Am I REALLY ever going to be a liveaboard??? My confidence is in tatters!
Memo to self.......DO NOT try maneuvering unfamiliar semi-long keel yacht in unfamiliar marina (which has strong tidal flow at springs) one day after springs.....
ARGGGHHHH!!
Wild Bird has now been launched but I'm rapidly losing confidence.. or rather on the more positive side- not gaining any! We had an eventful trip moving her from Plymouth yacht Haven to Mayflower (with a sail in between).. (for "eventful" read - "its good job I'm insured with Pantaneus" )- despite hiring an instructor to help.
After slightly better day sailing last week, when I managed to get her into her berth, albeit with a lot of sweating, I decided I needed to have more practice, and today I enlisted an experienced (read racing, fastnet/transat etc) sailing friend to give me some tuition on close quarters handling. We've been waiting for calmer weather for days- and today was the first possible day for a while (though i hadn't checked the tides)
I decided he could take her in and out of her berth a couple of times to show me "how its done!.. Problem was he did no better than me- to cut along story short we ended up sideways pinned against two other boats with me and another guy fending her off... ooops. No harm done other than to my friend's ego and to my confidence!
Discretion being the better part of valour, we decided that it was not a good day for me to practice aforesaid maneuvers (well maybe he also chickened out as well, after his embarrassment) so we beat a hasty retreat and had a beer and lunch instead - maybe better to wait for neaps with no wind!
So... hmmmmm... any other "volunteers" who know all about medium/heavy displacement long keeled yachts to come and act as my mentor? I'm developing into a jibbering wreck and starting to wonder if I should go back to horse riding instead!
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The life and times of the Wild Birds:
http://art-of-remembering.typepad.com/wildbird/
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Having teething problems-- any plymouth expereinced mentors?
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