Hey Blog! A few weeks ago I went on THE BEST VOYAGE EVER and therefore it needs to be related on this blog!
The Island Trust is simply brilliant. They run voyages for young people on three sailing ships – Pegasus, Moosk, and Johanna Lucretia (JL). The first two are smaller ketch or yawl rigged vessels; I haven’t sailed on them however I expect they are very nice. The third, JL, is a topsail schooner, large enough to accommodate 16 people, and a brilliant boat in all regards. From Sunday to Friday three weeks ago, I was sailing around in Plymouth Sound on her, and luckily I kept a ship’s log – which is now the Ship’s Blog!
As a schooner, the JL has two masts, a mainmast and a foremast. The mainmast is slightly aft of the middle section of the boat, and the foremast is – you guessed it – forward of the mainmast, quite close to the bow. She has a mainsail on the mainmast which as she is gaff-rigged, that is with a spar at 45° up from the mast, has a throat and peak halyard. These are at the mast end and opposite end of the gaff, and have to be hauled up by two teams at once. The foresail is likewise gaff-rigged. She also has three headsails – a staysail, on the forestay, which has a boom; an inner jib, in the middle of the bowsprit; and an outer jib, at the very end of the bowsprit. JL also has two yards on her foremast for carrying square-rigged sails. These are only used when sailing downwind. She has three hatches; we only used the one amidships as the others go into people’s cabins. Down below, it is not very roomy. We could just about all squeeze round the table in the saloon, but after a few mealtimes we got on pretty well.
At first, the motion of the boat was slightly confusing but not unpleasant. My brain did not expect a solid room to keep moving, as it clearly was via the spirit level-like organ in my ears – but my eyes didn’t see the movement, as I was sitting static compared to my surroundings. However, as time got on, I started to see the boat moving with my eyes, not just the spirit level in my ears. I realised this was because I had started moving in motion with the boat, so my perspective moved in the opposite way! At least I was not seasick on any part of the voyage – some of my crewmates were unfortunately. Sea-nervous, yes, especially when the bowsprit points up into the air and then crashes down on the sea, pointing into a wave taller than a grown man and sending some of the wave sliding along the deck. That was rather terrifying. However, most of the time, the sea state was not rough, but slight – and that I could handle! We had at least one day of perfect sailing weather – well, if not for the fog it would have been. But I enjoyed every minute of it!
I should point out here about a few terms I mentioned in the last paragraph. Sea state is a term used in the shipping forecast among other things. It is described as Calm, Very slight, Slight, Moderate, Rough and Very rough. I also mentioned fog – that would be described as Very Poor on the Visibility scale. It goes Very poor, Poor, Moderate, Good, and Very good. Other things, like the Beaufort scale – a measure of wind strength, named after Admiral Beaufort – are also used. It ranges from 1 (calm, glassy sea, smoke rises vertical) to 12 (hurricane, utter devastation). Luckily we never experienced anything the boat couldn’t handle – and she has crossed the Atlantic, been in multiple TV productions, and on the voyage I sailed on bore the brunt of 11 mad trainees shouting “damn it Harvey!” whenever something had gone wrong *.
On the whole it was one of the best times of my life. I had been worried about making friends for a long time – I take ages to become friends with anyone generally, but if I make friends I will remain friends with them for life. However, it seems all I need to be friends with somebody is to spend 5 days living on a boat with them – I got along very well with the other crew members, and we have a tentative plan to go sailing together in the summer – don’t know when yet. I also plan to go on another Island Trust sailing adventure sometime soon – probably next year – to keep up my skills and gain more experience; perhaps the weather will be better and I will be able to get my Competent Crew Certificate, as I was only able to get Start Yachting on this trip! Additionally, my big sister’s fiancé wants to get his Day Skipper certificate this summer, so hopefully the whole family will soon be able to charter a ship and go sailing at some point in the future. Who knows?! Whatever happens, I’ll be sure to keep you updated.
Next blog, I will be relating a day by day account of my voyage. Stay tuned!
*“Damn it Harvey!” was the boat’s catchphrase after the 4th Hand made a very small mistake on day 1. One of the other crewmates shouted “damn it Harvey” for fun and it spiralled from there. We said it even if it wasn’t Harvey’s fault. It is now the voyage group chat’s name…!