www.Lets-go-Sailing.co.uk
Lady H blogs
September 2011
The 1st of the month saw us in Marsala (God's harbour) in Sicily which is also home to the Marsala wine.( Do you know they export wine from here to France?)
In the previous 10 days on board 'Lady H', the newly-weds, Robbie and Johana did a total of 420 miles. Robbie had sailed before but Johanna was new to the game. Had she been on an RYA course she would already have enough night hours and sea miles for her Coastal Skippe which included the 44 hour crossing from Sardinia. During their time on board, I never ceased to be impressed by her attitude, cheerfulness and thoughtfulness when on watch. Robbie was briliant too, but definitely not as good looking! May they have a great married life ahead of them.
After having lost my crew/hostess before we left Sardinia,and spent a considerable number of hours searching for a replacement, the 1st September saw the arrival of a text message and the cancellation of my first booking of the month. Illness in the family cause the cancellation but as I had come all this way for that booking, I must admit that by the 3rd I was wishing I was back in my beloved Sardinia. I cannot speak for the whole of Sicily, and (thankfully) I will be long gone before the local authorities and mafia bosses read this, but of what I know about Sicily, which includes, Palermo and Messina, it is a dirty rundown island without the visible pride the locals have in Sardinia. Also, and of far more importance to a yachtie, in this part of Sicily decent anchorages and sheltered beaches are few and far between.
Robbie and Johana left on the 3rd to continue their honeymoon via Pompeii, and Rome just to mention two places.
WHAT THEY SAID
Queridisimos Tim & Jack Sparrow
Thank you so much for the amazing time we spent together. Thank you for your patience and being a great sailing teacher. We enjoyed every minute of it.
Les deseo muchos exitos en el futuro.
Con Carino - Johana
So by midday on the 3rd, Jack and I were alone with a simple list of 4 things to get done before our next guests arrived
- Catch up on some sleep.
- Do some urgent varnishing.
- Do some writing.
- Do some cleaning.
While waiting for people to arrive, Jack and I explored the neighbourhood, and it was while on one of these forays that we saw two boats being assembled. They had arrived in Marsala from the Sultanate of Oman for a regatta in containers and were being assembled by staff of OmanSail. (web page http://www.omansail.com
Now I have a connection with that country as I spent almost seven years working there back in the 1970's. In fact, (a little known fact) I was the first ex-pat out there to have his own boat. Oh, okay, it was an 8' ex-Royal Marines inflatable - but I spent many a happy weekend exploring and camping on the coastline south of the capital Muscat. And now here I was looking at 'extreme' yachts from Oman that were here for an international series. Wow!
On the 7th, I was joined by Ursula, an American who lives and works in Spain who had agreed to act as crew/hostess for the next guests plus the journey back to Sardinia, despite never having sailed before. Foolish or brave? Her FIRST day of sailing was in a choppy sea and she was nervous! Maybe this was because we were acting as competition for Oman Sail who were out there training. Those boats are extreme! Oh, okay, the truth is that we happened to be in the same area as them at the same time. But, hey, we finished second - er out of a field of two!
On the 10th we were joined by three guys from 'Eastern Europe'. All had achieved their RYA qualifications in Turkey, two to Competent Crew standard and one to Day Skipper standard. Now the RYA is a long standing organisation which has good ideals, but sometimes I feel it has become a money making organisation which is more interested in its internationally recognised status than it is in the quality of its training and examination system.
Oh dear, that is controversial, despite my attempts to say it politely. But let me give you some examples.
In Gibraltar there are at least 6 RYA recognised establishments, and I have sailed with a number of people who trained there. Now I am sure most of those establishments are brilliant but there is at least one that is not, and they give the rest a bad name. Quote from an instructor/examiner who works with a Gib. based RYA recognised establishment which once boasted the highest pass rate. 'I can't fail him. If I did I would lose my job'. Quote from someone who did a Comp. Crew course there. 'It appears that if you can sail across to Africa and get drunk and then sail back without being sick, they will pass you.'
I had forgotten all this when my East Europeans arrived, but when I have to show a 'Competent Crew' which way to put a rope around a winch I suddenly remembered what I had heard before. And it appeared that SOME Turkey based RYA establishments were no better than that rogue one in Gib.. It reminded me of another quote I heard recently. 'Oh yes, I did two RYA courses in Turkey. - Well, actually, they were no more than booze cruises, but at the end you get your RYA qualification.'
So what is the answer if you want to learn to sail? Well, there is no substitute for mileage. Take Jack, for instance. He sailed with me having only done ONE sailing trip before. Well, it was a trip from Sicily to Scotland in the winter, but he brought onboard with him the all invaliable mileage and, thus, experience gained. Take Simon and Stephen. Both who sailed with me, both who now have their own yachts with a considerable number of miles beneath their respective keels. I say again, there is no substitute for mileage. It does NOT come only by the acquisition of an RYA issued certificate! It does NOT come by going on an RYA course with (what I think of as excessive) 5 to 1 student instructor ratio.
The winds during the next few days with our East Europeans on board were extremely light and all I could teach them were light wind sailing skills and try and teach them some of the skills that they SHOULD have learnt in Turkey, such as respect for other crew members, tidyness and a decent standard of behaviour on a boat which is an extremely small living space! Nevertheless, we discovered some nice anchorages in the Egadi Islands off the west coast of Sicily.
The two 'Comp. Crew' members left, as planned , on the 14th, leaving Ursula, East European No, 3 and myself to do the 180 miles back to Sardinia. But then East European No, 3 (the one with RYA Day Skipper qualifications) announced that he was leaving as well as he was 'not confident enough' to tackle the passage. Now that I respect for his honesty even though it left me in something of a predicament. A 180 mile passage with a woman who had never sailed at night, whose total experience amounted to around 50 miles. To say she was nervous is an understatement, but she made it! She did a long boring windless passage which was only highlighted by mill pond seas and scores of turtles and a handfull of dolphins. - Oh, yes, and a full moon almost from dusk to dawn. It was when I explained that the horizon was less than 3 miles away, and having spent more than 24 hours without the sight of any other human that she wrote in the Visitor's Book
WHAT SHE SAID
Disc world is the best! Many kisses for Jack, Tim and the turtles!
By the 20th I was alone again, having had yet another cancellation from a guy who wrote at the last minute to say he couldn't afford the airfares, and this was after he had told me he had booked his flights!
Jack Sparrow and I left Cagliari on the 21st and arrived in Olbia on the 25th having stopped off in Santa Maria Navarrese and La Caletta. And on the 26th I was reunited with the lovely 'Lizzie'. (My wind vane self steering which was damaged in August. - See Aug blog for details)
And so another month ended on 'Lady H' with Jack and I doing a few chores.