in the classroom and then 12 days at sea up until the end of November. I then fly to Gibraltar to meet up with the yacht for my transatlantic passage which leaves on 30th November and arrives in Antigua on the 30th December, so that is going to be one rockin New Year !! I've got 4 days off whilst there before flying back to the UK for a month's worth of exams. The course is extremely intense, I've got one day off this Sunday, then one in October and one in November. This is supposed to be relaxing !!

That's it for now, I hope I haven't bored you too much !! Before I go, just one last picture of.......officially the cutest one year old niece in the world !!