Wednesday 12th August

After a bright and early start at 3:30am we apprehensively started the day with a welcome batch of bacon butties. It was certainly a difficult task trying to drag ourselves out of bed at such an early hour, it was still dark outside and we were in store for a far longer day than yesterday as we had to sail 79 miles to Bangor Marina, Northern Ireland, which is 29 miles further than the previous day. As it was not yet light we had to watch carefully for other ships and lights on the horizon. The sea was much calmer, however we still could not get the sails out due to the direction of the wind. However it was colder and we had to make sure we were suitably dressed with many, many layers of clothing. The early start was planned to make the most of the tides. We knew that we would encounter three tides, and an early start would ensure that two would help push us in the right direction. We also found out how useful watches are. When not on watch (and thank goodness that the sea was calmer today) we could go below deck and have power naps. However, when awoken by a slap from someone (Kate), some of us didn’t go up on deck in a very good mood! We made good time across the Irish Sea and arrived well ahead of schedule. Many new skills were learnt, such as filling in the log book and recap on mooring up in the marina (made easier by Mary’s excellent parking skills – something some us could relate to as drivers,“I can barely park a car let alone a boat”- Helen). However more practice is required we think until we become slick sailors. The extra time meant that we could give the ship (and ourselves!) a good old scrub. Tasks were split between the group, two people to take the rubbish we had accumulated, one to hoover (which Helen took particular pleasure in!), one to fill up the water tank, one to wash the tea towels, two to clean the kitchen and one to do the best job in the world: cleaning the toilet. The Northern Ireland facilities were warmly received, one keen sailor (Helen) saying “they are the best showers I have ever encountered in my life, there are seats and everything!” Desperate for a shower, we all scrambled up the jetty, in search of running water. However once there, we found it strange to adjust to dry land, with many members of the crew stating that they thought that the room was swaying just like the boat. We had clearly become acclimatised to life on board. After our vitally important shower, the day finished on a good note with Mary’s hearty Chilli Con Carne and some “improvised” garlic bread. But tensions between members of the crew began to show on board, after all, it is a 10 day expedition with 8 girls and the end of a very long day (don’t forget we had been up since 3.30am and it was now gone 9pm!) Disputes were soon solved as we talked through our problems and after all, we are best friends and sometimes we do argue, but they get resolved quite quickly. It turns out that the real reason we were arguing wasn’t because we were angry or annoyed at each other, rather that we missed our home comforts and families and also because of the tiredness . Another job remained before we could get into our bunks; a shopping list. After seeing how much we had eaten in three days we realised that we needed more food to last the remainder of the expedition. Remember the endless amount of biscuits at the beginning of the week? Turns out that biscuits are a very good snack on deck, and with each watch eating one pack each every couple of hours, surprisingly we were running out of biscuits. We have also discovered that some foods are more ergonomically designed for life on board a ship, rolls rather than bread slices for example. After a long hard look at the food shortage situation and composing a list of other necessary items required (dry shampoo was a major component seeing as we didn’t know when our next shower would be), we made our way to bed and a good nights sleep. Today was a long day, according to our instructors the longest two days were now behind us. The journey from England to Ireland is a very long one only broken up by the Isle of Man (in the past two days, we’ve sailed 129 miles), so at least we can sleep knowing that we probably won’t have to get up this early again! Fingers crossed!

79Nautical Miles