Azziria's journal

Extended shipping forecast for this coming weekend:

Strong southwesterly winds on Friday will increase to gale-force for a time in northern parts of Fitzroy and Biscay as well as Sole, Fastnet and Plymouth. Winds veer westerly later Friday with gales persisting for a time through the English Channel. Strong westerly winds continue during Saturday across much of the area before easing back by Sunday morning.

So, we're racing from Cowes to Cherbourg, gun time 1900 Friday. Looks like a bumpy start, a beam reach all the way over, and then a more gentle run back on Sunday. Also not the weather (or the wind direction) for trying out our new spinnaker!

Can't wait :)

Away this weekend doing the Sea Survival and ISAF Offshore Personal Survival courses as the start of the Fastnet training - personal survival, safety equipment, heavy weather sailing techniques, rescue procedures, communications (need to brush up on my radio procedures and dig out my radio licence before next weekend), basic first aid, and a session in the pool with a liferaft (*g*).

Only downside is that my internet access will be limited to my iPhone. Better than nothing, but any writing done will probably have to be longhand in a notebook. Hopefully the hotel has wireless so I don't have to rely on the 3G.

So I've just filled in a series of questions asked by the Press Officer for our Fastnet campaign and, following another crew member's example, circulated them to the whole crew (I'm dying to know more about who I'm going to be sailing with, and I can't be the only one). So I've owned up to the fannish origin of my sailing passion (Master and Commander and Pirates of the Caribbean) to a whole crew of people I haven't even met yet.

All part of my new resolution to be more open about who I really am, and s*d the consequences.

We all meet up next weekend for our first training session - the shore based one, Sea Survival (including playing with a liferaft in a swimming pool, which should be a laugh) and Heavy Weather Sailing (since the large loss of life during the 1979 Fastnet - 15 fatalities, 25 yachts sunk - the Royal Ocean Racing Club have tightened up their entry requirements, which now include a requirement for a certain percentage of the crew to have done these courses, plus the requirement for each crew to have sailed 300 NM together in qualifying races in the 12 months before the Fastnet race itself). We're all going out for a crew meal together on the Saturday night - should be good :)

What I'm really looking forward to, though, is the weekend afterwards, when we have our first training weekend actually sailing. It's too long since I was at sea - I can't wait!