Tin Tin's Sailing Calendar

Sunday 25 July 2010

Going into labour at sea

I took a party of colleagues out for a day sail from Portsmouth, anchoring off Osborne House beach for a swim and picnic lunch. On board we had late additions of Claudia, heavily pregnant with just 2 weeks to go, and her husband Steve. Her choice, and since the weather was mild, wind was moderate, and I had already experienced 4 births, I agreed that she could come.

Somewhat to my surprise she enthusiastically joined in the swimming.... The water was lovely and refreshing - not too cold.

After lunch we snoozed in the sun, and then motored up for a view of Cowes, before setting sail and heading back down the Solent on a run, in 15 - 20 knots of wind.

At this point Claudia announced that her waters had broken after lunch, and she was having contractions every 15 minutes!! Not much I could do at this point except sail as fast we could back to port, where they made haste to drive back to Guildford. I did consider a "pan pan medico" call and potential helicopter lift off, but Claudia seemed calm enough.

Now awaiting news of safe delivery.

Whale, I'll be..............!!!!!!

Here's a link to photos of whale breaching and crushing a yacht!

http://www.mby.com/news/492554/yacht-skipper-we-didn-t-provoke-whale-photos-are-real


We were lucky that this didn't happen to us, when an angry whale breached astern of us as we raced towards St. Lucia on the final day of the 2005 ARC. Justin just caught it on video.

Friday 25 June 2010

Bottle overboard!

We had a lovely sail to Chichester harbour in light winds, with Kate and Mark able to concentrate on sailing, whilst Anne and I looked after Ruth (2 1/2) and Charlotte (6 months)

As we sailed in past the dolphin marking the start of the channel, Anne took Ruth for a stroll to the bow. Ruth could not be persuaded to part with her milk bottle, and was cautioned not to drop it overboard. Of course she was intrigued by this idea and lobbed it over. Anne and I watched it float astern, thinking, " well, that will teach her!"' but her parents went into immediate man-overboard drill, saying that Ruth had never yet gone to bed without her bottle, and they couldn't imagine the consequences!!!!

We had a lovely evening anchored off the sands at West Wittering under a perfect starlit sky. Anne and I had a peaceful night in the forepeak, but in the aft cabin Kate and Mark had a more restless night. It all depends on your expectations..... Mark had expected an idyllic night at anchor, and the following day was dejected at how hard it is with young children. Kate on the other hand had been more realistic, and was delighted that the trip had gone so well!