28th August

I am not normally the one discussing the actual act of sailing the yacht. From the beginning we decided that Barry will be the captain, skipper or whatever name you wish to call him. Not that I have not, can not or do not actually have to sail and navigate on board Yrumoar but rather that I am the first mate, navigator, chef, teacher, mother and wife.


We have to this point had the same courses, the same instruction and lessons and the same experience when it comes to sailing. The difference being that Barry is far more confident and believes he can sail anything. Just like he can drive, fly or ride anything made by man. He is transportation crazy, he loves all types of transport from boats, planes, trains, bikes, trucks and cars. The trick being that he likes to be in control of these modes of transport. He hates being a passenger in the car, he always drives if we are together in the car, he hates being a passenger on an airplane, he would rather drive 2000km than fly it and he rides his bike like a pro…all this suits me fine but on our yacht he can not be at the helm and in control 24 hours a day on a 35 day ocean crossing so having 2 qualified, confident and competent people is an absolute necessity. Even our resident He-man needs to sleep sometime!

Now for me the 400 odd hours of ocean sailing experience coupled with the 400 odd hours of dam sailing experience have done nothing to improve my confidence. I panic when we get too close to land or when the area is busy. I don’t enjoy docking and departing under motor in a confined space and I feel as if every time I take the helm we either go off course or go into irons (turn directly into the wind to the “NO GO” zone). I end up getting frustrated and returning the helm to Barry who completes the task at hand.

In theory I understand how all the sailing works, but in practise I have struggled with feeling the wind and keeping the yacht on course. Barry on the other hand sails beautifully, parks and manoeuvres under power perfectly and generally has no problem. I am not unable to perform all the tasks but can only perform them if there is a competent sailor nearby (Barry fits this bill for me).

So this week we took Yrumoar out in a force 5 (17 – 22 knots of wind). Barry did all the sail and rope work while I took the helm for the whole day. I had to keep her into the wind for over an hour while Barry jury rigged a new tack (our main is still not fixed) and Barry and Rauen hoisted the main with a reef in it. We hoisted the jib and we sailed up and down inside the harbour practising the technique of tacking (we have had to use the motor to tack without the main sail up as our speed decreases to much once we have managed to backwind the sail. After a few practise tacks up and down we left the harbour mouth and headed offshore. I managed to keep Yrumoar on course and as close to the wind as she has ever been, we did not go into irons nor did we go off course and I felt the confidence growing with every minute.

Probably for the first time I thoroughly enjoyed the open ocean, Barry below dealing with Kyle’s fear (which I usually have to deal with and that is decreasing) and checking the charts and performing the navigation work (which he has never done before).

I felt exhilarated and had some of the most fun onboard that I have ever had. Barry discovered that his problem lies with the navigation an area where I am not at all concerned and once we were back a the marina I showed him a few things he had forgotten.

Many more things happen this past week but for me the confidence boost I got from actually being the helmsman and dealing with the wind, waves and the open ocean is a great step towards my confidence to drop the lines and push off when the time is right. We are after all taking to a life afloat!