Chris Curtis Web Site

There was not too far for me to travel to the SO local event at Rivers Wood, between Balcombe and Haywards Heath in the High Weald, so I arrived early and had time to warm up and prepare mentally. I had decided to concentrate on navigation – wanting to be sure I was understanding the map and executing well by not rushing, even if this meant slowing down a little.

The weather was not too good. It had rained very heavily overnight, so it was wet everywhere, and it continued to rain “on and off” throughout the event. The woods were quite sheltered but it was windy, with the tops of trees thrashing about, bringing down sudden sluices of cold water.

I ran green and liked the course. There were good route choices to make on a few legs and some interesting terrain. These woods seemed to make sense to me. I did feel in control and knowing where I was. Despite this I made two mistakes, though not as costly as they usually are for me. I made a parallel error on the way to five, then had the frustration of knowing exactly where the control was, even seeing it at one point about 150 metres away across a field, but being the wrong side of a well-constructed barbed wire fence. Had it been dry I would have climbed over, but I had a mental picture of slipping in the terrible wet and ripping my leg open, so I went round to the gate.

The second error was parallel too – I went off down a well-defined track but one to the West of the one I wanted. This took me beyond the ride I was looking for, and to the valley bottom. I was able to relocate once there and climb back up. I even pulled some time back.

There was a long section where the green course was quite crowded, with five or six of us (and a dog in a red/orange coat that everyone kept thinking was a control) trekking through damp and sticky woodland. I seem to be spending more time with “the field” these days – I am not as slow as I was – so I guess I have to get used to that.

I finally came in after 63 minutes (for 3.8km) – my best time for a “SOG” this autumn and significantly my fastest min/km (16.38) since the club handicap before my operation and my second best on a green course ever. I came 21st in a field of 33 – my best SOG placing ever. I am definitely improving, little by little.

I was also very pleased with my brand new “O” shoes – VJ Lops – they were great – comfortable and light with very good grip. I lost a lens from my plastic glasses – eye protectors and magnifiers. I did not even know it had gone until late in the course.

The woods were very pretty. There were some lovely hillsides with mixed trees, fine, old spruce plantations and small thickets of holly and yew. Everywhere, there were fungi – even in the middle of the rides. What seemed a thousand kinds including the “storybook” bright red with white dots toadstools, ink caps and huge brackets. In a few places there were whole sweeps of small yellow and brown fungi. In several places, the foxglove leaves were appearing through the heavy, new leaf-litter.

Today I took a group of students from my school to the Calshot activity centre at the southern end of Southampton Water, where it joins the Solent opposite Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

As we set out, the gale warnings were being issued. When we arrived it looked to be a lively force 4 but by the time we were ready to go out it was a very gusty and variable force 5-6 coming from the East so there were metre high waves rolling into the bay where we were aiming to sail. It was wind against tide too, so the waves were steep and lumpy.

I was first out, aiming to demonstrate a neat figure of eight course round two buoys that the centre’s instructors had placed out. The boat took off like a rocket. Although I should have been on a beam reach aiming for the first buoy, it had dragged and the wind had shifted so I was almost running. I came up onto a broad reach and had to hike far out, even with the sail let out all the way and flapping. Then, after about 300m, there was a lull and shift, just as a wave came under me. The mast came way over my head, the boat followed and I was in the water. After a couple of attempts where the boat came up quickly and went straight back over, I had to do it properly – put the head to wind, position myself to windward and finally, tiredly, pull myself in.

Once up, I stayed up. The boat would crash around in the big waves. Twice I was caught while tacking because as I came about a wave caught the nose and stopped me dead. Once I could get going it was exhilarating – there was spray everywhere and the boat skimmed across everything, planing very fast and easy until the nose would dig into a steep wave. The changing wind meant that just as I got the boat set up, it was wrong. I was moving around like a puppet trying to maintain trim and reaching broadside across chaotic waves was not fun. After twenty minutes I gave up and went back in.

I was impressed by the Pico. I never felt it was not going to cope. It was definitely too small for me though – I was far from comfortable and could not sort myself out quickly enough. Twice I had the sheet tangled, when in those conditions I desperately needed very quick control. I really wanted about twice as much room.

Needless to say, we could not get the students onto the water on their own. They had to make do with “joy rides” with the instructors doing the sailing. I was mildly pleased to see that they capsized too.

These were definitely the strongest winds I have ever been out in. According to the centre’s wind meter, there were regular gusts of 40mph and instant wind shifts of 45 degrees. I felt safe enough, but not really in control and I did not enjoy that feeling. Sadly, it did not look half so “gnarly” from the shore as it did from on the water so people watching were not as impressed as I hoped they would be.

I am glad I was out there, and I proved I could cope, but it is not the kind of sailing I really want to do. It was great to be on the sea again though.

Nothing was on the water in the afternoon except the big ships. It was blowing force 6-7 and occasionally a full gale. The sea was streaked with white. There were breaking waves everywhere. Only the wind and kite surfers were having fun – we saw some spectacular “crash and burns”.

Today was “SOG2″ – this one in Park Wood, Hailsham.

Autumn has arrived now. We had heavy rain yesterday evening and overnight, so the woods were damp and dripping, with a constant fall of leaves. Already there are carpets of yellow and brown beneath the larger trees. The course was very interesting. The woods were on a mixture of clay and sand, so had everything – marsh, streams, low cliffs, steep slopes and some lovely runnable forest. I felt good and went off well, keeping map contact and making quite good time through the first four controls. Then I stepped on a very marshy patch. My foot went down (about 20cm) and came up without a shoe. It took both hands and a few minutes to rescue it. There was a boardwalk there, by the stream. As I stepped on it ready to put my shoe back on, the other slid and I landed with a thump on my backside. The whole thing distracted me. I found the next control reasonably quickly and set off through the woods to find a path that would lead me to the next. A slightly wrong bearing put me on the wrong path, which I realised straight away, but I convinced myself I could take that path and work round to the next control. Then I thought I would cut across and save time, but misjudged how far along I was and was deep into very dense thicket before I knew. There was nothing for it but to fight and get very scratched. Still not realising where I was E-W (though I knew N-S) I ended up working down a path and finding myself back at the control I left. A long round trip for no purpose except that I could do it properly this time, and did – spotting the control well ahead and moving fast and direct. Otherwise things were fine, with little time lost and reasonable speed over the ground.

Without the big mistake, I would have been well within the top 20 and looking at a respectable time. With the mistake a not so respectable 27th.

Analysing split times, it is very clear that one or two mistakes per race cost me at least 10 places each time. The message is clear – become a better navigator!

Three young lads came with me from school. All finished and one did yellow in 12 minutes – compared with over 30 last time he was out.