Day 1- Wednesday 5th July 2023 – Liverpool.
The crew all arrived at 1pm in Huskisson port, surrounded by scrap metal delivery lorries and interesting aromas. After getting to know our watch, we dove straight into some safety and evacuation training. Hala was our guinea pig in the safe hands of Phil, Holly, John, Sam and Tom. It was a very smooth ride (apart from Phil having a few collisions!). We then had a delicious curry for our first meal with some ginormous poppadum’s . 5 star grub- thank you Micah! We then all got settled into our cabins ready to leave Liverpool the next day!
Day 2- Thursday 6th July- Leaving Liverpool
Awoken by Phil and her excellent rendition of Cat Steven’s ‘Morning is broken’, we all headed down for a hearty breakfast. Hala has no head for heights, but ended up loving the assisted climb. Josie, Helen and Elmore all also conquered the assisted climbs in super speedy fashion. With the help of all the very encouraging BMs- everyone made it onto the yards and we had a cracking view of Liverpool! Stu also taught us the basics of sweating and heaving before we left Liverpool at around 4pm. Damisi and Holly then treated us to the a dance performance on the focs’le (Peter let us know that this is shortened down from Forward-castle!). We spent the night anchored off the coast of Llandudno.
Izzy and Hala
Day 3- Friday 7th July
Set sail after breakfast. Sails were set and then a small crew (Emma, Damisi, Phil & Katie and young Alex (not bearded Alex!) and Freddie went up on the course to release gaskets. All the sails were set and then we braced the yards. Then we had to brace the yard ( getting the hand of this nautical lingo!) and went for our lunchtime hotdogs. Happy hour after lunch supervised by Vicky down below and BM’s on the deck, making the ship spic and span. Throughout the evening there was much bracing of the yards – to make sure we got loads of practice and sailed in the right direction with the added benefit of building some muscle. Dinner of fish and veg with yummy fruit crumble for pud .And more bracing of the yards…..
Including bracing at midnight and 4am.
Day 4- Saturday 8th July
After what was supposed to be a roly night we all managed to turn up for breakfast not looking at all green. And the guess what ? we braced the yards. Then Stu’s very informative talk on sail setting – I now know what they’re all called and how they work. A leisurely sail up past the Mull of Galloway and then up to Arran to make anchor. Sun is shining – long may it continue. At this point the number of hats being worn by a certain VC member Linnea – to date we have seen at least 9 we think, some are being borrowed by other VC members. Oh and Captain Simon has just tried one too !!!!!!
Izzy and Hala Forward Port Watch
