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A bit of light relief today! …

From Scott Nimmo – Vetblog

A bit of light relief today! Being a vet can be stressful and depressing at times, but sometimes we get a bit of fun and excitement. The Society of Practicing Veterinary Surgeons [ SPVS ] organises various activities such as sailing or skiing which are combined with continued professional development courses [ CPD ]. All vets in the UK should be taking CPD seriously and going on a SPVS course lets you combine business and pleasure, and it is tax deductible!

Below is the full text of an article I wrote about a recent SPVS sailing trip, an abridged version of which appeared in The Veterinary Times.

A Vet At Sea

I am at home now, as I am writing this article I gaze from time to time at the yachts on the river visible through my study window, I can still feel the illusion of the gentle motion of the sea and I will continue to do so for a day or two as my “land legs” gradually return, it serves to remind me of a unique CPD course I have just attended, the SPVS Sail Training Week. I went on this course last year but at that time I knew nothing whatsoever of sailing so I could not really have written much about the experience, last years voyage however has given me the sailing bug so I now have a few more sea miles under my belt. The idea behind this venture is that a suitable boat with a crew is chartered each year by the SPVS, the delegates, normally around twelve veterinary surgeons act as deck hands and also have a few hours of CPD each day.

This year I joined our boat “The Leader “at Falmouth, she is a wooden vessel and is one of the last of the two remaining Brixham sailing trawlers to survive in British waters. She is gaff ketch rigged and was built in 1892, on deck everything is original but below she has been adapted to fit her more modern role. She is 105 feet long and the area where the fish would have been stored has been converted into a modern saloon where we ate and where the CPD was carried out. This type of vessel formed the backbone of the British fishing industry in the days of sail, their graceful lines, strength, and speed made them unique. No other vessel of the time was capable of towing heavy trawling gear in all weather conditions or be able to get the catch so swiftly to market. Examples this type were still fishing under sail until the Second World War.

The skipper is called John, he is ex forces having served as a paratrooper and is archetypically Scottish, he is the kind of man who will never settle down for long in one place. His dry anecdotes had me in fits, for example “She had the kind of face a dug widnae lick!” He also had the firm conviction that the residents of each small coastal village we passed had six fingers on each foot. As several middle aged male vets were sweating away on ropes he was heard to shout “Pull ladies, pull, but watch you don’t break any fingernails!” He is however a first class seaman, this was borne out as we left Falmouth, a naval patrol boat about the same length as us had just docked after three attempts in the next berth. There was much shouting and bad language plus a few inept bumps on the quay, to be fair I think they were naval reserve. After they had berthed the naval types gathered on deck to watch us faultlessly sail, not motor from our berth as John nonchalantly span the wheel while preparing and smoking one of his “roll up “cigarettes. The glance he gave them as we gracefully left spoke volumes.

The weather was not of the best at the start of the week so the first night we anchored in a sheltered spot at Helford, this is a very picturesque part of the world and there is a nice pub easily accessible by using the inflatable to shuttle us all ashore. The rest of the week we had a