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Before embarking on my Sail Around Britain, I completed various training events to increase my seamanship and sailing skills. These were a combination of both indoor and outdoor sessions where I increased my theory, planning, chartwork, and navigation skills. In total, I attended six training sessions, three that were 6 days in length, and three weekends. During these, I managed around 500 nautical miles visiting many places in the Thames estuary and the nearby southeast coast. |
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| The image above shows our boat close to the famous pier at Southend-on-sea, while below shows the interesting gun placements that remain from the war that are found in the Thames estuary. |
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| I did two circumnavigations of the Isle of Sheppy, one of which was during the practical examination part of my "RYA Coastal Skipper Sail" |
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The training was provided by Elite Sailing which is also the company that I organised the Around Britain sailing trip as part of their adventure sailing programme. They are based in Chatham Maritime Marina which is on the River Medway, they have a collection of differing sail and motor yachts along with an old Thames Barge which is used as an indoor classroom. |
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| One popular location which we visited frequently was Queenborough, where many sessions of boat handling skills were practiced alongside the jetty below. |
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| These training sessions included a sail across the Thames Estuary to the Suffolk coast and the past the port of Felixtowe, this was a distance of about 65 nautical miles each way. A few images from this journey are shown below. |
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