November 7th
It's getting stinking hot
here now, 29 - 30 degrees in the shade....... We stopped for a cooling
swim yesterday afternoon which wasn't quite the treat we werre
expecting. We were in the middle of a shoal of invisible stinging
jellyfish. Ouch! Thankfully all our welts have gone today!
We are all thinking of that
first cold beer when we get to Barbados. Just the thought of the
condensation on the side of the cold bottle is enough to make our
mouths water....
Two days away from land and
there is much excitement and speculation about who may be the first to
see the smudge on the horizon and shout 'Land Ahoy'
Capt Daz (with a little help from his friends)
November 8th
As I write Pelican is running gently downwind with a lovely easterly
breeze, we are only making about 4 knots, but we couldn't resist making
sail this morning and using what breeze there was to nudge her along.
It is a lovely bright day and anticipation is building for our
arrival in Barbados, our ETA is now looking like Saturday morning.
Some of the crew are busy taking there RYA exams today to get them
finished before the West Indies part of the voyage. They will be
putting in to practise what they have learned by planning certain
passages by watches, then actually sailing the ship to her destination.
The Permanent Crew during this time will be sitting back and
enjoying the scenery....
This has been a good passage and most of it under sail, the ship has
proved herself to be weatherly, comfortable and a joy to sail, so well
done Graham and Philip! We will have a cold bottle of Banks beer
for you on arrival.....
We are starting to see more and more bird life and and are getting
regular visits from Brown Boobies and Tropic birds, no whales as yet
unfortunately but I am sure we will see them in the Islands.
We have been eating cakes all trip baked by Sue Clark our Medical
Officer so may not be quite the beautiful bodies on the beach that we
had hoped to be. The galley staff have been doing such a stirling
job I think I must have put on two stones not helped by the three
portions of Cherry Cheesecake I am unfairly rumoured to have eaten last
night. Ben our 2nd Mate says he was helping me out by eating my
biscuits but I am not so sure he solely had my best interests at
heart......
Juliette Horsford had her birthday on the 6th and as a special treat
she was subjected to the strange sight of the vegetable oiled bodies of
some of the boys dancing for her. I don't think she has got over
it yet!
I'll sign off now and the next time you hear from us will be to the tune of steel bands!
Capt Daz and the Pelicanians
November 10th. BARBADOS!!!
Pelican is now all fast alongside the northern arm of the breakwater at
Barbados, we arrived at 0730 local time and have cleared in with
Customs and Immigration, the crew are about to be unleashed on
the unsuspecting population of Barbados. I expect a mass
exodus....
There was great excitement last evening around 2130 when we sighted the
glow of Barbados in the distance, and so to celebrate we had a jelly
eating party on the poop for the watch on deck, pomegranate and
passion fruit I believe.
The port is full of cruise ships today but they managed to find room
for us on the end of the breakwater, all hands are just putting a good
harbour stow on the sails before stepping ashore to enjoy the first
West Indian visit.
The voyage crew are seasoned Pelican sailors now, all hands are working
the ship well and have got in to the habit of using the language of the
sea, they have become a tight and seamanlike unit and it is a pleasure
to see.
We hope eveything is well at home and we are looking forward to the adventure continuing.....
Best wishes to all
Capt Daz and the Pelicanians
November 14th Hallo From the Grenadines
How is the weather where you are? I can tell you it is warm and
sunny here! There is also a fresh breeze running down Admiralty
Bay, Bequia, where we are now moored to two anchors.
We arrived at Bequia at 0845 local time after a very nice passage from
Bridgetown, Barbados. We managed to sail the whole way from the
Breakwater there to the Head of Admiralty Bay.
Clearing in formalities complete, the crew have now gone ashore to
explore the Island and enjoy the lovely atmosphere that in my
experience this Island has always had.
We have launched our Dive RIB 'Virginia', named after a certain lovely
lady of the same name who very kindly bought it for us, in order to get
everyone ashore as quickly as possible. We will be using it again
to look at some great snorkelling sites later on. The Ship's
sailing dinghies, also bought for us by Virginia, are being
rigged as we speak and will get their 'bottoms wet' very soon.
All hands send their heartiest thanks to you Virginia.
The plan is to stay here for two hights before sailing for Petit Nevis
for a beach Bar-B-Que, Mustique may be on the cards then but that
depends on how much they charge these days to anchor in Britannia Bay.
I think the plan will then be to sail south for Canouan, Tobago
Cays and finally clear out of St Vincent and the Grenadines through
Union Island before sailing to Martinique.
Everyone is fine and well and send their Regards.
Capt Daz
16th November, Petit Nevis
Pelican is anchored off the lovely uninhabited little island of Petit
Nevis just south of Bequia. This Island is the old whaling
station and the slipway up which the whales were dragged still
survives. We arrived a little late yesterday for our BBQ on the
island so it was getting quite dark by the time most people had eaten,
(and the mossies had eaten us!), and to add to the fun, magnificant
heavy rain squalls came through to challenge Tom and the BBQ team.
They did a stirling job to get it all organized in the conditions
and the time available. The offer was made to the crew to stay on
the Island overnight, but only one brave soul took up the challenge,
that was our Tess.
Aft part of Starboard watch took command and sailed us from Admiralty
Bay, Bequia to the anchorage off Petit Nevis, and what a fantastic job
they did of it too. The team were;
Henry Fletcher-Brewer
Paul Campbell
Pippa Knight
Ken Heap
Kate Rushbrook
The ship was moored to two anchors in Admiralty Bay, and as sometimes
happens, we managed to foul the Port anchor with the Starboard cable..
This required a bit of instant seamanship to sort out and the crew
leapt into action. Using hanging off ropes they managed to clear
the fouled anchor in double quick time. For an encore, the
Pelicanians, lead by Aft Starboard watch, sailed the ship off the
anchor and out of Admiralty Bay, a very smart and seaman like manouvre
enjoyed by the watching boats anchored nearby.
Having rounded West Cay, the western most islet of Bequia, the course
for Petit Nevis was due East. This meant a beat to windward and a
real challenge in the freshening Easterly wind, and squally with it
too. We bought the ship on the wind and it was a delight to see
how well she sailed close hauled in the stiff breeze. We
instantly started to make ground to windward.
We had a narrow corridor in which to beat to windward, between the
islands of Bequia to the North and Isle A Quatre in the South, this
distance is only about two miles, so it meant short boards and quick
tacks. Excellent fun! The crew did very well and Aft
Starboard watch handled the ship very well indeed. They only
missed stays once when a nasty shift in the wind occured just at the
critical moment. With limited sea room ahead, it meant we had to
quickly wear ship instead. At the same time a heavy squall came
through and we had to hand sail quickly, all in all an action packed
day! WELL DONE AFT STARBOARD WATCH!
If the time had not been against us yesterday I truly beleive we would
have worked the ship to windward through that narrow corridor all the
way up to the anchorage at Petit Nevis, not many Square Riggers could
boast that kind of windward performance.
Whilst in Admiralty Bay, we were vivited by students of Bequia High
School. Fourteen Students came aboard to look round and seven
ventured aloft, we presented those that went aloft with certificates to
take home and they seemed to enjoy the experience of being on board.
This event came about when Ben, Second Mate, met the headmistress
of the school, a lady called Elaine Oliver, and suggested a visit to
the ship. Some of our crew also visited the school and met the students
there. They have an anvironmental scheme called Sand Watch
underway at the moment and they would like us to get involved.
As we speak, some of our voyage crew are compiling a report
regarding this and adding suggestions for thre future, the
opportunity to make a real connection with the school and make this a
regular event is fantastic.
We are just about to get underway for Canouan, about 17 miles to the South. After part of Port Watch are in command today.
Capt Daz and the Pelicanians
17th November, Mayreau
Pelican is anchored off lovely Tobago Cays, the crew are now on their
way ashore to explore them and get wet in clear blue waters and enjoy
sunshine.............
Yesterday was a different story all together. Aft Port were in
command this time to take us to Canouan, they weighed anchor without a
hitch and sailed the ship away from Petit Nevis, unfortunately someone
forgot to order some decent weather so we had overcast skies and rain
during the passage, at least it was warm!
Because of the prevailing conditions we decided to anchor at Saline Bay
, Mayreau instead, a much safer anchorage in a stiff wind and with our
draught. Aft Port did a fantastic job getting us there, the A
team this time were;
Tony 'Mad Dog' Stafford
Sam 'Sandwich Boy' Stafford Allen
Colin 'Do You Want Some' James
Hugo 'Hard Man ' Hardy
Sophie 'Sailor Girl' Windsor Clive
We had a lovely visit at Mayreau, a real gem of an Island, we met
Robert Righteous, a local who owns a cracking little bar/restaurant in
the town there. We invited Robert, family and staff out to the
ship this morningand we had a great time. Robert has offered to
put on BBQ's on the beach for us next time the ship is in, I must admit
it was hard to drag ourselves away today. Contact was again made
with the local school here, and so next time in we will get some of the
school kids out to the ship. Pelican is already making a name for
herself here in the Islands! I think we can continue these
connections and they will hopefully flourish over the years to come.
I would write more but I'm going to jump over the side for a swim instead.......
Best Wishes
Capt Daz and the Pelicanians
20th November, Union Island
Good day all,
Pelican is anchored of Clifton on Union Island. The crew are busy
ashore at the local internet cafe catching up with the folks back home.
We had a great visit at Tobago Cays, but don't worry I won't bore
you with all the stories of how beautiful the beaches were and how
turquoise the waters looked..........
Forward Port's mission was to take the ship from the Tobago Cays to
Chatham Bay on the western side of Union Island. This meant
sailing the ship off the anchor in quite a restricted area, as we were
surrounded by reefs, but they did a great job and all went smoothly.
Once clear of the nearby shallows near the Cays, we made more
sail and gobbled up the distance to Chatham Bay, where Forward Port
moored the ship to two anchors in the north east corner of the Bay.
A job well done.
The team were:
Howard 'Midshipman' Kinsey
Sue 'I'll flog you all if you don't pull harder' Matthews
Oliver 'Bad boy' Wright
Dani 'brace those yards you swabs' Howes
Emma 'Pirate Girl' Morgan
Tom 'Bacardi' Cardy
Chatham Bay is a personal favourite of mine, a lovely wide sweeping bay
with nothing much at all apart from a sandy beach, clear waters,
Pelicans, Boobies, Turtles and some kind of West Indian Gull, a magical
place I thinlk.
We decided to create the first Pelican RS sailing dinghy Chatham Bay
Challenge Cup relay race here, an Olympic triangle was set up by Little
John and a number of crew took part, I would pass on the results but
there does seem to be a bit of controversy surrounding them so
you will all have to wait!
A local chap called 'Shark Attack' arranged a beach BBQ for us whilst
anchored at Chatham Bay, chicken, fish, spuds and rice were on the menu
and very nice it was too. Another local 'Pleasure' played his
guitar and sang and all the crew joined in , obviously scaring the
wildlife away, but it was fun. A delightful setting to eat a
beach BBQ.
Again, it was hard to drag ourselves away from that lovely place
but as I said we are now anchored off Clifton and have now officially
cleared out of St Vincent and the Grenadines and will be sailing for
Martinique in 5 hours or so, we have about 120 miles to sail
upwind to make Fort de France, the wind looks good, so we should have a
cracking sail, fingers crossed.
All the crew send their regards and thoughts.
Best wishes
Capt Daz and the Pelicanians
23rd November. St. Pierre, Martinique
Hallo from us all!
Just to let you know we are anchored at St Pierre in the Norrth of
Martiniqye, havingfound some decent ground to anchor in! It's
very deep here. We are under the shadow of Mount Pelle, but
unfortunately we haven't seen the summit as yet as it has been shrouded
in cloud, we are hopong for a less soggy day tomorrow.
We did do a sail past of HMS Diamond Rock, just off the south coast of
Martinique. This being of course the only commissioned Rock in
the Royal Navy, some bright spark thought it would be a good idea to
put batteries on this natural fortress just off the approaches to the
port of Fort de France, it was quite a feat to get the guns up to the top of
thr Rock, let alone survive on the Rock for as long as they did.
I beleive Bonaparte was a little upset....
Fort de France was an 'interesting' visit, the place closed down almost
completely after 1800, apart from a couple of restaurants and
bars. The place seems to be suffering from a lack of visitors, we
think the cruise shipsavoid the port these days. The town could
certainly do with a fillip of some kind, the Pelican Crew did their
best to liven it up though!
Our intentions are to depart from St Pierre late tomorrow afternoon
once Bruno, the releif Engineer has joined, for Portsmouth in the
North of Dominica where we will spend a couple of days rampaging
through the rain forests. Then we will sail a bit further North to
the Saintes before returning South towards st Vincent.
Again it,s a tough life but someone has to do it.........
Best wishes to all
Capt Daz and the Pelicanians
26th November Portsmouth, Dominica
Greetings from a windy Portsmouth, Prince Rupert Bay,
in Dominica. We arrived at 0400 -early o'clock!- in this great
Bay yesterday. It really blew for most of the day but Pelican
didn't move an inch even in the 30 knot gusts we were getting, I'm not
surprised with the size of our Starboard anchor!
We weighed anchor at 1800 from St Pierre on the 24th and finally got
under way around 2000! We managed to get a full turn with
our starboard cable around the Port anchorwhich required some serious
fiddling to eventually clear. We had to dangle Little John over
the side to pass hanging off ropes an d he was hailled a hero by
certain members of our female voyage crew . It was quite a lively
passage between Martinique and Dominica, the wind angle meant a motor
sail and the sea reminded us that the Carribean is not all gentle
waters and calm days, it certainly blew the cobwebs away.
All hands had a look around through the Dominican Rainforests yesterday
and arrived back on board loaded with all sorts of tropical delights,
nutmeg, cocoa fruits, oranges and grapefruit straight off the tree,
there is no problem getting your required five bits of fruit and veg in
this Island.
Some of our intrepid crew have gone off to the Indian River this
morning, which was the setting for a scene from the film Pirates of the
Caribbean, lets hope they don't get any ideas and begin a reign of
terror in the West Indies, although I do think thats already begun.
According to the locals, Dominica is the only Island that Columbus
would recognise if he ever sailed these waters again, I can well
beleive that. Dominica is a fantastic Island, full of lush
forests and unspoilt mountains and villages, the Dominican people have
done brilliantly well to look after their Island and keep it
practically unchanged over the years, They had conservation
programmes in place long before some other countries had even thought
of doing so, the guides are friendly and are fonts of knowledge
regarding the flora and fauna of their Island. Fort Shirley, an
old British Fort, in the north end of the bay is also a good vsit, the
fortifications and canon are set in a nature reserve and it has been
beautifully preserved and is well looked after.
The fort wasn't always such a nice place to be, there is a swamp quite
close by so it was quite a pestilential plcae to serve at one time, I
guess the Gin flowed when it was manned, purely for medicinal reasons
obviously.
Our intentions are to sail from Portsmouth tomorrow for the
Sainteswhich are only 20 miles to the North so it's a short hop really,
we will stay the night at anchor there before sailing south via St
Pierre again to pick up Ben, and then continue on further south for St
Vincent and hopefully visit Souffriere Volcano in the North of the
Island.
All our best wishes
Capt Daz and the Pelicanians
(PS From the Office Girls.
If you capture Johnny Depp and deliver him back to Weymouth we will
ensure a suitable punishment is meeted out. It's a tough job but
somebody has got to do it...)
2nd December St Vincent
The Pelicanians have conquered Soufriere Volcano in St Vincent!
What a great day it was yesterday although a little sore on the
feet.... A large number of the crew walked up to the top of the
Soufriere Volcano and decended into the crater, a hard walk, but
lovely. The crater is a lot more verdant than I remember it,
there are grasses and wild flowers and it was a real joy to see.
The magma plug in the crater is still busily venting off steam
and smells of bad eggs so I guess the volcano is still simmering nicely!
By the way I wonder if Jim Palmer, aged 75, (Jim has been with Pelican
for a number of years), is the oldest person to have climbed the
mountain. He put us all to shame with his fitness level, we all
want what he's on!!
We met some old friends from the Astrid days at Chateaubelair, (this is the bay just under the foot of the volcano), namely Boy Boy Dyer and Calvert Bob. Calvert took us up to the volcano and Boy Boy supplied us with fruit and veg.
Talking about volcano's and eartquakes, we beleive we felt the
Martinique eartquake that occured on the 29th. We were about 20
miles off the west coast of Martinique at the time, and felt a
distinctive vibration that we couldn't make sense of until we
heard about the earthquake the next day. Any information about
this would be welcome.
We havejust made a pit stop at Kingstown and are about to sail for the
Island of Spice, Grenada. There doesn't seem to be too much in
the way of wind at the moment but we will do our usual whistling thing
and hope for the best.
Best wishes and fair winds to all
Capt Daz and the Pelicanians
6th December Island of Carriacou
Good day all,
Pelican is now anchored off Hillsborough, which is the main town
on the Island of Carriacou. We have officially cleared out of
Grenada and are planning to sail for St Lucia around 1800 today.
We have had a pleasant few days around Grenada, we had a look at the
berthing in St Georges, but the port fees meant that it would have been
an expensive stop for two nights. We decided to have a look a
little further down the South Coast, first at Prickly Bay, and then not
finding enough room there, anchored in a lovely little bay called
Woburn Bay, (or Clarkes Court Bay).
Once we wriggled through the approach channel we found a great little
anchorage once used by sailing ships to load rum! The bay is very
sheltered and has good holding, it is only 15 minutes and $2 to St
Georges by bus and has a ciouple of great restaurants, we will have to
make this a regular stop I think, it's well worth another visit.
It fell to the Forward part of Starboard watch to take us from Woburn
Bay to Carriacou, and this presented quite a challenge with the tight
channel out of the Bay. We needn't have worried though, to
Forward Starboard watch this was a breeze and was carried out
with a professionalism that was a pleasure to see.
As there wasn't too much in the way of wind, we decided to have an MOB
exercise with FWD STBD in charge, with Clare Oliver acting as Coxswain
of the RIB with Keith the Bosun, the rest of the watch each had a go at
maneuvering the ship alongside the Casualty, which was a fender.
They all managed to put the ship right alongside close enough for
the crew on deck to pick up the casualty with a boat hook, a really
fantastic achievement. To crown this they took the ship in to the
anchorage of Hillsborough in dark and in time for tea and medals.
Well done FWD STBD! The team were:
Gus 'Stork legs' Fergusson
James 'Crazy boy' Warrell
Beth 'Lips on legs' Warner
Juliette 'Call me Steve' Horsford
Clare 'Can the RIB go faster' Oliver
All hands are ashore having a look around the island, and as I
mentioned we are sailing this evening for St Lucia and the end of the
trip L. If we have time I hope to look in at Soufriere and see
the Pitons, before berthing at Vieux Fort in the South for
Disembarkation.
We will send you a final blog before we sign off for the final time for
Pelicans maiden voyage, so until then best wishes to all.
Captain Daz and the Pelicanians
9th December - Vieux Fort
Good day all,
Pelican is safely alongside the finger pier at Vieux Fort, St Lucia
having completed her Maiden Voyage. It is quite a long time ago
when we sailed from Weymouth and yet it has passed so quickly, sadly,
this will be the final message from us here aboard Pelican for the TA1.
We sailed from Carriacou on the evening of the 6th, unfortunately the
wind was again too tight to sail alone, so we had to motor sail.
We ended up about 17 miles to leeward of St Lucia, and had to put
a tack in to make Soufriere, where we arrived just before lunch on the
7th. It is always fun finding a berth in Soufriere Bay as it is
so deep, we eventually moored the ship stern to the beach just under
the Gross Piton, with our stern lines made to some stout palm trees, a
really lovely spot.
Clearing the ship in to St Lucia presented no problems and the crew had
a good look around this interesting town and visited the beach bar near
the end of our stern lines! We sailed from Soufriere on the
morning of the 8th for Vieux Fort, unfortunately I managed to again
foul our anchors so had a bit of fiddling before we could finally
depart for our final destination.
This has been an excellent voyage, eventful and fun. Pelican has
worked her magic and I believe that the crew will leave the ship with
feelings of achievement and comradeship, tinged with sadness that it is
now all over. They have made friends for life and will always be
part of the ship and organisation. Some of the crew are staying
on to work the ship for the Adventure Holiday season here in the
Caribbean until the return voyage to the UK.
I can truly say that there could not have been a better crew to sail
the Pelican on her maiden voyage, congratulations to all the TA1 crew
for your enthusiasm, sense of fun and tolerance throughout the highs
and lows of the voyage, we hope to see all our shipmates again very
soon.
Unitl then, fair winds and following seas to all.
Captain Daz and the Pelicanians.
And finally,
apologies to all who were eagerly awaiting news of the end of the
voyage, due to a technical hitch we have not been receiving the
transmissions from the ship for a few days.
