The home stretch

Claire Cummings

We did it!!! After a very enjoyable sail with a high Solent tide in the sun, we got back to Gosport in time for more MoB practice which I finally got the hang of. And we both passed! It’s been a long journey. Some instructors have been very supportive (thank you Go West and Nomad) but some skippers have been visibly nervous at seeing a deaf crew member join their boat. I’m not gonna lie, it’s challenging for both us and the instructor to communicate instructions whilst we are doing manoeuvres. Hence the need to explain before and then run it through. My lovely crew mates can sign and it’s so much easier for us to sign whilst ‘doing’ as we can see the signs out of the cover of our eye whereas lip reading demands looking at the speaker full on and total focus as there is so much guesswork involved. Deaf CAN! 😊