Hey Blog! Back in April, I went on two amazing trips, one walking, one sailing. And both in the same week. Let’s see how tired I was at the end of it all!
The sailing trip was with the Island Trust, the organisation I’ve sailed with before. I was back on Johanna Lucretia, JL, the boat I’ve sailed on twice previously, and it was a blast. I think I’ve almost broken the storm curse, because for the first time we were actually able to get out of Plymouth Sound and go somewhere else by sea. First of all, we headed to Fowey. Pronounced Foy. It’s a beautiful little place, built on the side of a natural harbour formed by a bend in the mouth of a river, protected behind high cliffs. In the sunshine, at a mooring, with blue-green water all around you, tunes on the radio and a bunch of other young people who all like sailing next to you, it’s fantastic!
After a day in Fowey to visit the ice cream shop (I can wholeheartedly recommend!) and practice rowing/paddling round the boat, while simultaneously avoiding the remains of the storm that was passing down the coast, we made our next move to Falmouth. This was a long sail in almost flat calm, so a chance to sit back, enjoy the sunshine, and learn some navigation techniques – calculating bearings, position fixing, nautical chart reading, and course plotting. And practice riding the bowsprit as the ship is moving – which helped for the next day…
By the time we got to Falmouth, I had ticked off another buoy from the long list of different types – this one being the isolated danger mark, with the important double black sphere topmark – managed to accidentally inflate my lifejacket by pulling the emergency release cord while bending over the bowsprit trying to take the inner jib down, and sailed up a winding river that was as verdant green as a tropical island, past millionaires’ yachts and a decommissioned warship. We stayed the night there, playing games and chatting, and watching a seal that had come up to the end of the pontoon we moored at for a rest.
By the morning we were back underway on an epic sale the full distance back, in one go from Falmouth to Plymouth. We achieved record time for JL, making it in less than 10 hours, and almost broke the speed record, going at over 8 knots for parts of it. There was a good wind and quite a swell going back, and we heeled (tilted to the side) some way at times. I was chosen to do a swift and much-needed takedown of the inner jib sail while going at least seven knots – scary, but a brilliant experience and very helpful for any future escapades in rough weather at sea. You don’t notice the rocking so much when you’re hanging over the water, tying up large quantities of canvas. The wind brought us back into harbour early, ready for the cleanup on the last morning.
After getting off the boat, a lift to the train station, and two train journeys from Plymouth to Ambergate, a lift home, and a shower later, I was off again. The bag was (thankfully) already packed – all that was needed was to change over the washbag and sleeping bag, and I was back out to go on a DofE practice expedition. Though I was falling asleep on the train, once I got back in the car I was (somehow) ready for another two nights of camping. And long walks to get between the campsites.
The rules for a practice expedition at Silver level are that you must do all the regular DofE things, but you only need to do two nights and two days, as opposed to the two nights three days for the qualifier. While the expedition had in fact started in the morning, I wasn’t able to join it until the evening, which still called for some jiggery pokery with regard to logistics. However, we managed it. Staying the first night just west of Bakewell, we walked south to Nine Ladies stone circle and the nearby campsite. The next day, a trek to Cromford, the High Peak Trail and halfway up a hillside. All wearing enormous rucksacks which probably slowed us down considerably. We could have walked a longer route if we hadn’t needed to take quite so much. As it was, we made very good time and finished much earlier than all the other groups, both for Silver and Bronze. We still need to do it all again elsewhere – in August – but having taken part in this, tired as I was with the previous week of sea, sun and sail, I have no doubt that we can manage the real thing! I’ll tell you how it goes then.
