First Sea Passage

Hi all. Really really quick update. Spent the last two days doing various safety briefs, "yacht familiarity" and power handling in harbour (parking basically). Tomorrow morning we are all going up the mast, just so that when we have to do it for real (due to there being a problem) it won't all be too alien. Now then, the weight is not exactly dropping off me, so I feel a tad sorry for the poor individual that has to winch me up there. The mast is quite substantial so I think it should be able to cope.

We are then off to sea to do some "man overboard" drills in the Solent en route to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. We'll stay there for the afternoon and wait for the tide to turn so that we can leave the Solent and get past the Needles with the tide behind us. Departure is planned for about 8pm and we're sailing through the night, arriving about 5 miles out from a place called Portland (near Weymouth) for the early hours of Tuesday morning. The tides here are notoriously treacherous so we have to arrive by 4am or we can't get through for another 6 hours in which case we may dive into Weymouth for kippers and tea. Having navigated Portland safely we're heading for Dartmouth in Devon for arrival some time on Tuesday. The rest of week is then Falmouth in Cornwall and hopefully the Scilly Isles (out past Land's End) before making our way back to the Solent for more pilotage. Our Yachtmaster practical exam is based in the Solent so we try to know every harbour, estuary and river inside out by January.

Anyway, have to go now, sorry for the shortness and lack of pics, just thought I would do a very quick update before leaving.

Hope all is well your end.