1 Feb 09 - Second day practical Day Skipper

29 nautical miles

Day two the weather was much kinder to us - some rain to start with but really nice sailing weather for the rest of the day.

The first exercise Andreas showed was maneuvering the boat in the marina - both turning and coming alongside a fuel pontoon. I had been really looking forward to this as controlling a yacht inside a marina was something I had no experience with. The propwalk behaved exactly as described in all the books I had read, and with little wind affecting the hull I would be confident to control a yacht around the marina now.

When we got out from the marina to start with we sailed with full main and genoa, but then changed to fully reefed main and half genoa after about 45 minutes.

The first exercise on the sea was man overboard. Andreas made it look so simple - first we put the boat into 'hove to' position, start the engine, head downwind for eight boat lengths then come up toward the man overboard till we are alongside.

For the exercise, we were using a rope tied to a fender - which meant we had to come exactly alongside to pick up with the boat hook rather than a few metres away for safety and use a line to the man overboard.

To the right you can see Andreas example of how to do it.

Next Michalis did it and looked almost smoother than Andreas. His attempt is shown on the left. Smooth and clean.

OK, so how difficult is this... I was about to find out! My turn was next.

My first attempt, we 'hove to', no problem with that, I have done it many times in the dinghy, then furled the genoa, started the engine and headed downwind...

No... I didn't quite head downwind... in the thinking about the man overboard I was forgetting tiller/wheel and steered the wrong way for a bit in a broad reach rather than downwind run. Then I came up too fast to the man overboard, so went round for another attempt.

The second attempt was much better and would have be possible to rescue the man overboard if it had been a real man overboard as we were about 2-3 metres away and could have thrown an line. However it was too far for a boat hook so we went round again and picked it up correctly this time.

As Andreas explained, a lot of this is related to boat handling as much as the picking up a man overboard.

Both True North and True North 2 were out today - were were on True North and this is a photo of True North 2, a larger boat than the one we were on and made by Bavaria Yachts and... very new... just a few weeks old. Its main job is to be available for charters whereas the one we are on will be maintained for RYA training courses.

The aim for the rest of the day was to go through all the points of sailing and to practice tacking and gybeing... but it turned out to be a mini-race between the two yachts. A little competition never hurts to make people keen to do it better!

Just being out on the water, helming a 40 foot yacht was so wonderful. I think Andreas must be blessed to be paid to spend his time in such and enjoyable way. I think I might have had a different choice of career if I chose now!

The recommended way for gybeing is to bring the main to centre, gybe and then let out again. On the dinghy I would just hold the main sheets near the boom to control the gybe. However, I have both centre and end sheeting on the boom so controlling is not that easy. This seemed a better technique even for a dinghy so I will try this when I am on on Galini next.

We sailed past a ship with a fast deploy life boat. Now those do sound fun to be in... not! Andreas thought it was the munitions ship that the Americans had apprehended and suspected of arms running to Gaza. Now sitting 'under arrest' or something like that, in Limassol bay. There is a lot in the news about this, but here is one link: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=105&sid=1589136

But I have a credibility problem... you see... some friends of mine took a 30 foot catamaran to take medical supplies to Gaza. They were stopped by the Israeli navy. How on earth could a ship the size of the one in the photo ever get into Palestine without the Israeli navy knowing? Even a small 20 motor yacht was rammed by the Israeli navy taking in aid supplies. It just doesn't make sense. Something is very strange about this story!

But the race is still on... as we grab a bite to eat, True North 2 comes up and overtakes us.

There are shouts between the two boats. Most in Greek so I didn't understand. Of course they are a bigger boat so they should go faster... and of course we are taking a lunch break... and of course they might be cheating somehow...

It is beautiful sailing weather. Tacking up close to the shore we manage to overtake them.


This course is reminding me very much of my TV Conversion Course many, many years ago at the BBC. I had worked in radio and was confident in my abilities in radio - that didn't mean I was perfect and I knew I still had loads to learn, but then I moved to TV and so did a TV Conversion Course. Mostly it was the same but... different. Well that's how I feel about the Day Skipper Course. The yacht behaves the same as the dinghy but... different.

I know that sailing the dinghy I still have a lot to learn, but I'm confident to get us from place A to place B without any problems... but I spend my time kicking myself on the yacht when, because I am so used to a tiller, I move the wheel the wrong way, or when I just cannot seem to feel the wind in the same way I do on the dinghy... or cannot read the leech of the sail in the same way as the dinghy. What I need to find is a tame yacht owner who will invite me out to spend days with them on the yacht.

One thing that was strange was coiling ropes. Actually it was coiling ropes that first made me think of the TV Conversion Course similarity. I have been coiling ropes and cables for maybe 35 years now. At times coiling more than 50 cables in a day. More than 99% of the cables I coil are right handed lay, like right handed lay ropes, so back all those years I was taught to let the lay fall under your thumb... in other words a right handed lay rope would be coiled with your right hand.

Now modern synthetic ropes don't really have a lay so you can coil them either way and for most people, I gather, who are right handed, coiling as if they were left hand lay would be easier. Ah... but... not if you have been coiling right handed cables without having to think about it for 35 years. My hands just refused to do it as they should and so I still coil ropes as if they are right hand lay, much to Andreas horror, but he's tolerant of my idiosyncrasies.

Then I thought about all the little conversion things... I'm really enjoying this course, but I frequently feel like a total idiot, not able to do easily what I can confidently do in the dinghy... much like I felt 30 years ago on my TV Conversion Course trying to operate a TV boom. Of course it came with time and practice as I am sure it will with the yacht sailing.

Finally we turn and broad reach all the way back, gybeing on the turns. In theory it would have been almost a deadwind run, but we were reefed on main and genoa so broad reaching and gybeing is much safer. Here's Michalis at the helm. Just from his face you can see how enjoyable this course is.

Want to join us? True North Yachting RYA Training Centre.

31 Jan 09 - First day practical Day Skipper

12 nautical miles

This is the navigation station from the 40 foot Juneau yacht that Andreas of True North Yachting uses for the Day Skipper practicals. The left hand panel is fuses and switches for power. In the middle is chart plotter/radar and VHF radio and then on the right is Navtex.

The SOLAS [Safety of Life at Sea] Convention has a chapter called GMDSS [Global Maritime Distress and Safety System] and part of that system is the Navtex system. Navtex provides text messages to boats within 250 miles of a coastal station. In our case the coastal station is on mount Olympus in the centre of Cyprus.

You can also download many of the Navtex messages from the Internet. Looking forward to the course all week I had been watching the weather forecasts and reading the Navtex messages. Navtex gives out many types of alerts - one type being 'Nav warnings'. Mid January there was the following series of warnings about a sunk yacht to the west of Cyprus that was still partly on the surface and so a danger to shipping and in the south-west of Cyprus.

ZCZC MA02
100200UTC JAN 2009
CYPRUSRADIO NAV WRNG NR 02
FOLLOWING RECEIVED FROM CYPRUS PORTS AUTHORITY

QUOTE:
YACHT 'JOHARA' HAS BEEN SUNK IN POSITION 34 54N 032 02E WITH HER PROW NOT COMPLETELY SUNK AND CAUSES A DANGER TO NAVIGATION ALL SHIPS ARE REQUESTED TO BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN AND IF THEY ARE PASSING THROUGH OR NEAR THIS POSITION.

UNQUOTE

CAUTION ADVISED
CYPRUSRADIO/5BA
NNNN

They updated it to show the drift a few days later. Note how the Navtex reception for this message was not perfect, but still understandable.

ZCZC MA31121200UTC JAN 2009
:6047'4-$89 ,-= 24,& 4 03
FOLOWING RECEIVEDFRO CYPRUS PORT AUTHORTY

QUOTE:
YACHT '9#-4-' WHICH HAS BEEN SUNK IN PSN 34 54N 032 02E NOWDRIFTED IN POSITION 4 31.12N 032 44.59E WITH APAT OF HER OF APPROXIMATELY 1,5 MTRS ABOVE TH SURFACE OF THE WATER AND CAUES A DANGER TO NAVIGATIO. ALLSHIS AND VESSELS ARE REQUSTED TO BE VERY CAREFUL WHN AND IF THEY ARE PASSING THROUGH OR NEAR THIS POSITION.
UNQUOTE

CAUTION ADVISD
CYPRUSRADIO/5BA
NNNN

There were also Navigational warnings about the UN force in Lebanon doing live firing exercises off the coast of Cyprus. These were about 40 nautical miles east-south-east of us.

ZCZC MA08
241200UTC JAN 2009
CYPRUSRADIO NAV WRNG NR08=
FOLLOWING RECEIVED FROM NOTAMS:
UNIFIL NAVY WILL CARRY OUT LIVE ARTILLERY EXERCISE
FROM: 07:00 UTC 25TH OF JAN 2009
UNTIL 17:00 UTC 31ST OF JAN 2009
BETWEEN CYPRUS AND LEBANON
AT AREA BARBARA 1
34 37,00N 034 00,00E
34 25,00N 034 20,00E
34 00.00N 034 08,00E
34 10,00N 034 00,00E
EXERCISE WILL BE CONDUCTED THROUGH FULL COORDINATION WITH NICOSIA
ACC. SFC - FL200 JAN 25TH 0700-1100 UTC, 1300-1700 UTC, 26TH 0100-0500 UTC,
28TH 0700-1100 UTC, 1300-1700 UTC, 1900-2300 UTC, 31ST 0700-1100 AND 1300-1700 UTC
AT AREA BARBARA 2
34 23,00N 034 24,00E
34 15,00N 034 36,00E
34 00,00N 034 33,00E
34 00,00N 034 14,00E
EXERCISE WILL BE CONDUCTED THROUGH FULL COORDINATION WITH NICOSIA
ACC. SFC - FL200 JAN 28TH 0530-1030 UTC, 1200-1500 UTC, 29TH 0700-1000 UTC,
AND 31ST 1300-1700UTC
CAUTION ADVISED
CYPRUSRADIO/5BA
NNNN

I plotted all those onto Google Earth to see how relevant they might be to sailing in the course. Actually we would be nowhere near the relevant areas, but it was a good exercise.

The weather forecast for the first day was questionable, [Navtex forecast shown below] but we did manage to get out for a couple of hours sailing.

ZCZC ME62
311600 U.T.C. JAN 2009
CYPRUSRADIO WEATHER FORECAST
FOR THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN

PART 1 : NO GALE

PART 2 : SYNOPSIS OF SURFACE WEATHER
CHART 311200 U.T.C.
BAROMETRIC LOW 1006HPA OVER TURKEY FILLING

PART 3: FORECASTS FOR 24 HOURS
311800 TO 011800 U.T.C.
WIND IN BEAUFORT SCALE

SOUTHEAST KRITIKO:
--------------------------
RISK OF LOCAL SHOWERS
WEST TO NORTHWEST 4 TO 5 LATER 4
SLIGHT TO MODERATE
LOCALLY MODERATE

DELTA:
--------
LOCAL SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS
WEST 4 TO 5
MODERATE
MODERATE

CRUSADE:
-----------
LOCAL SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS
SOUTHWEST TO WEST 4 TO 5
MODERATE
MODERATE

TAURUS:
----------
LOCAL SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSORMS
WEST 4 LOCALLY UP TO 5
SLIGHT TO MODERATE
MODERATE
NNNN

We could not do many of the exercises needed for the Day Skipper course since the conditions were too inclement. But just being out there and feeling what its like steering a much bigger boat than mine in a blow was worth it.

Everything on a yacht is much slower - she responds slower and so all movements of the helm must be slower and anticipate how the boat will move before she does. I found the wheel steering somewhat more difficult than a tiller.

It was interesting to see how she sailed up and down the swells. I tried steering like I would on the dinghy, and the way Daniel [my son who is lifeboat cox] recommends - turning into each approaching wave and back on course down the back of the wave, but that made us zig-zag more than would maybe be necessary on a yacht compared to a dinghy.

During the time we were out sailing there was a Navtex Search and Rescue alert about an EPIRB set off about 80 nautical miles to the south-west of us. And that is plotted onto the chart above too.

ZCZC MD01
31 1245 UTC JAN
CYPRUSRADIO URGENCY SIGNAL NR1=
THE FOLLOWING RECEIVED FROM RCC LARNACA

QUOTE
DISTRESS ALERT HAS BEEN RECEIVED FROM UNKNOWN SOURCE ON FREQUENCY 243MHZ ON 31 JAN 2009 AT 12:29 UTC AT POSITION:

33 30.0N 032 20.6E

ALL SHIPS SAILING IN THE AREA ARE REQUESTED TO KEEP A SHARP LOOKOUT AND RENDER ASSISTANCE IF NECESSARY INFORMING CYPRUS RADIO AS APPROPRIATE

ALL SHIPS SAILING IN THE AREA ARE REQUESTED TO CHECK THEIR EQUIPMENT AND IF ACTIVATED TO SET IT OFF, REPORTING TO CYPRUS RADIO SOONEST WITH ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
UNQUOTE
CYPRUSRADIO/5BA
NNNN

18 January 2009 - first sail of the season

9 nautical miles

This is the first sail of the year. Yesterday I fitted new shrouds to Galini and Tim fitted a bow plate to enable him to re-fit the furling drum to his trimaran, and then he suggested we went out for a sail today. Since the weather looked good... we went.

I know for hardy English sailors who wear wetsuits et al, Cyprus winter is just like English summer... but for us its quite cold. I'm even wearing a sweatshirt and Tim wished he had worn one!

The sailing was great and Galini looks much nicer with her new shrouds. The old shrouds had thin electrical ducting around them to protect the sails, but the new ones have clear plastic tube and it looks much better. This being Cyprus... the chandler didn't sell the 3mm stainless steel wire, but did to the ends. So I bought the wire and tubing elsewhere and took it to him for fixing. He was not impressed with the idea, saying he had tried before and it was impossible to thread 3mm wire through tube like that. So... I squirted WD40 into the tube and let it run the whole length as a lubricant and than the wire went in easily. The chandler was amazed.

We sailed down to Dhekelia and and back. Dhekelia club had a few boats out but we arrived just about lunch time and they were heading in for a bit to eat just as we arrived. It was interesting how the trimaran and the Wayfarer were fairly evenly matched in these conditions.

The sailing was wonderful. About 5 knots all the way out and back. On the way back the main sheet block broke away from the centreboard case so much of the time I was holding the mainsheet just in my hand. It wasn't very blowy but my arm ached by the end of it!

20 Dec 2008 - Beach picnic

10 nautical miles

Today I sailed with Sophocleus - one of the guys from the Day Skipper course in Limassol. Tim took out his trimaran and the two boats sailed together down to Mackenzie beach. Water spots on the lens... sorry!

The wind was very fickle in the morning and it was a broad reach out and then a straight run down to the beach. The wind... well... to say fickle was an understatement... all over the place... coming and going. Trying to keep the sails filled with air meant we were sailing, well roughly in the right direction, but only roughly. The only time it was really consistent sailing was on a goose-wing run to the beach.

It times Tim's trimaran really flew through the water... then stopped dead when the wind dropped. He has changed from roller furling for his jib to a hoisted jib. The aim of this being to mean that the jib can be removed when not sailing. Last week when we rigged the new blocks we found his jib had been perished by the sun and was torn all along the seam. It was, after all, the aim to stop further sun damage... the sail-maker in Limassol had done a brilliant job and the repair was excellent.

On the water he rigged the reefing line for the main, having realised that if the weather front came through, as it looked possible, he could no longer shorten sail by furling the jib.

Then we brought both boats into the beach and had a picnic on the beach. Tim had made some amazing oxtail soup. No, it wasn't just amazing because we were a little cold, it was truly amazing soup. That and fresh french bread from the baker... feast for a king!

Tim has no chain for his anchor and it was dragging on the line. Mine dragged a little then held when I buried the anchor in the sand.

While we were on the beach the wind changed direction about 180 degrees... hmmm... a dead run back? No, it changed again... but not till we were out on the water.

Coming off the beach I suddenly found myself with excessively heavy mainsheet... I looked round and the block on the mainsheet was no longer attached to the bridle. I don't know what happened, I guess it must have broken as all my shackles are moused with stainless steel wire. This is a reason I keep a few short lengths of rope handy... a quick replacement for a shackle to get us home,

Anyway the wind had come up a little and was steady so I gave the helm to Sophocleus and we sailed back towards Finikoudes. It got shallow just before the fort [I didn't know that shallows just south-east of the fort] and so we just touched bottom with the centre board, so I took us out and round again.

Tim had left the beach a few minutes earlier than us since he was tired of his dragging anchor and by now was up by the marina. The wind lightened and lightened till by the time we got to near the port we had no steerage way. So I furled the genoa, flaked and lashed the main and we motored back to the club.

6 Nautical miles

I went out for a sail with Tim today. Both of us had heavy work weeks and needed a 'blow the cobwebs away' time. Tim's daughter was arriving later in the day but she gave him permission to miss picking her up at the airport to have as a sail.

Maybe she believes her Dad is somewhat like me. My wife says that I am somehow a nicer person to have around after I have been sailing... well... something like that.

Anyway, her plane was late and we got back early enough that both happened - Tim had a sail and he managed to pick her up at the airport!

The change to the twisted shackle made the mainsheet run better, though the wind was very light and fickle. There was still some breakers on the shore, so we motored out for a few hundred metres and then started sailing.

This is part of my ongoing 'chart all the buoys in Larnaca Bay project'. We sailed past the large yellow mooring buoy and grabbed that as a waypoint.

There was another buoy we didn't log/photograph that used to be a yellow mooring buoy very similar to the one on the left except that all the paint has worn away and so now its just a rusting mooring buoy!

Then more black rubber tubes... as you can see these do have a couple of buoys to make them slightly more visible but as the photo shows they are not very clear.

Tim reckons that this is all dangerous information to publish for terrorists. No, I don't think so - anyone with Google Earth and Admiralty charts can get 90%, just not so easily.

We discovered a new 'how to annoy the coastguard' game. Not that we were playing I hasten to add, nor would we. While we were sailing Cyprus Radio announced a 'Pan Pan' all ships alert for a ship in difficulties somewhat south of Cyprus.

After the announcement an unidentified station came on the air asking them to repeat the position of this ship in difficulty. Actually all they said was 'Repeat location please'. Cyprus Radio politely and clearly repeated the location and then asked the calling station to identify itself. Silence. Repeat by Cyprus Radio to identify ship name. Silence again. Again request by Cyprus Radio [you could hear the frustration in the voice by now]. Silence again.

Coming in we started hauling the boat out with the winch and the front jockey wheel broke... at roughly the same time the centreboard dropped onto the jockey wheel and I now have a centre-board repair to do again. Tim reckons he's jinxed on the centre board, but it wasn't anything to do with him - I had cleated it, but obviously not fully up and it would have cleared the ground except for the jockey wheel. Oh well...

Leaking self bailers and anti-slip

No crew today, the wind low and the surf high... so no sailing. Also a very high tide. 61cm above chart datum in Port Said which is our standard port for the area. Yes, I know 61 cm high tide is absolutely nothing for most of the world, but for the eastern Med its a pretty high tide. In Larnaca sailing club the water was over the grill and up on the concrete of the launching ramp.

So with time to kill I set about trying to find why I get water coming in. I masked off the self-bailers with sellotape and then filled the bilges with water. No leak... till... it started coming through the sellotape on the port bailer. Then when the water came up to the level of the centre-board pin I started getting in from the centre-board case. Lifted the front so that the pin was out of the water and the leak stopped instantly.

That was excellent news. Basically it means the leaks are from the self-bailers and the centre-board pin. My fear had been there was a hidden crack at the stern of the centreboard case which would have been pretty well impossible to get to. Or... that my fibreglass repair to the centre-board case was not holding. Having seen [and hopefully fixed] the horrible bodge someone else had done to the centre-board case I was dreading that possibility. But no... just self-bailers and centre-board pin.

So why and how to fix? Last winter I had replaced the rubber seals on the self-bailers and when I had re-bedded the bailers into the hull I was not happy with the fix, and had then used silicone to 'seal' them in place. I thought silicone was the ideal sealant. Everyone I spoke to said that was what they used, except... Sue gave me Don Casey's Complete Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual for my birthday this year and he had said that silicone was a fairly hopeless sealant [which is what I had now discovered myself] except under compression. Probably, had I bedded the self bailers into silicone, let the silicone cure and then at least 24 hours later tightened the nuts to compress the silicone it might have worked.

The centre-board pin was something others had suggested was where the leak was coming from but I had been not sure about. I suspect what has happened is that over the years the hole for the centre-board pin has worn and enlarged so that the pin itself is no longer a good seal. So how to fix it? I think I will make a washer for each side of the centreboard cased out of silicone. Then by compressing the washers with the nut on the pin, I should get it to seal. Silicone does reputedly seal quite well under compression, but it is not an adhesive seal and '...it should not be used below the waterline.' Apparently leaving it at least 24 hours to cure/go off before compression is the clue to an effective seal.

So on Don Casey's recommendation I went round the shops looking for polysulphide glue. All of them had either silicone or polyurethane. Polyurethane is apparently a very good adhesive seal, but permanent - like impossible if you ever wanted to change the self-bailers. Many of the glues had only Greek descriptions so I had to get assistants to translate. And sometimes they were not sure of the English so had to find other containers with both English and Greek on them to work out that the word was the Greek equivalent of polyurethane. Anyway I shall try during the week to find polysulphide and fix them later.

What I did get was a strip of aluminium for each end of the anti-slip. Tim had bought me a present of anti-slip tape from South Africa when he came back and although it adhered well to the thwart the ends looked ugly and one started to ride up. Not good news after only one month of doing the job. So, again at Tim's suggestion, I bought some aluminium strip which I have pop riveted to the thwart to both fix the ends down and give them a much smarter finish.

I also changed one of the twisted shackles for one of the mainsheet blocks. Last year I had bought two sizes of twisted shackle not knowing which would be right. The blocks were just too big for the small ones so I had used a big one. This meant the block was hanging about 2-3 cm lower than I wanted. So today I filed off the edge of the block to make it just slightly narrower and managed to fit one of the smaller twisted shackles which I then moused with the stainless steel wire I still have from the spring.

... demonstrated a knowledge of theory up to the standard of RYA Day Skipper

50% there... I now have a certificate to show that I have 'attended a shorebased course of instruction and demonstrated a knowledge of theory up to the standard of RYA/MCA Day Skipper/Watch Leader'.

Now for the practical [the other 50%] which will be sometime early next year. I must admit I am looking forward to the practical more than the theory. But... this course has given me the confidence on a lot of the navigation and other aspects of yacht sailing.

The course was taught by Andreas from True North Yachting in Limassol. The course has been interesting.

Andreas not only has many years of experience as a sailor and yacht delivery skipper and trainer... he also enthuses about sailing... and... more importantly has patience with everyone - encouraging them through the course.

As you can see Andreas loves the whiteboard. Which is great, 'cos so do I. 'Remember... always allow 20% more fuel than you think you need for a passage.'

I have now mastered the mag/true variation, ignoring the mnemonics [though I use them to check] and use the scale on the Portland Course Plotter... set the magnetic against the east/west variation and read off the true... or set the true and then read of the magnetic against the east/west variation. No arithmetic! Why is that relevant? Well a couple of weeks ago I managed to add 7 to 99 and get 105.

So, if the magnetic compass reading is 121, I set that against 7 West and read the true as 114 degrees. Much like the slide rule I used as a kid at school. Actually very like the slide rule, but that was used for multiplication and division not addition and subtraction.

Quote of the day... well, we were discussing wind and talking about Beaufort scale. In passing I mentioned that I was often more concerned about the gusting than the static wind. Sailing in Bft 2 gusting 5 is often more difficult than Bft 5 gusting 6. Andreas' comment 'there speaks a dinghy sailor'. True.