Yachtmaster Ocean on Vinson of Antarctica

Time flies!

Its been five months since I stepped off Vinson of Antarctica at Cape Town harbour after 27 days at sea and the experience is still fresh in my mind.

For me it was my first Atlantic crossing, the longest time I had spent at sea out of sight of land, the biggest seas and strongest winds I had experienced and, above all, time spent with an amazing group of people.

I took the trip with a number of objectives in mind including gaining more heavy weather experience and building my all round skills as a skipper. But the primary purpose of the trip was to learn a skill that I had struggled to master, celestial navigation.

I have a shelf full of the best text books and guides to celestial navigation but the combination of the maths and geometry, two disciplines that have always evaded me, made navigating by the sun, moon and stars a challenge to say the least.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I concluded a process, begun on Vinson, that’s changed all of that. In the post was my RYA Yachtmaster Ocean Certificate that confirms that I am capable of finding my way at sea with just a sextant, a set of tables and the day or night sky.

My education began in March in the classroom in Puerto Willams across from the Micalvi Yacht Club where Vinson was docked.

Puerto Williams (Chile)

Jordi spent 2-3 days going over the basics of how celestial navigation works. He managed to simplify what had, up to then, been to me overly complex and difficult to comprehend. He also communicated a passion for the subject that was infectious and spurred us all on to take the challenge of navigating from Cape Horn to Cape Town with the instruments off. No access to GPS or the chart plotter, navigating by dead reckoning supported by sun, moon, planet and star sights.

I have to admit for the first week at sea, I still struggled with the maths but became increasingly adept at taking sights on a pitching and rolling deck. As time passed my sights became more accurate and I finally got the maths.

Beagle channel

Cape Horn

For this I mostly have to thank the master mariner himself, our skipper Kenneth, who was unfailingly patient with me and the rest of the students. I also have to thank fellow students, Kate who is a natural celestial navigator and Rob who with his engineers training was able to spot my many errors.

The high point of the passage was the sight of Gough Island appearing on the horizon. We had navigated to this speck on the ocean after three thousand miles by celestial navigation and using dead reckoning for the last 24 hours under heavy cloud.

Gough Island

Having accumulated a series of good sun-run-sun, moon, planet and star sights, we were ready to move to the next stage which was a written exam conducted in our last few days at sea, and overseen by Kenneth as the Yachtmaster Ocean Instructor, on meterology, celestial navigation and passage planning.

Sun sight

The final stage in the process was an Oral Exam conducted by a nominated Yachtmaster Ocean examiner. On my return to Ireland, I contacted the RYA who put me in touch with an experienced examiner who I met in August.

Before meeting my examiner I submitted a form and a short narrative of the planning and execution of the qualifying passage as well as a set of sun-run-sun sights and a compass check I did on one of our last days at sea as the sun set.

While the oral exam was conducted in a quiet corner of a coffee shop, it consisted of a rigorous interrogation of all aspects of passage planning including navigation, worldwide meteorology, crew management and yacht preparation, maintenance and repairs plus confirmation of the sun sights and compass check.

I had been well prepared for this by Kenneth who ensured that I took copies of logs and charts and involved me and the rest of the crew in all aspects of provisioning, checking spares, maintenance and repairs and decision making over the four weeks at sea.

For anyone contemplating upgrading from a Yachtmaster Offshore to Yachtmaster Ocean, the experience on Vinson where you learned in the company of other students (of all ages!) with the support of Jordi and Kenneth who are skilled practitioners and instructors is second to none.

For detail on the RYA Yachtmaster Ocean exam including qualifying passage and sights, go to www.rya.org.uk

Tim Collins

Sailor