In the RYA booklet, competent crew there's a couple of pages on knots, there's the figure of eight, the clove hitch, rolling hitch, and the bowline. I sort of recognise these, somewhere in the dark reaches of my 61 year old mind I sense my days in St Perrins scout group when I about 10 or 11. Way back then we used to do knots and I do believe I passed my scout badge for knots, and I remember the bowline. There was some thing about a rabbit coming out of his hole, going round the tree, and back down the hole, but when I try this with a bit of string it doesn't work, or at least it doesnt look like the one in the book. Jackie has found a good bit of old string in the shed, it's a slow Sunday morning, and she's trying to tackle a clove hitch, but garden string is not right, what we need is some proper rope. It's been a week since we were looking at boats, and the week has been busy with work, and our yachting adventure has been put on the back burner. So today, to keep up the momentum we decide to take a run out to Coniston to seek out an outward bound shop where we might be able to buy some proper rope so we can practice our knots. It's a grey day with rain forcast for the afternoon, so we take a ride out along the east side of the lake stopping at Waterhead to see if we can spot my friend Malcoms sailboat. I spoke to him early this week and he offered to take us for a sail. I'm expecting something like the boat we looked at last week, but when we find it tied to a tree it turns out to be just a little bigger than a dingy. It does have a mast, but it's not at all like the yachts we have been looking at. No matter, it might turn out to be fun for a day out, but for now we head off for Coniston to buy a yard of rope. In Summitrex we find exactly what we need, a couple of yards of nylon rope, about a quarter of an inch in diameter. Back home we open our RYA book and find that practicing with this is so much easier. We both manage a clove hitch, a reef knot, fiqure of eight and a bowline. Hey another small step towards sailing. Got the wellies, and now the knots, and next weekend we're doing our start sailing course, lets just hope the weather picks up, and calms down a little.