10th April 2011

We had an earlier start today as we were rudely awoken at 7am for breakfast at 8. Leaving from the port Lock Ranza near the Isle of Arran we split into groups of four. One group, Emily, Erin, Emma and Charlotte were weighing and cleaning the anchor and also cleaning the deck. (For all you none sailors this means bringing it out of the water.) The other group, Katie, Howwa, Taniya and Lydia recapped the round turn and the two half inches and learnt the bow line knot. This took some time as it is the hardest of the three knots we are learning. The groups then swapped over duties, the majority concluding that cleaning the decks was the more amusing task as to gain the water for cleaning two of each group had to swing the buckets ‘securely’ attached to ropes into the sea to collect water. This required quite a lot of muscle strength and now Charlotte and Lydia consider ourselves as rather macho ‘lady’ men! Once we had done our jobs we then put up the sails.


Firstly, we put up the Mizzen Sail; this is situated at the Stern of the boat. It is put up first so our heads do not hit the boom. The next sail up was the main sail and then the Genoa. Only later on putting up the Stay Sail. We discovered that sailing is immense fun as we tacked down the path of sea called Kilbrannan Sound in between the Isle of Arran and Kintyre. As the wind was against us we needed to tack at angles that created a zigzag path of the journey. To do this we had to learn the new skill of tacking which takes advantage of the wind so we can sail without the engine. This technique involves moving the Genoa Sail from the Starboard side to the Port Side or vice versa. Everyone had a go at this and when the winds picked up we are sad to say that we had a bad injury where Lydia grazed her little finger! On the bright side our very talented helmsman Charlotte gathered speed of 7 knots, the fastest yet! You could say this was down to skill, or as Lydia likes to say…just luck!

After being on the boat for two days, we now have two things named after the crew, Lydia’s wheel (the one she grazed her finger on) and Erin’s Bank which we passed on the way. While the crew are still tacking down the path of Kilbrannan and Emily and Katie continue to cook Spaghetti Bolognese and Apple crumble, Lydia and Charlotte are lay on the Coach roof at the stern of the boat writing the blog and catching some rays that Emma has just pointed out is bound to be successful with four layers on.

It is now 3:50pm…

… over and about!

Love Lydia and Charlotte

Read more about Sail Training on board Tenacity of Bolton at http://www.tenacityofbolton.org/