Traveller's Tales - Testing the Water

Our trip to Falmouth on the 16 July was by train from Surrey took most of the day but the Falmouth Town Station was conveniently close to Cotswold Hose B&B  (recommended)
​          The Oosterschelde arrived on the 19th and we embarked Oosterschelde at 5pm on 20th. We have sailed from  Falmouth quite a few times. My reason for arriving early was to get some photographs of Oosterschelde sailing into Falmouth on the morning of the 19th July. I had packed my Fujifilm X Pro-2 with the Fujinon XF100-400 zoom, plus the XF 1.4 teleconverter. We walked to Pendennis Point below the castle for the ideal viewpoint. I got some lovely photographs. (See Photography page). Later in the evening we joined the crew,  guests and local dignitaries for a celebration party for the Darwin200 conservation project volunteers and organisers at the Falmouth Maritime Museum.
          When we embarked on afternoon of the 20th July, the routine of joining the ship, settling into our cabin and meeting our fellow guests was familiar. However there was an understandable excitement about the visit to London. The four day sail along the coast and into  the River Thames, meant joining the watch system and  working the familiar routine of sailing the ship with the professional crew, with sail handling, rope work and helming. 
          What follows is a retrospective account, rather than a daily blog, I will summarise the trip briefly  and add photographs to illustrate the day's activities. This account is based on memory and extracts from my journal.       
Day 1 ​(21 July) 🌦️ cloudy with sunny spells, wind SW, some showers 20°c. The morning started a with the safety briefing, followed by the crew taking down the canopy (or tent) over the deck. Meanwhile, a BBC News film crew  conducted interviews and prepared to record our departure. We motored away from the pontoon at the Pendennis Marina around 1030h. Once clear of the harbour and into the bay, the crew hoisted square sails,  the Bree Foch (also know as the BMF ..don't ask) and both topsails, to run before the wind on an easterly heading of 70° then 80°. We added the mainsail later and gybed once during the day. Angie and I were in Red Watch, which started at 1400h until 2000h. Our next watch was 0400 - 0800h so we turned in to our cabin after supper. 

Day 2 ​(22 July) Onto our watch at 0400h. 🌤️ sunny spells, dry  with a SW wind. We were still sailing with topsails and the BMF. Today we headed past Weymouth, Portland Swanage and the Isle of Wight.  There were several emergency pan-pan broadcasts on the Coast Guard radio. (Pan-pan - an international radio distress signal, of less urgency than a mayday signal - from the French panne: breakdown) The 33m Gaff rigged ketch Queen Galadriel was apparently taking on water, another vessel was dismasted and a third had a jammed foresail furling mechanism and an overheating engine. We weren't requested to offer assistance as other vessels had already been tasked. After breakfast we had a bit of shut-eye but it was nice on deck watching the Sussex coast pass by all the way to Rye. By the time we got to our 2000-0000 watch, we were passing Dungeness. Off watch and back to our bunks at 0030h.

Day 3 (23 July) 🌤️sunny spells, SW wind 20°c. I was up at 0530 and on deck around 0630 (when the ship is full, it is sometimes better to get up early to get into the showers). We were still sailing but only at about 0.2 knots. The tide outside Dover Harbour almost bought us to a standstill. After breakfast,  our watch was cut short,  the sails had been taken down earlier so we helped fold the BMF and the watches were stood down because we were motoring. Folding the BMF is a major undertaking and takes a big team. The picture below is from an earlier voyage on the Saint Lawrence river in Canada, that shows how many people are required. By this time we had motored into the Thames Estuary and spent the afternoon reading, taking photographs and relaxing on deck. Around 1700h we dropped anchor off Southend on Sea. This was a safe place to anchor overnight as we had to wait and pick up a pilot at Gravesend in the morning.

Day 4 (24 July) 🌦️ Sunny first thing, showers later, 20°c. Stiff westerly breeze against us on the river. When I went on deck at 0630h we were still anchored at Southend, After breakfast at around 1000h we motored up to Gravesend to collect the pilot at 1100h. As we approached the city we put up a foresail and the mainsail for show. Showers started around the Thames Barrier and O2 arena. Manoeuvring into the Tower pier took some doing but Captain Jan Willem used his experience and bow thrusters to bring us alongside neatly and without drama.  We had lunch around 1400h and the afternoon was spent keeping out of the way of a host of visitors from the Darwin200 project. Charles Darwin's great, great Granddaughter  Sarah had sailed with us from Falmouth. She spoke to reporters live on BBC London and then opened wine to give us all a celebratory drink. Most of the voyage crew went ashore for dinner but Angie and I stayed on board with the Dutch family we met in Falmouth before we boarded, and ate with the crew. We spent the evening chatting and relating our voyage experiences.  Turned in around 2230h.​

Day 5 (25 July) Today promised to be chaotic on board. After breakfast the busyness started with Darwin200 personnel, leaders, co-ordinators, hangers-on etc, descended on the ship to celebrate the end of the circumnavigation and the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh from 1130 to 1300h. We walked to St Katherine's Dock for a leg stretch and I took photos from the quay (above). Back on board there was a royal visit briefing which took ages so Angie and I decided we would go ashore before the Prince's visit and keep out of the way. We needed to find the water bus to take us to Waterloo for our train home the following day. That done we crossed the river on Tower Bridge and went down to Butlers Wharf for coffee. We came back to the ship just before the Prince left and we got into the group photo on deck - that's us right at the back!

The rest of the afternoon was spent having lunch and chatting to various Oosterschelde foundation members including the MD of the shipping company. We also caught up with some long term crew and relived some memories. We returned to St Katherine's dock again for another walk, came back for supper. Packing ready for disembarkation at 0900h the following morning was done before turning in.
Day 6 (26 July) The disembarkation day is always chaotic for the crew (when we stay aboard for back to back voyages we often see how hard they work when we embark later the same day to rejoin the crew). We paid our bar bill, collected our log books, said farewell and headed off for Tower Millennium Pier for the Uber water bus to the London Eye Pier, just a 5 minute walk from Waterloo Station. Well that was the plan but that's another story....