June Newsletter
‘Of course I am lonely at sea, but one suffers less on the ocean in that respect than in the heart of London.’ – Sir Walter Raleigh – Adventurer
Surprise, Surprise!
Emily, shown here on the left, was into the third and final day of her Practical Crewing Course, when she had a surprise, and a big one it was too! The third day was spent onboard Galapago, the Oyster 61 owned and skippered by Malcolm. More crew were ‘impressed’, to include victims Lynn, on the right, and Joanne and we all set off out to sea on this magnificent yacht.
Last autumn, in the company of Malcolm, I had travelled to Lymington on the south coast when he looked at Galapago. Indeed I think it was the first time ever I flew at the expense of another!
Emily looked forward to telling her husband, Will, also a sailor and victim, about her hard day’s sailing on this luxury yacht whilst he was at work.
Marcelo’s Moment
This was Marcelo’s moment of truth. Armed with his Day Skipper ticket achieved in April he took the plunge with a charter on the Clyde with himself as skipper. His first, just as it was mine, also from Largs, way back in 1998.
Just a weekend in the Clyde but a successful one and all survived. Marcelo is shown here at the mast and crewing for him were Peter MacLaren quietly providing advice as he did his first last year. Also in a dual role as interpreter for the local dialect!. Then a harem of crew with three ladies not of a nervous disposition. They all appeared to have had a happy time.
May Day Skippers
Here we are standing on Lian’s foredeck, left to right; Michael, myself, Gordon & Jon. Another great week, capable guys, tidy and good company. Again there was a large tow, to provide photo opportunities.
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Northumbria Sailing Adventures
For these adventures we either charter a sailing yacht or take ‘Lian’ somewhere interesting and challenging. When weather and crew status permit we will do distances, often sailing through the night via the watch system. If this is not possible we will cruise looking for pleasant places to visit with good shoreside wining and dining facilities.
Trips in recent years have included the Orkneys, the Clyde, London Tower Bridge and a North Sea crossing.
We will endeavour to have you fully involved in the sailing of the boat and to consider your preferences. Alcohol will often be enjoyed when we are no longer underway. At the end of the trip you will have a log book filled and plenty of nautical adventures to tell.
2017 has seen a trip around Skye and one to Amsterdam.
Towing Time
Whilst sailing in the Clyde and outside Ardrossan harbour we received a request for help from a yacht, Sunflower, who had engine problems. Mike is at the helm here as we towed her in. They were an Irish crew delivering a newly purchased boat to Ireland.
We never made it there but I hope they did without any more mishaps.
Northumbria Sailing on Video
Have a look at my Theory Training Centre with this video. Training
Onboard the Hallberg Rassy training yacht, by courtesy of Mark Batey and the kind co-operation of victims Andrew and Clive. See me giving berthing advice in trying to avoid the electric supply post Mark Batey Day Training
RYA Competent Crew in the sun, by courtesy of Mark again Mark Batey Competent Crew
In a clip from 2013 you see the appreciation of Ladies on an RYA sponsored day at Royal Quays Ladies Day
Pieces of Eight – Knotty Problems Analysed
South Shields Dalek
The Navigation light on the Herd Groyne shows the correct line into the Tyne and has a complicated characteristic. I have often wondered how a faint white light suddenly became very bright, but apparently this is arranged by a second light.
For this clarification I am grateful to Alan McPherson from the Port of Tyne – he who must be obeyed concerning the Rules of the Road in the river, which recently boasted the highest annual vessel tonnage for 50 years. Watch out and keep to starboard when you are in the river Tyne.
Over to Alan; ‘The Herd Groyne is a 3 sector light (green, white and red) and is an occulting phase every 10 seconds (occulting means that the light is on longer than it is off, whereas flashing is off longer than on). The lighthouse was built in 1882. The sectors are around the white light, which is centred on 249º. The white sector is 5º arc (from 246.5 to 251.5º). To the north there is a green sector and, to the south of the white, a red sector. The white sector will take you through the centre of the piers. The light is such that entry to the port is best in the white and green sectors (as this ensures you remain on the starboard side of the channel).
These lights are powered by a single bulb, with red and green shades inside the lighthouse. In addition to this, the white sector is also supplemented by a single white PEL (Port Entry Light) light, which is synchronised with the bulb. This means that the white light is visible in daytime. The PEL light was installed in 1999 when the High and Low Lights ceased’.
Accident Alley
A section to draw attention to accidents and what we can learn from them
Clipped on yachtsman fell overboard and died
During the Clipper Round the World in November 2017 a crew was clipped onto the jackstay and yet this failed to hold him. As a consequence he fell overboard and could not be recovered in time.
A safety issue identified during the investigation was that the hook on the end of the crew’s tether had become caught under a deck cleat, resulting in a lateral loading that was sufficient to cause the hook to distort and eventually release. Failed Harness .
Cheeki Rafiki again. At the re-trial the defendant has been found not guilty of manslaughter, but is awaiting sentence for failure to maintain the yacht properly. This is a similar pattern to the unsuccessful manslaughter charges against the Signature skipper following two deaths within the Tyne pier ends.
Victims (all) at Sea
Kaye Southam is a volunteer at Blyth RNLI and came out to greet us one evening in a fast RIB. Not to rescue us mind! Kaye did her Yachtmaster Theory with me, catching the revised version of the RA Course which is much more involved. She did well too.
Jonathan Hetherington, pictured above in May Day Skippers (Jon), sent this one in, entitled ‘champagne sailing’. My thought was where’s the bottle? then of course, dummkopf, it’s the view when he was sailing on Lake Windermere. Superb isn’t it?
Gary Michaels reports; “Well I was active until last July/ August when I broke my wrist sailing. Then I became ballast on other people’s boats. Currently General Konfusion is on the hard stand having work completed and getting the keel checked. Hope to be back in the water in the next couple of weeks as Noreen signed us up for the Castles & Islands race at CYC”.
Anne & Pauline ‘Hopefully with weather improving I’ll be able to go on sail again with you and maybe the kids :). Anne and I had our first sail with them (and a skipper!!) in Majorqua (french spelling) last October, and they loved it :).’ Pauline can be seen here, on the right just a bit short to reach the boom!
Jonathan Colwell passed his RYA examination and is now an Ocean Yachtmaster, a truly fine achievement, and is off to do his season in the Med as a commercial skipper.
Paul Kröner ‘I returned last night from a fabulous trip in the Cyclades. We went from Athens Alimos Harbour to Palaia Fokaia on the southwest coast of the mainland under Athens. From there we went to Kea, Andros, Tinos, Siros, Sefnos, Kythnos, Lavrion (mainland) Poros (Peleponessos, Aiggina and back to Athens Alimos. We had all sorts of weather mostly sunny. The wind varied; sometimes 3-5 knots (hardly enough to keep course) to a 15-20 knots (lovely sailing)
One day we set of on the engine (lack of wind) from Andos to Tinosr – after an hour there was some wins so we put up the sails and sailed for 2 hours – then the wind picked up a bit more 15-20 knots and we were very happy. This was what we wanted!
Not so – within 5 minutes the wind got stronger and stronger. No warning signs , no clouds literally out of the blue it became suddenly very strong and we decided to take all the sails down as quick as possible. Good decision because the wind (the notorious Meltemi from the northwest was growing and growing: 30 – 35 – 40 knots!!
We even had some gusts of 45 knots. Waves grew to 2-3 meter high and we had another 2 hours to go to the harbour on Tinos. Life jackets and life lines on !! We stayed close to the south coast of Tinos looking for some shelter but waves of spray water made us soaking wet. We made it safe into the harbour and after moaring we had a well earned ankerbeer and as usual a nice meal in one of the tavernas. The harbourmaster told us that the Meltemi would last for some days so next day we hired a car and explored the island (actually there was only a nice breeze and we could have sailed.
The next day we crossed from Tinos to Siros and the Meltemi was back but not in his brute force, although to strong to sail. Altogether a very good experience that left us with confidence both in the boat (Dufour 385 grand large) and in our capability to handle difficult situations. Highpoint of the trip has been the isle of Poros on the eastcoast of the Peleponessos. Because there was little wind predicted in the morning we hired some scooters and explored the whole island. Absolutely beautiful – with on one of the highest point the taverna “Paradisos” Paradise on earth!! Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea.
Looking forward to our Farnes Trip June 13 – 16th”
Jack’s the Lad
Jack Lowe’s aim in life is to visit all the RNLI stations and take a photograph of it’s crew. Not in a normal way for Jack though – he wants to take them using original methods and glass plates.
Jack took my VHF Course and this image belies his real character – larger than life and noisy! Have a look – Lifeboat Station Project and on Facebook
Just bought a boat and wondering whether to have it delivered or trucked? You can contact us for a feasibility assessment and quotation for cost.
Trevor Jefferson
, my Chief Instructor, is very much into yacht delivery these days and is now in Newlyn, Cornwall doing a delivery from Royal Quays to Corfu. The astute will notice that he’s coming from the north, the reason being that they went via the Caledonian canal in Scotland. Long hops here – RQ to Inverness and then Oban to Newlyn.
Yacht Skippering
There are times when you might feel that your ‘ticket’ and/or experience will not be adequate for a safe holiday. Last summer I had such a commission enabling a larger yacht to be chartered and to sail to more adventurous places. It worked and we all had a great time and look forward to repeating the experience exploring the Western Isles in 2018.
Crewing Opportunity
There is a free berth from 9 to 16th June on “Pendragon”, a Swedish built Najad 373, not unlike “Lian”, for an adventure from Greenock near Glasgow to Kinsale, a beautiful little town near to Cork Airport. The skipper, Rob Langley, studied with me for the Celestial Navigation exam. Both Rob and the First Mate are YM Offshore.
There is also a berth available on the second leg from Kinsale to Derry/Londonderry going right around the West Coast (return from Belfast Airport via Express Bus) on 16th to 24th June.
All Pendragon’s voyage costs free, crew only pay for meals when ashore, and travel to/from the boat. Please contact Rob with your sailing CV on rll.law373@gmail.com for more details.
Reader’s Links
A new section featuring links of a maritime interest sent to me.
Peter Chater has found a remarkable way of plugging a failed seacock – with a carrot! Sea Cock Repair
Leah Pattison sent this pic of Scarborough during rough conditions. A great view from the top of the Big Wheel!
Peter Chater sent this one about a fisherman suing as a result of a collision Fisherman Sues
Nigel Hierons saw this news item about a flare Flare in recycling explodes
Franek Richardson sent this Time Lapse
Phil Butler mentions the two women rescued after 5 months at sea in the Pacific.
Stuart Porter took and posted this great dolphin display, quite the best I have seen North Sea Dolphins
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For more information contact me via my web page
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