Life on the Ocean Wave
Yesterday afternoon I got back from having spent the weekend sailing for the first time in my life as part of a project with the Ocean Youth Trust. It was brilliant! In partnership with Youth Link: NI, OYT has been running an OCN Level 3 course in Community Relations Programme Development and I’ve been one of the Tutor/Assessors. So this weekend I was assessing 2 youth leaders as they ran their programme with a group of young people.

OYT Ireland has a boat called Lord Rank which is based at Bangor Marina, it’s a 68ft yacht with berths for 18 people plus sea-staff. On Friday night w had safety briefs etc to do so we didn’t set sail until Saturday morning. We spent the day sailing around in Belfast Lough doing tacks and jibes etc. The weather was absolutely beautiful – blue skies, blue sea – great stuff! We got decent wind on Saturday and got up to about 9 knots, but on the Sunday the winds were very light so we took it easy and just enjoyed the scenery and being on the water.

I would definitely do sailing again though I’m nowhere near getting to grips with all the terminology, ropework etc. The sea staff are fantastic – very patient and good at explaining stuff…again and again! It was great getting the opportunity to be hands-on and do all sorts of tasks – winching, hoisting sails, pulling sails in, flaking sails (folding them so that they can be put to bed for the night etc), looking after fenders, bow-& stern-lines when coming into the pontoon etc. OYTI is a great organisation so if you’re a youth leader/worker I would definitely check them out. Sailing is a great teambuilding exercise for a group of young people and doing a programme in the outdoors like that has that extra something.

I was bushed when I got home yesterday and still had the sensation of being at sea, the room felt like it was gently rocking around me! But I feel re-energised having had a little adventure. A couple of weeks ago there had been some problems with the programme and we thought this weekend would be cancelled so I was feeling that what with my hip injury everything was working against me – no Scotland kayak trip, no Nepal trip, no sailing. But thankfully it worked out and I really enjoyed getting out on the water and feeling all that fresh air on my face! Doing the winches and hoisting the sails took more than just upper body movement – you end up putting your whole body into it, so my hip was a bit sore on Saturday night and last night but I think generally it’s beginning to improve. It’s definitely going to be a long and slow recovery but hopefully it will eventually be ok. It was just really good this weekend, and almost therapeutic, to feel a bit more active, do something outdoorsy and forget about everything for a bit.