Sunday 17th April - Sailing the West Kyle

 

Today showed a slightly later start due to a tired crew struggling to get out of their bunks. After some gentle encouragement from the first mate and the rocking of the boat we were up and ready to set sail. We’ve been aboard 78 hours and the outside world is now nothing but a mere dream to us. We’re laughing and chugging along merrily!

We left Lochranza under engine and soon put up the genoa, main sail, mizzen and stay sail. We made our journey into Loch Fyne under sail, whilst enjoying some amazing bacon sandwiches that were ‘fired’ up onto the deck by the ‘almighty butty bakers’ that are otherwise known as Liv and Jen.

Throughout the duration of the first day of our official assessed expedition we united as a team and displayed numerous skills that we had been taught during our training time on Tenacity. We put all the sails up and down on numerous occasions due to the calm conditions and lack of wind, in record time and unaided. Being under motor proved annoying for some members of the team, as they were keen to use all of their newly acquired nautical skills and wished to be able to sail all day.

We all played major roles throughout the day. Jen mastered the art of the winch, whereas Heather and Felicity spent time creating a delicious white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake that we are all currently looking forward to. Izzy rediscovered her camera, and began to capture every moment she could of her fellow crew. Liv managed to stay on her feet for the ‘majority’ of the voyage and mastered the art of skilful navigation into our evenings anchorage. Ruth remained very enthusiastic towards getting out the sails and manning the helm during a windier spout of weather; having a need for speed and gaining 5.2 knots. Megan and Emma also made fantastic helmsmen and guided our team to all our desired destinations.

Along our route we enjoyed a delicious and luxurious lunch break, at anchor in a picturesque setting of Stonefield Castle, where we were surrounded by trees and an old manor house which had been converted to a hotel. We all tucked in to well deserved chicken, cheese and salad wraps, even after consuming lots of chocolate throughout the morning, before making our way back out to sea for some more sailing and onto our final destination – and anchor point for the evening - the Burnt Isles, at the north of the Isle of Bute.

We are now on anchor in a beautiful bay watching the stunning moon rise, looking forward to a good nights sleep and an exciting day at sea tomorrow.

From all the crew x

 

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