Final day

Just a quick clear up and some more eating today, we will miss the boat and look forward to sailing her again.

Thursday - Piel Island to Glasson Dock

We needed to head home today to catch the tides to let us back into Glasson dock. We didn’t manage to get the sails up today because there wasn’t much wind but the tide was racing along with us and there were lots of other boats about on the water to watch. We continued eating our way around the seas and had jacket potatoes up on deck for lunch in the sunshine. Another fantastic day at sea.

We arrive back at Glasson and are all feeling proud of our knots and coils that we can now put into the ropes. Zoe is especially proud of her perfect coiling. We had to use these to get us through the loch, which we managed to do as a team with only a little bit of help. We are all experts now in tying bow lines in the rope and tying the fenders onto the boat! After tying the boat up in the dock we decided to head for a well earned showers and some down time of drinking juice and playing cards in the last of the evening sun. We’ll think about cooking tea in a little while…

Also, a Happy Birthday to Juliet’s dad from all of us.

Map not to scale!

Wednesday - Whitehaven to Piel Island

We woke up late this morning, well 8am, in Whitehaven. After breakfast we prepared Tenacity for a day of sailing. When we had filled up the water tank and gone through the lock (in a rather frantic fashion!), we were back into the Irish Sea, retracing our journey from the day before. We spotted porpoises, dolphins and a PUFFIN! David said that our skin would end up wrinkly like his if we got sunburn, so we all ran off and slapped sun cream on as quickly as possible!

We have had the sails up for most of today but have been moving quite slowly which has made it a lovely relaxing day for watching the world go by, so we had plenty of time to relax, and Juliet even fell asleep but don’t worry, we covered her up with a jumper so she wouldn’t get sunburn. She woke up to find a greasy stain on her book where her sun creamed face had been!

We are now not far from Piel Island again, and the sails are spread out very wide to catch the wind, so we are sailing at our highest speed yet! It is turkey korma for tea, which we are going to eat on the deck while sailing along which will be very cool. It is going dark and the sunset is spectacular. The sky is lit up in a beautiful pinky colour and we can see the silhouette of the castle in front of the horizon. Wow!

We are going to stop for the night and once we are anchored up we are going to stuff our faces with tiffin (rocky road yummy cake) that we made ourselves this morning, and drink some hot chocolate before we head to bed. What a great blue skies adventure day on the sea.

Another day in paradise....

Have woken to another beautiful day. Will have to force ourselves to head for the open sea and put on suntan cream every hour so we can lie in the sun while sailing along looking for dolphins....its a hard life but someone has to do it!

Tuesdays trip to Whitehaven

We were are now at Whitehaven "chillaxing" on deck letting the aromas of Juliet and Larissa's culinary delights fill our nostrils. Ahhhhhhhh........

Sorry, forgot we are on a trip for a minute then!!!!!

Today we left Piel Island and set off towards ST Bees Head, catching sight of seals, jellyfish and dolphins (yes, you heard it, DOLPHINS!) along the way. The water was fairly calm and the sky was blue, it was a bit of a “lazy day” as far as this trip is concerned. Eventually we let the sails out as the sea breeze filled in and sailed along no engine noise to spoil our perfect day. We sailed around St Bees Head at 4.5kts and soon Whitehaven was in view. On the approach we brought all the sails in and readied the fenders and mooring lines. We passed through the lock and were soon tied up alongside the sugar berth. Polly and Zoe took the rubbish and had a shower (phew they needed it!) leaving Juliet and Larissa to do the cooking. Poor Olivia had to do a bit of cleaning around the boat including the toilets.

Wow, those cookies smell DEEEELICIOUS! Hmmmm...We might just have a taste........!

P.S. Hope everyone's OK at home, by the way.

xxxxx

Mondays trip to Piel

We all arrived by 6pm with our jam packed bags. One thing that surprised us was the amount of space below deck. The boat is rather cosy and comfortable.


David made us tea last night, sausage and mash with onion gravy.

This morning the lock opened at 11am and we hit the river, heading for the sea. Polly and Olivia, cooks for the day, started making lunch and as the sun came out we picnicked on deck then Olivia took the wheel. Some of us felt ill but found that steering made us feel better.

We hoisted all the sails and learned how to use the winches then practised man overboard drill.

At 4.30 we reached Piel Island and anchored and took the dinghy ashore to explore. We found a lot of snails. For dinner Ian helped Olivia and Polly to make caramelised pork with stir fried vegetables and rice. And for dessert we had fruit salad with marshmallows and chocolate fondue. As we ate we watched seals resting on a sandbank across the channel.

Map of Second Year 8 week summer 2010