Lifeboat Exercise

First exercise of the year and I'm sure one where the coxswain who on this ocasion was Rob (deputy 2nd cox) learnt a valuable lesson as I did and that was that I'm not the best rower of a boat on the crew. No, maybe I should rephrase that and say that I'm probably the worst rower of a boat that is on the crew. We were tasked to deploy the X boat and row to the pier and attach a pulley and block to one of the stanchions. We never got to the pier as I couldn't get the X boat there with Michelle and myself on board. We made four attempts but fell short on each occasion. In the end we had to abort as the rope that we were pulling (the veering line) got caught up in the propeller and was cut. Lesson learned don't ask me to row or for that matter I need a lot more practice....Think I'll go with the second......Once everything was back on board and stowed away we went in search of a man over board on a search pattern to give the navigator hands on experience. We had all the spot lights out as well as the night sight and succesfully completed this with time to spare. We then headed back to port with varying crew on the wheel practicing man over board (the man being a fender) manouveres. this completed it was back on the beach for a beach recovery then on to the yacht club for a quick pint then home.