Monday 10th August

One of the team practising tying a bowline.

After unpacking our belongings and extensive food supplies we were ready to set sail at 12pm. However there was some concern from the instructors, about the food situation. Despite the fact that we had filled two shopping trolleys at the supermarket, it seemed that there was a lack of certain foods, mainly fruit (but there were enough biscuits to last a month!) After restocking a little, we set sail. Unfortunately due to the direction of the wind we had to motor from Glasson Dock to Piel Island which was a distance of 20 miles. Along the way we each got an opportunity to have a go at steering in the open seas. Watches were taken in turns depending on where each person was sleeping, so there are 2 groups, port and starboard. Helen M, Helen S, Melissa and Kate are on starboard and Zuleikha, Lucy, Akanksha and Akshaya are on port. Watches last 2 hours and when not on watch we sat at the back of the boat in our waterproofs as the seas were too rough to go below deck (plus some of us weren’t feeling all too great anyway!)We also recapped our knotting skills which we will find very useful on our expedition. The highlight of our day was when Mary, our skipper, pointed out two dolphins and seals. Zuleikha particularly enjoyed sailing past wind turbines in the sea : “they looked like they were doing a Mexican wave.” After a good day on deck, there was a surprise waiting for us in the kitchen, one of our bags of flour had escaped and exploded all over the kitchen. After a quick clean up starboard cooked a delicious stir fry with quorn and noodles. We had anchored just off of Piel Island and with full bellies there was time for a quick game of bananagrams before we bunked up for the night ready for a 7am start. This was the first time that we had slept out on the water, which was a strange experience. Getting used to the boat swaying and rocking when ships went past took some getting used to!

20 Nautical miles