21/01/13 - Sailing / Abseiling - Petersburg OEC

21st January 2013
Sailing / Abseiling - Petersburg OEC - Brian
Today it was 1-3*C, a small bit of snow fell during the morning session but soon cleared up and there was a freezing fog.
There was no wind today...

• Today I planned on getting back in to sailing after a whole Christmas of no sailing. It was predicted to be a force 2 but...that was not the case. It was freezing and there was no wind on the lake at all. In fact, I have never seen the lake so still.

When we arrived at Petersburg today, the whole place was white with frost & everybody was freezing!

Brian came to meet us all and we went inside for tea and coffee to warm up a bit and talk about our options for the day. (I think he knows us better at this stage than to tell us to get straight into our wetsuits in this weather!) Brian asked us what we thought of the conditions and how it would be for sailing. This was cool because it made us think for ourselves rather than being told what to do. We decided that it would be pointless to get kitted out to go sailing because of the lack of wind. If we went out on the dinghy's in this weather, we wouldn't be moving much and would definitely get too cold.

So, we all decided that because there were a couple of new sailors in the group that we would go down with our tea and show the new guys how to rig the boats.

Then we would see what the conditions were like and if there was more wind we might go out sailing and if there was still no wind then Brian would take us abseiling.

A frosty morning for rigging the dinghies.

Peter & Dave were much newer to sailing and so we showed them the ropes (haha!) and how to rig the dinghies. It was so cold but we couldn't really wear gloves because we couldn't tie and un-tie knots with them on so we just had to 'suck it up!'

Fionan, Dave & I worked on one dinghy while Emmet, Liz & Peter worked on the other. We showed them all the different parts of the boat and which sheets tie into which parts. We showed them how to put the rudder on and where the boom attaches to etc.

Miss Knit pulling up the main sheet.

Liz tying a figure of 8 in the Jibb sheet.

Shackle on the jibb sheet.

This was a good task to do because I find I always learn so much more when I am teaching somebody else something. I was showing Dave how to tie a round turn, two half hitches on the top of the main sheet and it made me think twice about what I was doing because I knew I had to teach Dave the right knots for the different parts of the boat.

Brian tying on the spinnaker to the spinnaker pole.

Buddy helping to tie on the sheets.

So once we had rigged the boats up, Brian quickly went through how to attach the spinnaker to the bow of the boat. 

It was good to go through because I think I only put the spinny on twice last semester and I wouldn't have remembered how to attach it.

So, we pulled down the sails and tidied up the sheets so that they would be safe if any wind decided to show up while we were gone.

Brian got the bus started & defrosted and then we headed off to Cong to go abseiling on the tower which was built in A.D 1864 by Ben.L Guinness. It was built completely for recreational reasons, for locals to picnic in the summer etc.

I didn't realise how muddy it was going to be on this walk through the forest to the tower, & Brian told me I should be fine in runners... which unfortunately wasn't the case after the amount of rain we've had recently.

Luckily Emmet said he would carry me to save my runners getting ruined!

The plaque on the wall of the tower.

The Guinness tower was built in 1864 and is about 20m high. Not many people know about the tower, it is surrounded by tall trees which hide it even in winter. There are winding steps leading up to the top in a clockwise  direction. This was traditional with towers because most swordsmen would have been right handed and it meant that anybody coming up the stairs would have had to attack with their left hand but the men coming down the stairs would be able to defend with their strongest (right) hand.



First of all Brian set up the rope system at the top of the tower while we all watched how it was done. He then handed over another rope to us and we had to set up another system the same as his. I thought this was a good teaching strategy as it got us to learn by first watching him and then trying to do it ourselves. Fionan took leadership of setting up the rope system and we all gave a bit of an input as to what we thought should be done.
It was good to set up a rope system again because I hadn't set one up since my ML training last year and I was definitely a bit rusty.

The rope system set-up.

We then set up the belay system and I was the first person to belay while Dave was the first person to abseil down. I think he was nervous but he did really good. I gave him a bit of slack to get him started and then let the rope through slowly. I much preferred the belay through the carabiner than the belaying you have to learn for ML because it is so much easier through a carabiner than dragging ropes around your back! Plus, when it's on the carabiner there is much less pressure on you, in fact, you don't feel any pressure and you can feed the rope through swiftly and easily.

The view from the top of the tower.

Emmet went down next, it was his first time ever abseiling so he was very nervous. He did really good though and everybody was supporting him as he went over the edge. He needed a bit more instruction than those of us who had done it before, but once he got the hang of moving his right hand back and forth on the rope and trying not to hold on to any of the carabiners with his left hand, he was flying it. It was great to be able to help someone who hadn't abseiled before because when you have done it quite a bit, you sometimes forget how much of a big deal it is for someone who's doing it for the first time. Watching Emmet took me back to my first time abseiling, and when you first go over that edge at the top and you look down, it is quite daunting.

So Emmet did really well and really enjoyed his first time abseiling. Everybody had a go and then anybody that wanted to have another go, went again. I had good craic going down, it was a bit awkward getting going because we had a rucksack at the top to stop the ropes rubbing on the stone and causing fraying of the ropes and making them potentially dangerous. You normally use something like an old cut from a piece of carpet or something, just so it's not bulky and in the way. I went down fast and enjoyed bouncing out off the wall. It was the steps on the way up that were the killer! It felt like you'd never get back up to the top again! One way to keep fit!

After abseiling, we coiled a rope each and packed all the gear back into the rucksacks again before heading back to the centre for lunch.

Towards the end of our lunch, Brian came to sit with us all while we tried to make a plan for the afternoon. There was still no wind, so there was no point going out sailing. Eventually, we decided to just do a bit of launch and recovery of the dinghies with Peter and Dave who hadn't sailed as much before. So all the lads put on waders, (unfortunately there were none in myself and Liz' sizes!) and we went down to the dinghies. Liz & I put on buoyancy aids and were going to go in the powerboat with Brian.

Unfortunately, we couldn't go out on the water in the power boat because Brian couldn't find the key for the lock to take it off the pontoon.

The guys, loving their new gear!

The calm, foggy lake.

So we ended up just going down to the lake shore where Brian talked us through launch and recovery and a few bits about points of sail, when to turn head to wind and how to get home again if the wind is offshore.

Today was a bit of a funny day with the way the weather turned out for us. It reminded me of how you always have to be prepared with a back up plan in the outdoors. You have to make sure you always have a plan B incase the weather decides to play against you like it did today. Brian had to think on his feet and somehow give us a good day of outdoor activities even though we couldn't go sailing.

Environmental Interest of the Day...

Today while we were going up the tower, in all of the windows there were stalagmites and stalactites. These can only occur in certain pH conditions, often on limestone rock (which this tower is made of). The stalactite is above and hangs downwards like an icicle while the stalagmite is below and sticks up.

They grow in pairs, the slightly acidic water dissolves some of the limestone, carrying it downwards. When the water evaporates it leaves this structure where it appears the limestone has flowed downwards. Some of the water doesn't evaporate until the drip has fallen onto the surface below, causing the remaining limestone to build a stalagmite.

Often the stalagmite and stalactite will build up until they connect in the middle and this is then called a column.