Pete Baker’s Blog

I’ve just spent the last weekend getting my RYA Level 2 sailing certification at the DSWC on Millwall Dock. It’s been a top weekend, whizzing around the dock doing various exercises – man overboard, mooring, following a course around bouys, follow the leader.. having to do my capsize drill again for the first time in about 8 years was a bit of a shock – b**dy hell Thames water is COLDD!! Also, the wind was gusting to god knows how many mph, so that was making things pretty interesting… a couple of the other students turned their boats turtle (i.e. capsized right over), which was fun to watch. Bit scary if the boat lands on top of you, though, I guess.

The course has got me all charged up about sailing again for the first time in about 15 years… and now I’m looking at getting into dinghy racing and having a go at a Pico or a Laser. Working up to skiff sailing, you see, in my dreams ha ha ha.

I’m also still thinking about getting more big boat experience – and possibly doing the RYA Day Skipper and Yachtmaster certifications. They do these at Docklands, but I’ve been told that it may just be easier (and more fun) to head down to the Solent and do the course in a week at one of the sailing schools down there. There’s plenty of well established schools round Port Solent and Southampton, like Sunsail. Talking with some of the people down at Docklands, it’s also apparently generally quite easy to get to be crew on random boats out of the Solent if you just head down there and hang around the docks a bit (especially during a big event like Cowes). A nice cheap way of getting bigger boat experience, though goes without saying you’re going to have to work for it.