We would just like to send our thanks to you for the funding you gave us to enable the voyage we had on Faramir. The week was an exciting and challenging one. All the Cadets embraced it and learnt valuable life skills.
After working to load the boat with our kit and essential shopping. We were welcomed by the crew and split into three watches, given a tour of the vessel and Safety briefs. We started the voyage with an 81-mile night sail from Hartlepool to Holy Island. Each Watch taking a 3-hour period to sail and keep watch for the boat. We encountered dolphins and good speeds of up to 10 knots on this leg. Anchoring at Holy Island we enjoyed a rest and spent time seal spotting as there was lots. We were then taught and assisted with launching the tender. By this time the tide had turned, and we had a fun and exhilarating ride to the Island where we explored the Island for a few hours. The tide moved even faster, and the sea was choppy on our return trip, and we all were soaked by the waves splashing over which added to the excitement and experience.
We spent that night at anchor and throughout the trip the watches were responsible for preparing, cooking, serving and cleaning the meals for all. They all excelled at this, and we all enjoyed the food with highlights of a delicious Korma and tasty Banana loaf. The crew commented that the food was excellent.
We made the shorter trip to the Farne Islands for the next evening and enjoyed a lovely sunset. We helped the crew with man overboard drills on this leg and all worked hard to play our part to make this successful and well within the time the crew would expect the drill to take.
Upon lifting the anchor, we hoisted the sails to travel to North Shields for the evening. The cadets were excited to have showers ashore and spent the evening playing games.
We sailed from North Shields to Hartlepool for our final leg and as the weather was in our favour we made it to our destination earlier than planned. This allowed for a circle of the windfarm that we often look at from the unit’s home. This required us to do lots of tacks and the cadets worked like a well-oiled machine and made the trip smooth. It also included a lot of keeling of the vessel which delighted the cadets. Everyone agreed this was a fantastic leg and highlighted the teamwork skills we had learnt. The voyage totalled 174 miles sailed.
We spent the night berthed on a pontoon in our home marina and had a good night’s sleep after a bedtime story from our Skipper Roo (who is an amazing storyteller). We arose to again work together to make the boat ship shape ready for its next crew. The Faramir crew were outstanding and truly made this voyage.
Once again, this trip was only made possible by your kind funding and has resulted in memories to last a lifetime and qualifications which the Cadets may come to build on in the future.
Thank you.
