Manx Youth Sailing Squad members James and Greg Kelly are off to Lake Garda, Italy, on Friday to compete at the RS Tera European Championships. They will be competing in the Tera Sport Class where possibly 50 entries are expected and all competitors will be age 16 or under.
We wish them both the very best of luck at the Championship.
JQ has started a new initiative to keep us all learning….
Knot of the Week!
We are two weeks into the idea now. The first Knot of the Week was a double bowline, which is apparently 75% stronger than a single bowline and is also a handy one for making a primitive and very uncomfortable bosun’s chair or harness. We once used this knot to hoist a small Breton lad up a J24 mast at Celtics one year, so it can be done….
This week’s Knot of the Week is an anchor hitch, JQ chose this one after watching an instructor attempt to tie the Pig’s anchor warp back onto it’s chain….. As the name suggests this one if tying the anchor warp to the chain and the bitter end to the boat. Add another half hitch to it and you have a fisherman’s bend and a knot that should never come undone by itself.
Knot of next week will be announced tomorrow…..
After almost three weeks with no shark sightings on this side if the Island there were two off the Sker on Monday last week.
We spotted them from the shore at lunch time and quickly gave Breesh the binoculars. Having lived here all her life and spent the last three summers working at 7th Wave she had never, until now, seen a basking shark! Woohoo!! She was happy!
Later in the afternoon the wind had picked up too much and sailing was called off in favour of a bodyboarding session. I took this opportunity to give Breesh a closer look at the sharks, leaving Jam bodyboarding with the kids, Breesh and I set off in the Pig to the Sker.
Two sharks spotted which we watched for a few minutes before heading back to the beach with a very happy Breeshey 🙂
On Wednesday the twenty seventh of May, I was sailing at Port Erin and a basking shark came right in to the bay. I think it was young. It was very playful it chased me nearly the whole width of the bay. I could see its dorsal fin rising whilst it chased me.
I was sailing along the bay and the shark was nowhere to be seen and then its fin popped up a hundred feet away from me.
This day was one of the best days of my life!
I have been assured by Ffinlo that this summer is going to be a good summer. Ffinlo started sailing with us in 2006 at the age of five. Now aged 9 he has his Stage 3 and is part of the Manx Youth Sailing Squad.
Now, according to Ffinlo this summer will be good because, during his nine years of weather watching, 2003 was a good summer, 2006 was a good summer, therefore the patteren is the three times-table and 2009 will be a good summer…..
And so it began, we went to open the shop as usual and Breeshey and Baggie are there, next thing Jon, Baggie and me are off in the jeep, taking the cover off the RIB, putting the new engine on the Pig and then launching them both. Onto the beach and I’m in the back of the jeep, here we go, backwards into the sea. I’ll stay in here, the water is nearly up to the door, there is no way I’m getting out, I’ll get wet. This is it,the season has started, there will be lots of people waiting at the shop when I get back!
Jon pulls up and lets me out, the excitment is too much, I’m running toward the shop, can’t control my tail, who will be here? Seven children all together, three instructors and Jon. Numbers duly noted in case I need to round them up. And there is Nell, Jon’s niece, I know her, ah, I’ll give her a cuddle. There’s Georgie and Duilleann I’ve met them before and five new friends for me to make. All dressed ready to go, I’ll count them out as they go to the beach. And they’re gone, I’m still here. At least now it’s warmer and the door is open I can lie outside and watch the other dogs go in and out of the dog doctors across the road.
They are back, all ready for lunch. Great they are eating in the classroom, a chance for me to hoover the bits that fall. Hmmmm, a ham sandwich corner, wow, I never get meat from Jon and Jen, they don’t seem to eat meat…. I can’t work it out??
A sunny afternoon and back on the water. Jen picks up my lifejacket, I know what this means, I’m going too! Oh no, there goes my tail again, no control, wagging away and making the rest of me waggle with it….. Lifejacket, concentrate, lifejacket, sit still, just for long enough. First over my head, next under my tummy one strap, two straps, that’s it, argh, tail’s going again. Come on, come on, let’s go. Across the beach, running, running, running to the harbour. The boats are down a ladder, no way for a dog to get down. No problem, Jen get’s the boat, she knows the drill, I’ll meet her at the steps where she can pick me up and gently push the bow of the boat out as I jump in. We are good at this, I can proudly say I have never missed the boat (I might have missed the slipway once though, what a horrible, embarassing wet moment that was!).
And off to sea we go. And this is great I’m up on the bow, wind blowing through my fur, ears flapping away. Summer is here. We go to the beach and I count all the boats as they leave the beach, I have seven to worry about plus one RIB and us in the Pig. The afternoon is calm and fairly uneventful, plenty of time to snooze in the sunshine, curled up in a space which clearly had me in mind when they designed this boat, my own fore-cabin.
Oo, we’re moving kinda quick, I’d best wake up and see what’s the rush. Oh dear, someone seems a wee bit upset, ah, a gust caught him and he got worried. Stand back everyone, this is my job. I look at Jen, she is looking back at me with that ‘you know what you have to do’ look about her. She taps the boat with my new friend it. I jump into the boat. I sit down and look at my friend with all the comfort and softness I can find and my friend is no longer frightened, he has a dog in is boat, this makes him happy and brave and he carries on sailing. My job done and I’m back to some serious relaxing in my bunk.
Home we go now, I’m helping Baggie and Jon put the boats away…. until they get the hose pipe out, I’d forgotten about this bit. Run away, run away, please put me back in the jeep, I don’t like this. Phew, that bit’s over, covers on, back to the shop we go. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven sailors have said goodbye everyone is happy. I hope for more of this tomorrow and every day.
We had two brilliant Youth Sailing Weeks over Easter, seven students the first week and nine the second, instructors Breeshey, Baggie and Jen, Jon in the shop and on RIB launching duties and Jack happy to be at sea again. Georgie Drinkwater acheived her RYA Stage 4 during the first week and her and Baggie were the first people to fly a spinnaker at 7th Wave! Baggie also managed to capsize the 420 while he was at the helm, much to our amusement. Five new students really got the hang of it quickly and achieved Stage 1. It was Massimo’s birthday on the Tuesday and it was my birthday on the Wednesday. Julie and Ruth made me a fantastic PSM Lifeboat shaped cake, which was shown off and shared with everyone. It was a windy birthday though so the group braved the cold sea and went bodyboarding.
During the second week our group of Stage 2 & 3 sailors had a lot of fun on the water, whilst refreshing the RYA syllabus and really refining their skills. It is great to see how this particular group have progressed from being beginners to very competent and able young sailors. Hannah Howitt and Izzy Sharpe spent the week sailing the 420 and completing their RYA Stage 4. They looked very impressive in the boat and last year’s Manx Youth Sailing Squad training has really raised their sailing standard. They had great fun at the same time and were smiling and laughing the whole week. Matt Petts and Tara Murphy achieved RYA Stage 2 during the course. And another rudder lost in the ‘Rudder Triangle’ of Port Erin Bay.
Photos have now been uploaded to the website gallery – after three weeks of looking for the wire which connects camera to computer. I did try using a card reader we had – but that is another story….
Good luck to all the young sailors taking part in the Manx Youth Sailing Squad selection trials tomorrow. Do you best, have fun and enjoy yourselves….
The briefing is a 10.15am and first race 11am.
Over the past couple of weeks the oyster catchers have been beeping away in their own morse code outside the window in the evenings. The two ducks who stayed in the bay and frequented Roberto’s last summer were back on his doorstep the other day and the first gannet I saw diving in the bay happened to be on my birthday!
Last Sunday I was looking out to sea because Jon was on a lifeboat shout (a sign of spring in it’s own way), I saw an unusual splash and then another one in almost the same place. I picked up the binoculars and there was a splash again, being made by what appeared to be the top of a whale just breaking the surface.
On Friday there was a baby curlew picking about in the shallows for most of the day and yesterday we caught a glimpse of the first terns to come back to Port Erin.
Happy times, summer is on it’s way…..
We have a handful of places for beginner and experienced sailors on next week’s Youth Sailing Week and if the weather stays like this it will be a brilliant week!
The Youth Sailing Week runs from 10am until 5pm on Monday 6th April to Friday 10th April!. We provide all the boats, wetsuits, buoyancy aids and kit for on the water, plus RYA logbooks and certificates for all students. The course fee is £259 per person, for an action packed week of sailing, kayaking, games and plenty of fun. The boats are scrubbed, rigged and ready to go, the commissioners have put all the flags back it in Port Erin, the sun is shining and it feels like summer!
