HISTORY OF SAILING ON SEA SENSE

My Partner Brian and I bought Yacht a Southerly 115 called  ‘Sea Sense’ at the end of 2008. Brian having recently retired and decided that he would like to join the sailing fraternity. We are members of the North Devon Yacht Club at Instow, and I had had my yacht for 16 years

Brian and I had been residing together, for 12 years  Brian had been working away during the week, and weekends were spent mostly Brian playing golf and myself sailing on my Macwester 30 yacht called ‘Hideaway’ with my all girl crew.

I had inherited the Yacht after my Husband died in 1992; we had only had the Yacht for 10 months, when he was diagnosed with a Brian Tumour. This was devastating, but I had loved the sailing, and the members of the yacht club were so supportive. I decided to carry on with the sailing.

 I had done the Day Skipper Course and went onto do the practical course, and Yacht Master Etc.  After a year of two struggling with crew I found a friend Carol to sail also some super girl’s crew members throughout the years. I have had the same crew members of Carol Hayes, Vanessa Whipp and Jo Pay for the past 12 years.

Brian had the occasional trip out, but I was very surprised that he chose to do a Day Skipper Course, and decided to do more sailing. He then decided that a bigger yacht was required, to give us more comfort.

Myself as skipper and the girls had done a very successful trip around Britain in 2006, on Yacht Hideaway, and a more comfortable yacht was a nice idea, but I was sorry to see ‘Hideaway’ go.

For the past 5 years, we have had a nice number of trips on ‘Sea Sense’, but with our advancing years, myself now 72 and Brian 71, we thought it was a good time to try and do another ‘Big Trip’

So we are Sailing Around Ireland starting at the beginning of May taking 10 weeks to complete this trip.

Brian will be starting off with the trip, but due to commitments, will be coming home, and therefore I shall be having different Crew Members of help me complete the trip. Carol will be with me all the way, and Vanessa and Jo will be doing 2 weeks each along with another 3 ladies

We have decided to ask for sponsorship for the Appledore Lifeboat, and RNLI. So it will make the trip more interesting, calling in on Lifeboat Stations throughout Ireland.

We will be setting out from Instow on or about 3^rd/4^th May, and going clockwise round Ireland.

I will be writing a Blog I though I would call it ‘Sea Sense’ B –logbook

Things to do...

At Last I have managed to get us all on the same Web Site for RNLI Virgin Money Giving
Sailing Round Ireland 2013.
Hopefully we can all raise some more money this way.
Some of the crew, husband etc. had the Idea of us taking an RNLI Bear round Ireland
with us, and get all the Lifeboat Crews to sign The Paddy Bear Log Book.
This is then going to be used as a prize for a competition.
The competition is a Collective Noun for a group of 7 Lady RYA Certificated Skippers.
I am sure there will be a lot of good entries, and some a bit rude probably.  I have already heard
some.
This will be launched on the RNLI Website in the near future.
Having Paddy Bear to play with on our trip Round Ireland will make it a lot of fun.
Finding the local Lifeboat Crews.
We are hoping that our trip will help fund raising in the local Lifeboat Areas around Ireland.
The money we are raising from donations on our sponsorship forms will go to the Appledore
Fund Raising Committe Funds, Two of the girls Ness and Liz row for the Ilfracombe Gig Club and
they will put their funds towards the Ilfracombe Lifeboat.
The money paid into the Virgin Money Giving Site will go directly to the RNLI.
'Sea Sense' is nearly ready. we still have to do the anti fouling, and collect everything up from
around the house and take back on board.
We have had more charts donated to us. We shouldn't get lost.
We have booked some of the flights back and out. It is going to be tricky getting the crew to a
convenient location on the West Coast of Ireland to get buses or trains to Airports.
Still it is all a challenge.
It is only 5 weeks to go.

Oh My - Lots still to do.

L Pat