Page 20 - RADC 2016

watch’ include cooking breakfast, lunch
and dinner for the crew of 15, cleaning
the galleys (including the heads,) ship maintenance/repairs and general brew b***h. It is on ‘Mother watch’ (every 3 days) that you also square away your personal admin eg. Hand-wash your pants and have a shower. However ‘Mother watch’ are always on stand-by as on a 72 foot yacht whose sails weigh over 2 tonnes, you need more than just the 4 ‘on watch’ crew members
to do a sail change (and sometimes this is required when the winds pick up in the middle of your afternoon nap).
For the rst few days we got our sea legs sailing the local waters of St Lucia. We practised our skills and drills as watches including sail hauling, ree ng, tacking and man-over-board drills. The rst ‘live’ test of
our drills and the functioning of the watch system was during our rst overnight passage to Antigua. I was lucky enough to have a midnight-0400 watch where we were treated to a vista of stars which stretched
to the horizon, and phosphorescence lit the waves as they broke on the hull. The next morning we arrived into Nelson’s Dockyard, Antigua, a very tting location as we followed the footsteps of British Military vessels for nearly 400 years before us.
Here we had time for a spot of sight- seeing and shopping, (a few people invested in some long sleeve T-shirts and new sun hats to protect them from the intense sun, which was particularly brutal whilst on deck where there is literally no shade). We also managed to treat ourselves to diet cokes and ice-creams at one of the white sandy
beaches in Antigua, before setting sail again for the British Virgin Isles on what was a 200-mile passage. Morale was high. After
a spectacular sunrise we waved to Richard Branson’s Island ‘Necker’ before dropping anchor in Virgin Gorda.
After our rst night at anchor, all crew enjoyed a dip in the Caribbean sea and swimming local to our boat we were accompanied by rays and turtles. Next stop was Tortola when we berthed in harbour allowing us to top-up our supplies, have one nal proper shower and conservatively sample some Caribbean rum before our 7 day ocean passage to Miami.
It is hard to summarise this passage where we didn’t see another boat nor land for 5 of the 7 days. We sailed on the edge of the Bermuda triangle; our only company
18 RADC BULLETIN 2016
ADVENTUROUS TRAINING