Oakham School Gold D of E, 6 July 2011

Wednesday started with a tough night with Tristan and Emily on the helm and Richard navigating round the top of the Isle of Man.

With a prevailing South Easterly wind it was an upwind sail with the waves pummeling the bow. Even so a top speed over ground of 8.4 was reached. Constantly taunted by the light from England and the ever present wind farms it was a long night. After a 4 hour shift Toni, Jenny and Georgia went up for their shift giving us a much needed rest. 2 hours later though the great white telephone reclaimed Jenny and the first three went back up for another shift faced with the task of navigating the dreaded windfarms. Rain and fog dominated the area making navigating a nightmare even for rad nav Richard. The group slowly began to lose their sanity, Tristan raving about a steak sandwich and a pod hammock filled with warm water that you can sit in… While steering was easy enough, figuring out what was in front of us became a challenge with Emily confusing boats for cardinal buoys and thinking the turbine stands (which looked like aliens out of War of the Worlds) were power stations or oil rigs…little wrong there. Finally at 10:30 we arrived at Piel Island on Jenny, Toni and Georgia’s watch. After a long snooze and satay beef wraps for lunch we went ot explore the island. We met the ‘King’ of Piel and his many fluffy dogs. While we were refused a ride on a visitor’s helicopter we got to take a look at the castle and spend some time in the sun. After a simple dinner Tristan and Jenny brought out the big guns and attempted to make mars bar madness ( chocolate rice crispie treats) and despite the stale rice crispies, they were a total success. Tomorrow we head home but for now,

Many Thanks,

Emily

 

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