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Mile Building Trip 06/04/2012

Day 1 – 06/04/2012 – Universal Marina, Southampton to Cowes, Isle of Wight
The crew were to meet at Universal Marina in Southampton at the Bavaria 38 ‘Thunderbolt’ as of 1800 hours. As an almost complete novice of sailing I was slightly apprehensive, I was not sure what to expect. I had been calling up various sailing schools all week to participate in a RYA Competent Crew course, to give me my first footsteps into sailing. When I spoke to Paul at Mustang Sailing my heart dropped when I was told he was fully booked. Then Paul raised the idea of the Mile Building trip over to France and the Channel Islands with a crew. I jumped upon the chance; this seemed to me to be much more of an adventure as well as something different to other Competent Crew courses.
I arrived at berth A4 a bit early yet our skipper was already below decks preparing for our journey another of the crew had arrived earlier than me. When the other two joined the ‘Thunderbolt’ the skipper informed us that he was a replacement. The previous sea master had injured himself, consequently Mustang, rather than cancel the trip and disappoint us all Paul asked John, as Mustang’s Senior Instructor, to step in. The only difference being that instead of starting our journey the next day we would be out on the water within the hour. Therefore, we set off down the Solent with an aim to reach Cowes on the Isle of Wight for dinner. After disembarking with the skipper steering I was given the opportunity to steer the vessel. This surprised me as I found out that I was by far the least experienced member of the crew and I thought I might be given a few days of observing the other crewmembers. However I was allowed to steer the majority of the way to Cowes until we reached the Marina where the skipper took over. After mooring the skipper had to leave our company and me and the rest of the crew found a pleasant, but very busy, public house close to the marina where we had a filling dinner and a few drinks. With us all suitably refreshed we returned to the ‘Thunderbolt’ and turned in for the night.

Day 2 – 07/04/2012 – Cowes, Isle of Wight to Cherbourg, France
We awoke the next day fairly early, looking forward to the day ahead. We were told the night before by the skipper that it would be wise to dress warmly especially with a good pair of gloves as helming the boat would become extremely cold. Due to my packing skills very little of my gear could be considered to be cold weather gear. So he suggested to go into town in the morning and buy at least a good pair of gloves, as wind and water proof coat and over-trousers are provided. This is what I did before he arrived, and I soon discovered that this was advice well worth following, as the passage across the Channel was extremely cold. However, the rest of the crew, being more experienced and better prepared than me already had appropriate gear, so they spent the morning plotting a navigation route across the Channel to Cherbourg. They worked out that from the time of leaving at 1145 it would take 12 hours to reach our destination. So when the skipper arrived at the ‘Thunderbolt’ he looked over the route Okayed it and we set off. The skipper decided that it would be best to take the helm at shifts of about every hour, yet as there was not enough wind to make significant headway we were under both sail and motor. The journey although long never became monotonous as we were kept going by an almost inhuman amount of tea and coffee consumed, our general excitement at crossing the Channel, as it was the first time for all but the skipper. But possibly most of all the incredible sense of humour and the inexhaustible amount of sea tales from our skipper, as it seems that he has sailed every sea in the world and visited every country that has a port.
Excitement occurred when a gigantic tanker appeared on our radar and emerged out of the fog on our course, where we had to take evasive action yet we were close enough to see how small our boat really was. I particularly found interesting after the fog set in and night dropped. Visibility was very low and all we could see were the lights of boats in relatively close proximity to our vessel. Towards the end of our voyage the slowly approaching lights of Cherbourg gave us hope of a safe berth and a good night’s sleep and a fairly complex series of lights. This desired some careful steering by a crewmember, and careful navigation by another crewmember, with myself and the final crewmember deployed as spotters for the lights, enabled us to safely move into Cherbourg. All carefully watched by our skipper, yet he trusted them in their skills, only occasionally offering small corrections. Consequently, we reached the entrance to the marina only three minutes over the crew’s prediction of 12 hours.

Day 3 – 08/04/2012 – Cherbourg, France to Guernsey, Channel Islands
Even after such a late night sailing the crew were up early Sunday and could see the Ferris wheel that partly lit the way the previous night. After we were all well showered and fed from a lovely treat from the skipper of traditional cold croissants from the one of the few shops open on Easter Sunday, with the very pleasant French lady in the marina calling them up to find one open. The skipper discussed the possibilities for the day and in the end decided to sail to Guernsey. The predicted time was 6 hours and upon departing, and from various weather forecasts, discovering the breeze to be perfect for sailing. We unfurled the sails when outside the marina, where we could finally see the wall that the pilot books told us to avoid the previous night. Which was very useful advice as it was unbelievably huge, and an encounter with it at night would have not ended well for us. The seas were calm and we made very quick headway, and reached the headland of France in 2 hours, an hour quicker than predicted.
However, whilst we were all thinking we should have set off later, as Guernsey has a tidal gate so we could not enter the marina until 1830 anyway, we started to slow down. We were all scratching our heads as to why we were making such little progress, because although we were sailing at 6-7 knots the over ground speed was about 1-2 knots. It was discovered that we had made a small mistake which meant we were going against the tide near the Little Russell Channel. This taught me that although sailing is very enjoyable it is also very difficult, a slight miscalculation could be very damaging to the journey, and even someone very experienced can make mistakes. Also, the importance of taking into account all the aspects of the sea when plotting a course, and to get all these things as close to perfect as possible. Yet even then it does not always work out the way you want it to. However, the skipper went below decks and took charge, got us back on course, showing us his vast experience and expertise. After a short race with an unaware French sailing boat that the skipper noticed was on the same course, we entered the marina and moored up. We went ashore for the evening meal, which, as well as being relatively cheap, was delicious and the pint that went with it felt well deserved. We returned to the boat had a few glasses of wine, and fell asleep, exhausted.

Day 4 – 09/04/2012 – Guernsey, Channel Islands
As the crew discussed from the start of the trip sailing on Monday would be very difficult, even hazardous, due to a force 7, and predicted gusts of about 50 knots of wind. But also after an unpredicted motor on the first day, then a 12 hour sail and motor, and an unexpectedly long 8 hour sail, I personally felt a day of rest was needed. We had a bit of a lie-in and a nice breakfast of cereals and toast and discussed our plans for the day. We seemed to time our day of rest perfectly as a number of events were occurring. Early in the morning on the way to the shower a half marathon was in progress, with one of the runners was apparently an Olympic hopeful, but it was a miserable day, not one where shorts and t-shirts are advisable. Also later in the day a race up the hill started, which one of the crewmembers had a look at, I stayed in to read my book yet I could hear the roar of the engines from the boat.
All the crewmembers had individual wanders around the town, where I toyed with the idea of purchasing another jumper to keep off the cold. One of the major problems with our separate escapades was that all but one of the crew had decided to stock up on cash; consequently what we all received from the cash machine were Guernsey notes. When in the Post Office the exchanger had told me, not to have any of these when returning to the UK, as they could not be changed. As I informed the others we were presented with a problem, which was resolved when in the pub later when the barmaid kindly emptied her till of all her English notes in exchange. When the skipper and two crewmates returned from their wander, the skipper enthused about a cafe that he had enjoyed the last time he was in Guernsey, but had totally forgotten of its existence, from a number of years ago. We ended our day with a pre-prepared dinner of chicken tika masala, rice and naan bread, supplied by Mustang, which was very appetising, with the conversation drifting to our next destination.

Day 5 – 10/04/2012 – Guernsey, Channel Islands to Cherbourg, France
I awoke on Tuesday to discover the rest of my crewmates milling around me preparing the ship for departure. I was bleary eyed and confused until I realised the situation and was told we were setting off in 20 minutes. I resigned myself to not having time for a shower until the skipper told me to go and have one, but to also visit the marina office and pay the mooring fees. The shower took longer than I thought, so I rushed to the marina office expecting to pay the fees quickly however due to a slow and incompetent marina official I got back to the boat and we set off 30 minutes late. It was decided the previous night that it would be best to return to Cherbourg as the tides were with us we would have liked to go to Jersey but the tides were against us, and anywhere else would make it difficult to return to the UK on time. Upon leaving the marina it soon became clear that the storm like conditions of the previous day had made the sea moderately rough. The crewmember who helmed the ‘Thunderbolt’ first had described the steering as fighting the wheel. Which is what I discovered when I took the helm, as the previous days sailing were relatively easy in comparison, at one point the heading was 130 yet the boat was adamant that it wanted to go 150 and we would have ended up in the French coast. The waves were tremendous, hitting the boat from every direction, and sometimes the sea just seemed to disappear and we would fall for a second. Also, the wind was force 4 or 5 with bigger gusts which with the sails reefed once helping us reach up to 10 knots, until we hit a particularly nasty wave, reducing our speed drastically. However, this all combined created an amazing adrenaline rush of battling the elements to reach our destination, even when the rest of the crew, coincidently, found something to do below decks when we hit a freezing cold, rainy patch whilst I was steering.
In these conditions it was easy to see that worse conditions would be potentially hazardous to have sailed the previous day. The other crewmembers confirmed all this when it was their turn to steer the boat, with the conditions on the way into Cherbourg becoming very favourable. The sun came out the wind started blowing again, and the crewmember steering was also able to hit 10 knots, under sail. This was coupled with the fact that going into Cherbourg was much simpler than the night sail on the Saturday; we sailed directly into the harbour, with the skipper “relaxing “ on the deck, under sail. Although difficult in terms of being physically demanding this became my favourite sail so far, as the difficulty made it exciting and interesting, by fighting against the boat and the elements and winning there is a sense of achievement. After docking we were able to get a much better look at Cherbourg in the daylight, and restock our dwindled food stash. Our skipper told us he knew a good little shop, and began to lead the way, me and the rest of the crewmates started to exchange glances when the area became more, and more down-run. However we eventually reached a little shop where the owners were very pleasant, although speaking not a word of English, so we restocked our supplies. We then decided to go and refresh ourselves, with the skipper stating that he knew a good place, after a short trek through the back streets of Cherbourg we arrived at a bar that brews its own beer in the bar itself. It was a lovely place and I personally thought the beer was delicious. Finally we had our evening meal at the yacht club near the marina, and after a few drinks at the bar we sat down, had a good meal then went back to the ‘Thunderbolt’ by which time I was dead on my feet, as soon as my head hit the pillow I was asleep.
Day 6 – 11/04/2012 – Cherbourg, France to Poole, United Kingdom

Coming soon….