Saturday 6 July
The morning stood fine so we took the opportunity for a training sail with Simon literally showing us the ropes. We had a steady breeze of 15-18 knots and tacked up the fjord. As we furled out the jib I muttered about wishing we had electric primaries, so I handed the winching over to David and took the helm.
Simon soon taught us that if the helmsman goes gently through the tack watching the jib, very little winching is required and we were easily bubbling along at 6 knots. I quickly got used to swapping over to the higher wheel. She points very nicely and is super easy to handle. We have carbon wheels which apparently makes all the difference.
It’s very pretty here with little islands and narrow passages leading into wider tracts of dappled water. There are eider ducks, Canada & Greylag geese and other birds I will enjoy identifying.
We turned back after an hour or so for gybe practice, and here the electric main winches worked a dream to pull the boom midships before releasing through the wind and then David sorted the jib. I got a lot better after the 3rd one!
David brought us into the dock absolutely perfectly so I could slip off the side (no leaping for me!) with the mooring rope and get us secure. Thank you Simon for perfect instruction, kind words and helping us to grow our confidence. I will no longer panic when he leaves us this afternoon!
After lunch we went through useful lists such as preparation to leave, below and above decks, preparation to sail, preparation for coming in etc. I will type them up and add them to the La Bamba Bible. We also started our ship’s log.
A gale is forecast for tonight and tomorrow so very glad we took the opportunity to develop our knowledge today as every boat has her own best practice. Needless to say it rained all afternoon!
In the evening the sun finally showed us how beautiful it is to be back on the water
