Navigation and more navigation

Hi all. Just a quick update before I go to sea for 2 weeks to do my first sea phase (of 5). First of all I'd like to draw your attention to a link on the right to the website of Miles Hilton-Barber. If you ever need some inspiration check out his website. He's a truly awesome man, blinded since his early 20's he's done some amazing things. He's about to fly solo from the UK to Australia in a microlight, he's conducted about 40 parachute jumps, attempted to walk to the South Pole, done all of the hardest marathons in the world including the 7 day Sahara one, driven a race car at 200mph around a race track and loads of other stuff. If you've got 5 minutes have a look at the short video on his website and if you've got 20 minutes have a look at the longer one. As well as being an incredible adventurer, he's also got a great attitude to life (as you might expect) and a sharp sense of humour. I've seen the videos a number of times and I still get a sense of drive after watching one.

Ok, enough about him. I've been doing navigation theory all week and I'm about to go to sea for 12 days to put it into practice as well as learn more practical aspects of sailing. The nav theory has been pretty intense, we've covered a lot in a week including estimating positions, course to steer, tidal streams and heights, secondary ports, interpolation, leeway, variation, deviation, electronic navigational aids, speed and course over the ground,....and more. That will make sense to the sailors out there and to land lovers, lets just say that "it messes with your head". We've also covered Meteorology this week, been tested on Rules of the Road (like the highway code for the sea) and covered Buoyage. So it's been a busy week and I'm looking forward to less theory and more rope pulling (that reminds me, I haven't read the knots book yet). During the shore phases I live in a single room which has an en-suite bathroom, tv and a view over the river. Here's the view (check out those Cirrus clouds, they mean that there is a warm front on it's way, which will be bring unsettled weather)

We've moved onto our boat which will be our home until mid September and I've taken some pictures to show you the luxury in which I'll be living. It's a 45 foot Elan which is bigger than I'm used to so for me it's relatively sumptuous. Here's a picture of the boat alongside the pontoon tonight.

Here's a picture of the chart table which I'll be sat at attempting to put my navigation into practice but wondering why the locals at Plymouth are all speaking French !!

Here's the galley, no doubt I'll be cooking up a storm here in the next few days whilst the lads "up top" deal with the storm outside.

If there is stormy weather, you may find me in here...

A view from below to the cockpit where I'll be attempting to helm the boat in a straight line and failing that, attempting to look cool whilst taking the scenic route.

And lastly, this is where I will be laying my weary head after a night watch

That's all for now, hope you are all well. In the words of Miles Hilton-Barber "life's too short for bad wine" so I'm off to find some good stuff.