'Morning Star of Revelation'
is a sail training boat run by the Morning Star Trust, a Christian
organisation based in Kent. She is a 60 foot gaff ketch built by Tim Milward.
She has been taking people of all ages and backgrounds to sea since
the early 80s and Carrie and I met on board! This May we were on board
as first and second mates with Colin Rettie as skipper and Tristan
as the present MST year out volunteer. The First trip we hosted
was a 'Care For The Family' Lads and Dads trip. The second slightly
longer trip was open to anybody and we spent a happy week exploring
some of the rivers and harbours around Plymouth.
'Genevieve
Challenge' is a 90 foot gaff schooner built in Zimbabwe, she is run by The Kingfisher
Project, a Christian organisation on the North East coast of Greece. We will
be volunteer staff, living on board along with the skipper and
hopefully a talented cook? The first crew we will be hosting
arrive on the 3rd July and the sailing season ends in mid October.
Some of the aims of GC and the Kingfisher Project are to offer the
opportunity for people to get away from it all and have a sailing
holiday where they can chill out, and learn more about the Christian
Faith. She spends most of her time cruising in the Northern Agean
Sea visiting islands and coastal towns.
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'Teal'
is a 21 foot
long Falmouth Quay Punt style yacht, built in 1914. (You do the maths,
she is old and small...but very beautiful!) She has now been restored
and extensively cruised by our friend Andy Rankin.
After
surviving
the North Sea and exploring the Southern Baltic last summer she has
over wintered in Tallin, Estonia, where we will join Andy and Teal on
the 31st May. The plan is to visit friends in Finland, explore some of
the Northern Baltic, see the midnight sun, (possibly getting as far as
the Arctic Circle,) and spend mid summer as far north as we can get....
but Teal has no engine so our plans are flexible!
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extract from Journal...
Teal?! Well she's not exactly massive but as we experienced from our
first night sail she's durable enough, what she lacks in modern
comforts she's blessed with in sailability - which is a good job as she
has no engine! A pair of oars but no engine...
Well canvassed she sails with a Jib, Stays'l, Gaffed main, main tops'l,
and a mizzen sheeted by bumkin astern.
Inside on the starboard is a small heads (loo) which consists of a
worktop lifted vertically and lock in place, and a piece of material
pinned on one edge and clamped on to the worktop on the other side, it
has little effect other than a psychological assurance that u need not
look at anyone else while the calls of nature are addressed. However
maneuvering to a position that makes this possible is a fine art. In
fact moving about downstairs generally is the occupation of a
contortionist. One enters the saloon via a square hole which with not
for the canoe on the deck house would be reasonably easy, but with
however means the sliding section of the deck house no longer slides
and you must enter feet first facing forward arching ones back into a
most unnatural position followed by a twist of your head so as not to
remove ones nose on descent.
On the port side in the saloon is a bunk which doubles as general
seating during the day. Opposite this is the galley and forward of
which is a small wets locker area which in reality is used as an
extended kitchen cupboard then the oil skins are dumped on this...
The fore cabin is a double bunk with a lower roof as the deckhouse
stops in front of the wets locker. All storage is under bunk cushions
and therefore v. awkward to access...
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