I did my RYA "Competent Crew" course in the Solent. We had moored for our last night in Cowes when a force 8 blew up the next morning and the coastguard were warning everyone to stay ashore.
Our instructor was a (soab) major in the army who had done the Southern Ocean Challenge and he decided it would be a good opportunity for us to practice mooring stern-to into the wind and handbrake turns in the narrow marina. Lots of worried boat owners watching four newbies getting dangerously close to their expensive toys.
He then had us sail back across to Port Solent in a F8 with a running tide, perfect conditions for pitchpoling. One of the other learners lost her bottle and refused to take the helm.
Once inside Portsmouth harbour it was still very blustery. Not blustery enough to stop him wanting us all to pick up a mooring buoy and repeat our man overboard drill though.
Pretty scary at the time but good prep for later.
Last edited by: Kevin on Sun 9 Feb 20 at 19:33
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