Tall Ships Ketch – BOLTON SCHOOL

From swapping genders to karaoke, day one was certainly one we will remember. After the treacherous journey from England to Scotland, we were welcomed onto the boat. The boat was docked at Kip so that’s where we began.  We made brief introductions and listened to how much politer and mature to the boys that came prior to us.  We met our instructors, despite the countless times I had to repeat my name, in the end they got it. During this name learning process, we decided it would be a good idea to give the male instructors female names. So Mike became Mikaela and Andrew automatically became Andrea. After ignoring there pleads to give them back their original basic names, we decided to give them a challenge and repeat the name learning process by give us male names. We deeply enjoyed taunting the instructors but that wasn’t the best part of the day by far. We learnt the basics of the boat i.e.  names and uses of key parts then learnt some of the basic sailing knots and after acting like I knew what they were talking about and copying my peers I finally got the hang of it.  Finally, we set of along the Scottish coasts. We took turns doing different roles and helping in different ways and surprisingly between the 10 of us there were rarely any hands free. The sailing experience was surprisingly blissful and thanks to the weather we managed to stay on deck and between the rope pulling and steering we did get to know each other better we talked about what we enjoyed, what we didn’t and what we would eat [surprisingly most decisions we got to make]. By the end of it I was comfortable with the entire crew. We were always welcome to help ourselves to the biscuits and the contense of the kitchen. We got told the precautions of ‘man overboard’ we made many jokes but by the end day we all knew what to do if someone was to fall overboard, after laughing at them for a reasonable amount of time first of course. After the tiring morning we had docked and started preparing dinner, we were eating chicken fajitas and I got preparing the vegetables. We sat together and ate.  To escape doing the dishes some people took a shower but by playing the greatest showman and belting out the words we got it done quickly despite the ringing I still have in my ears. After chilling and settling in for a while, we went for a walk on the beach. The experience was amazing since we had just caught sunset and the amount of pictures we took the sight was not unappreciated. Another key part of the day was the brief trip to Sainsbury’s where we purchased some cake mix and icing for Jess’s birthday, although it was last weekend it was a valid excuse to bake a cake. And like proper Scottish sailors [ slightly more deluded]we ended the night humming the Scottish national anthem to Ella’s pre-downloaded Scottish playlist for spirit.

Alesha

From Whale calls to late night fashion shows, day 2 was certainly a day we will remember. It started with a sudden wakeup call from Andrea we all found it hard to get up well especially in the front of the boat. Thanks to Shirley and Michaela, we came into a really lovely breakfast and she was asking if anyone wanted hot drinks within seconds of us sitting down. After breakfast we set up all the ropes and fenders and set sail into the lovely Scottish Ocean with sights of Jellyfish, Dolphins and many other amazing creatures with are amazing tunes on full blast throughout the boat and some acapella from the centre of the boat we all had a lovely day with the roasting hot sun, towards the front of the boat a few girls mainly being me decided they wanted to see a whale so I decided it would be a great idea to learn how to speak whale I had a lot of fun trying to do this using tips from dory from finding nemo as she comes across a whale and try’s to speak to it using whale language so me and Ella decided to watch the video and try and copy what Dory was saying unfortunately no whales decided to come to the top of the water and swim with us by the time we had learnt whale language we were pulling into shore so all the crew getting prepared to come to land getting the fenders back out so the boat didn’t get damaged and because of all our hard work Michaela gave us all some tenacity merch which we were all very excited about but unfortunately they only had extra- large and extra-extra-large. We all decided that we wanted some sweets and chocolate so we asked Michaela and Andrea if we could walk down to the co-op and I of course was keen to get some whale food so I asked the kind man in the co-op if they happened to sell whale food but he didn’t seem too happy about the question so I just paid for my food and left, but there happened to be some kind of bait store next door so I went in and asked if they happened to sell whale food and the man decided to tell me that whales ait mealworms so I nearly bought the largest box but then I realised that whales don’t eat mealworms and that the man didn’t even work at the shop. We all headed back to the boat but noticed there was a park on the way back to the boat so we had a good hour on the park and played tig and on the swings and the fitness equipment and then we got back on the boat and ait a delicious meal made by Shirley and I think we all really enjoyed that we also played 2 truths and a lie and we all learnt a lot about each other and had a good laugh, after tea we all decided to do a fashion show with are new Tenacity merch and I happened to see another boat that was very close to ours and I suggested that because our boat had merch there boat needed merch but the guy didn’t seem too keen on the idea so he just sailed off but later on he came back and the merch idea seemed to have grown on him and he said he would think about it and now I’m sat writing this embarrassing myself.

Jess

From bug bites to Billy’s second near death experience, day 3 was, once again, a day we will remember. We woke in the morning after a good sleep, if slightly interrupted by the gas alarm (the gas was off, so we were slightly confused). After our room got up and dressed, we waited for the other room to show up. They tend to rise later than us, giving us breakfast advantages. Once the whole crew arrived, we came to a shocking realisation. As breakfast was pancakes, we needed Nutella, however in a tragic turn of events, we discovered there was none. Taking matters into our own hands, we set off for a morning trip to the CoOp. We returned with the goods, and soon breakfast began. We needed to shake the pancake mixture, but volunteers were scarce. And by that I mean there was one. So we came up with a compromise, ‘The Shaking Circle’. Alesha in particular managed to get out of the circle, as she was busy stuffing her face. It didn’t take too long to get food on everyone’s plates, and with nine hungry girls and Shirley, the pancakes were devoured within minutes. After washing up, we had a lazy morning, staying in Tarbert. Once Andrea started to get restless, we gathered in the saloon to plan our routes for the day, and tomorrow. After some disagreements about destination, mostly due to the lengthy times to get there, we finally agreed on our course. We set out for Portavadie, with high spirits and plenty of energy. The ride was funny, with lessons in banter from Andrea, Mikayla pointing out shark farms, and in depth discussions about memes. Andrea proved great knowledge on one particular meme, leaving me unable to breathe with laughter. Mikayla was confused, and I believe still is to a certain extent. Our journey was mostly calm and enjoyable, with some stillness, some adrenaline pumping high speeds of 4 knots, and some tipping, giving Holly an unfortunate experience in the toilet. When we neared Portavadie, after some great steering from Alesha, the end was in sight, we had achieved an incident free sail! We set off to tie the fenders, easily tying them on and working swiftly. Until, Jess dropped Billy. Quickly, after we alerted everyone, Andrea turned the boat around and located Billy, with help from mine and Alesha’s pointing. I wish I could say we rescued him with impressive ease, but that was not the case. We missed him. Twice. Eventually, Charlotte hooked him up and we were back on course. Once we docked, Andrea collected our money for the pool! We were all excited to swim, especially as the building looked very fancy. With only one incident, hair flipping related accident, I’d say it was a success. Not much happened after the pool, except a Hollywood movie worthy chase. Involving Andrea and three girls, it started small and escalated into climbing out of hatches, trying to use ropes as handcuffs, and many people, even those uninvolved might I add, being sprayed with the hose. The whole ordeal was hilarious, if leaving us slightly damp. Dinner was delicious, and the walk afterwards was fun, though Alesha did not enjoy the bugs. Now we are here, sat in the saloon as I write this. We are discussing Riverdale, and discovered Shirley was listening in. She decided she would prefer pole dancing to getting a ring off a rattlesnake. To conclude, if it fits, I sits. And don’t try pole dancing, because it ends up a full time job.

Ella

From Romeo and Juliet to skater boys at the playground, day 4 was great, certainly one to remember. We started the day off by groaning at the amount of midge bites we managed to acquire in the night (some more than others). After taking a short walk to the very posh toilets, we returned to find that the plan was to start sailing straight away. This was mainly to avoid the midges that still seemed to be everywhere, despite Charlotte’s lavender scented bug spray (thanks again Charlotte). Some of us went up on deck to help with the fenders, whilst the rest helped Shirley to cook bacon and eggs with avocado. All of us enjoyed eating breakfast up on deck with the sea breeze, listening to some fab tunes, one of which ended up giving Andrea and Michaela their new nicknames; Barbie and Ken. Our final destination was Largs, but at about half ten we stopped at the Isle of Arran for an ice cream. We all had a go on the swings, placed in a position that gave us gorgeous views of the beach and the mountains. We tried our best to skim stones, and climbed over rocks to find rockpools. When ice creams were finished and photos were taken, we walked to the castle and took even more photos, everyone taking turns to stand at the medieval window and call out to Romeo (played by Grace). We then made our way back to the boat and set off once more for Largs. There was vegetable soup for lunch, with bread rolls that were quite literally fought over. A safety talk took place a bit later on, detailing facts about emergencies such as flooding, fire, and (of course) man overboard. We found out that no, you cannot use flares as fireworks, and helicopters do not like it when you throw parachutes at them. Once we finally arrived in Largs, we went to the bathroom and looked around the souvenir sailing shop, before getting ready to go to the shop. However, we got sidetracked by a playground, and spent quite a long time in there, some of it spent trying to get into the tiny baby swings (I’m still impressed, Alesha). Two of our number then travelled to the shop with Shirley across the road, while the rest of us stayed at the playground. There happened to be a skate park very near to where we were, so Ella and Grace spent a lot of their time watching boys do crazy flips to impress them. When Shirley and the others came walking back with their purchases, we had a conversation on ringtones, which varied from Friends to Glee (honestly, you’d be surprised at what you can get in the iTunes store.

Alesha