Sailing on Osaka Bay as a trainee Sean intends to achieve his goal of sailing 50 miles by day and 50 Miles by night by February 1st 2013.
Sailing Osaka Bay is not only for experiences sailors. Today Sean continued his sailing education aboard sailing vessel Roschana. Roschana is a 40 foot ocean racing yacht and not what one would normally expect to see a beginner to be taking control of and yet today that is exactly what we saw. Sean took full control of the helm, captured and then held the wind in the sails for a good two hours.
Sean has been studying the nomenclature and functions of a sailing yacht for a while now and his dream has now become a goal: To sail a yacht 50 miles by day and 50 miles by night by the end of January 2013. Mark Smith has volunteered to guide Sean along the way. Roschana is the chosen platform. In order to be able to achieve his goal Sean is going to have to put in some effort. He is going to need to master sailing terms, like Chainplate, Traveler, Fairlead and Luff. He will need to know what Port, Starboard, and Freeboard mean. He will need to what a no sail zone is and how to stay away from one. Know how to respond to skipper’s command such as “ready about”, “Helms a-Lee or “Bearing Away”. He will be mostly sailing Osaka Bay during his training however to achieve his final test of 50 miles by day and 50 miles by night we will be heading out from Nishinomiya and making our way down to Ishima Island . We will depart Nishinomiya in the early afternoon, settle into a routine aboard and then sail through the evening expecting to see the Ishima Island appear with the sunrise. From there we will perform a turn around the Island and head back to Nishinomiya by day for a total of 188 Nautical Miles.
To set such a goal is a tremendous undertaking for any of us. However, once I tell you that Sean is only 15 years of age it changes the whole perspective to one of great respect for this young man and those of his generation. Yes, for safety purposes, Sean will be accompanied by a very experienced crew however this will be Sean’s adventure and we will be there simply to support him. Wishing you all the very best Sean.
Mark Smith.