14 September 2011

On the water again with our 18-24 age group

14th September 11

image  Twenty-two young adults are sailing with the Trust this week from hospitals in Leeds, Leicester, Nottingham and Sutton.

Our second 18-24 year old trip of the year began on Monday, with the weather looking up for the group’s arrival in Cowes.

After the welcome, the group split into their boat crews to do some teambuilding exercises before getting on their boats to have a look round, get acclimatised to their new environment and go through the safety briefings. 

Preparation of chicken stir-fry for dinner then began, with some delicious aromas floating around UKSA’s pontoons and some great looking meals created.  After dinner there was an opportunity to go swimming or relax and play games on board before the long day drew to a close and everyone settled in their cabins for the first night.

With the wind fairly strong on Tuesday morning, route plans were changed so the boats could get some sailing in, and they headed across to Ocean Village in Southampton, all getting on well with the slightly wilder conditions.  The crews spent the night playing games and cooking again, this time it was spaghetti Bolognese on the menu.

On Wednesday morning the boats left nice and early to sail to Yarmouth before the tide turned, however, Outreach stayed behind after a minor technical problem.  The Outreach crew however, jumped on board Scarlet Oyster for sailing today. Outreach will be catching up with the group later.

Claire, aged 22 from Spalding, Lincs and treated at the Royal Marsden is on board Moonspray, and this morning said, “Yesterdays crossing from the IOW to Southampton was a bit choppy but exciting coz we had monster winds and got really wet, the boat was gong mental but it was really good.  We learnt some knots of course and have been asking lots of questions about sailing which our skipper Dan always answers.  Nobody has been sea-sick yet, a couple felt a bit queasy yesterday but today its pretty calm, we’re going at 3 knots with the mainsail out.  I have been helming and really like doing that, Alex is on the helm at the moment.  Last night we decided to organise a quiz for tonight, so we wrote out invitations for the other boats and then wrote the quiz, with sailing, general knowledge, food, entertainment, geography and sport as the categories. We even have a prize for the winner.  Apparently the crew of Outreach got the sailing manuals out last night to revise!”

Katie, 23 from Egham, Surrey and also treated at the Royal Marsden, “It’s been really good.  I’ve enjoyed getting involved in everything, learning the boat names for things, and meeting everyone else who have been through similar things, we are literally in the same boat!  I didn’t really know what to expect but it’s been better than I though, I didn’t realise I’d get on so well so quickly with everyone, which had been one of my worries. “

Alan, 23 from Hull and treated at St James Hospital Leeds said, “Its been good, I’ve had a go at pretty much everything. We’ve just got the sails up and picked up speed because we’ve just got some wind.  Steering into port was great yesterday.”

Danielle, aged 22 from Corby and treated at Leicester is in Scarlet Oyster and just told me, “We just lined everyone up on deck for a photo and then soaked them all, apart from me and Thomas who was steering!” So its good to know the Trust water-fight tradition is continuing already on this trip.

Anthony, aged 23 from Littlehampton and treated at St James Hospital, Leeds said, “It’s been pretty cool, yesterday we set sail and learnt how to untie the boat from the mooring. The weather was pretty miserable but it was still enjoyable, we were going really fast, up to 8.5 knots, at the moment we are about 4.5 knots but it was pretty fun yesterday.  The evenings have been pretty good last night we played a different version of articulate and lost!  The crew from Moonspray came over and they are doing a quiz later for everyone.  We’re all getting along and we have Outreach crew on board at the moment, the more the merrier!  The sleeping’s not bad, not luxurious and I didn’t really know what to expect before I came but I just about fit into the bad and slept ok last night.  I’ve had a go at steering, which was quite fun and not too difficult, I was expecting it to be more complicated.  We’ve all been mucking in to help with cooking and cleaning, I’m less lazy here than I am at home, and we’ve been fed really well!”

The boats are all currently sailing across to Yarmouth with a crewless Outreach also now catching up to meet them there.  This afternoon as the wind is meant to be picking up, the crews will be taking an open-top bus trip to the Needles before their fish and chip supper and of course Moonspray’s Quiz Night!