Sail Training: Day 2

Day two of getting to know our boat started with a trip up the mast to fit the radar reflector to the second spreader. Not an easy task for most, but even more of a challenge for someone with a fear of heights... Nevertheless, Ben was keen to get stuck in and handled the task with relative ease - and he also didn’t mind too much when we sent him up to the very top of the mast rather than bringing him back down!

Emily, on the other hand, was keen to go up just to get a few snaps from above. Given the tricky job of fixing an anchor light back in Thailand earlier this year, this was a cinch! It was then on to more boat prep, like hoisting the gennaker to checking her rigging and reefing the main sail, before taking on another round of marina exercises and mooring practice.

After lunch we prepared s/v Long Summer for sail and motored out into the bay. The weather was good and the winds were pleasant, so off the coast of Île de Ré we had the chance to really test out the gennaker. Having designed the sail pattern online many months ago (from the distant shores of Singapore), we were keen to see how the final design looked. And it didn’t disappoint! As the sail ballooned out in front of us and the noise of the wind quietened down, it felt magical to be flying along downwind, topping out at about 9 knots. Now this is sailing!

Debriefing after another full day on the water, we felt cautiously optimistic that we could, in fact, learn how to master the cruising life. And although there is obviously still a long way to go before we will be able to confidently move her through the water, day-by-day and little-by-little, we will learn and improve. Today there was a small glimmer of hope that it could be done.