Tuesday 4th October – Adventures in Fleetwood

Today we had an incredible day! We had eggy bread for breakfast, had showers, scrubbed the decks and also did some other jobs around the boat, such as vacuuming the floor, cleaning the heads and cleaned the galley. After that we walked up to Asda in Fleetwood to get a few items, and on our return we made soda bread, and lunch was served with bread fresh out of the oven! Yum!

After lunch, we went up on deck and we practiced rolling the jib in and out whilst still in the marina, in 3 teams of 3. At about 4 o’clock, the gates at Fleetwood marina opened and we set sail into the sea. We hung about in the outer harbour and we practiced what we should do if someone ever fell overboard. Ian threw a fender overboard and we practiced picking the buoy up again with a boat hook.

Then we set off for a very short sail just out to the sea and back. Max said that because the weather is so bad that a short sail is all we would be doing today. Some of us got the chance to steer the boat and we got all the way out to the sea. Then we turned round and started sailing back to Fleetwood as planned, when the boat started making some strange noises, and it turned out that the engine had a problem.

We sailed all the way in to the calm flat bit by the marina gates and Ian put the anchor down. Max, the skipper then rang the marina to see if they could tow us into the harbour as the boats engine would not drive the boat forward. But the marina didn’t have a boat to tow us in so Max called the coastguard on the radio and asked for a tow from the lifeboat.

The lifeboat came along in about 10 minutes and towed us into the marina and back into our berth and we tied up alongside. Everyone was bursting for the loo so we rushed round with Dawn to the loos in the marina. When we got back to the boat we had hot chocolate and biscuits…note: Dawn’s hot chocolate is nicer than Max’s. After that we had spag bol for tea and now we are chilling out before bedtime.

Post Script note from Max the Skipper.

The engine problem we had turned out to be due to a faulty prop shaft. Due to the problems with the prop shaft, the voyage will likely have to be cut short this week. We will contact the parents of the students on board in the morning of Wednesday 5th October to confirm plans, which will most likely be a bus back to school to be back by 4pm. However this will be confirmed in the morning.

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