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Fall over go boom
During a very stressful nightwatch we managed to position ourselves well enough on the tide that we made it into Weymouth harbour at 7 this morning. Which was a good thing as we were rapidly running out of water, fuel, food, and will to live. spent the morning cleaning and packing, Karen and Alex appeared and were duly hugged ( Read more... ) -
so, this sucks
Rode two gales out of Bermuda, had 13 hours in the Azores only to have to go straight back out into force 10, made it into Falmouth for a lovely day's break... we thought we'd done it! Conquered the bloody Atlantic in the worst season for it. Just a day's hop over to Weymouth. We celebrated our last watches and felt sad about our imminent goodbyes ( Read more... ) -
The Fine Dining Guide to Tallships Sailing
Welcome to this brief breakdown of the etiquette to dining on a tallship. Many newcomers are confused by the ship's automatic seating allocation function. This highly sophisticated system means that you can simply sit down on the bench closest to the doorway, and the ship will automatically slide you into the most convenient [1] seat ( Read more... ) -
Are we there yet?
Our heading is 000 - due North. Even though home is more than a month sailing, thousands of miles away and more to the East anyway, this is the start and I can feel it. The bungy cord tethering me to home doesn't feel quite so overstretched anymore. -
Happiness
I have one guy in my watch who has never sailed before. Talk about jumping in at the deep end. He's - as he says - struggling to enjoy it. I'm not really surprised; he more than anyone else is lightyears out of his comfort zone, short on sleep and intimidated by how far we have to go. I told him last night that it's never going to be fun all the ( Read more... ) -
Survival mode
To a certain extend it's normal to spend the first few days at sea in survival mode. Scrambling to get enough sleep, keep food down, literally keep your feet under you - it's all exhausting, even just making your way around the ship. The watch rota we're test driving doesn't help. 3 on /6 off is not conducive to good sleep and / or any social time ( Read more... ) -
bye now
Hard to believe we are finally actually going to leave the Caribbean. It feels like I've been here forever.. but then, two months is a long time. Most new crew is on, most offgoing crew is leaving tomorrow. I've stocked up on bikkits and microwave popcorn. Party tonight ( Read more... ) -
Update
We did a lovely gentle meandering trip down from st Lucia: St Vincent, Bequia, Tobago Keys, Union Island, Grenada, then in one go back up to St Lucia. We are not in very small, very posh Marigot Bay. The way back North from Grenada goes against the local winds and the seas, so it was pretty rough - for the most part dry and warm though, with lovely ( Read more... ) -
Birthday aboard
A January birthday pretty much means I've never been away on my birthday. It was a pretty good one though, I got a card and there was cake, and at night we went out - a bit for my birthday and a bit as the last night of somebody who was gong home. It was actually more festive than any birthday I've had for the past 10 years or so. I never seem to ( Read more... )
