Cherbourg
After a rocky night, we were awoken to a few seasick crew members. The night watch had had the task of taking down a few sails through night, with the Bosuns Mates being rapidly woken up to brave the masts to sort out some trapped lines to do with the sails.
Forward Port came onto watch at 8am and were on watch whilst the ship entered Cherbourg, having got the bow and stern lines ready for when we came alongside, Mike the Forward Port watch leader cleverly helmed us into the tide gate dock where we would be spending the night. Tenacious managed to hold up lots of traffic whilst the swinging bridge moved to let us into where we needed to come alongside. The sight of a tall ship caused quite a stir amongst a lot of the people walking along the harbour side.
There seemed to be a general consensus amongst the crew members that lunch was needed on board and dinner was to be ashore. Having come alongside and made everything tidy, it was all hands to help those who wished to do an assisted climb.
On the forward mast, the rigging was ready for wheelchairs to be hoisted up and over the crows nest, each spending a bit of time, taking in the scenery of Cherbourg. On the main mast, there was a queue of people who were climbing on a safety rope to give them a little bit more confidence and help to get them up, with every attempt successful.
I was given a chance to try to climb aloft on the condition we get my safety harness fitted correctly. This sounds a simple job, just getting into a full body harness, but not when you use a wheelchair, and are only 3'3" tall and the harnesses are for "normal" adult sizes. After Piers (1st Mate) adjusted it with a few different clips I was ready to go. I first had to climb up onto the side, then I went on up with a little help from Dave, with David being an extra pair of hands as well. I had no fear and enjoyed every moment of it, especially when I made it to the top, and was pointed in the right direction for the nearest McDonalds! Anyone would think they don't feed us on ship.
Once everyone was down from the climbs, we all settled for lunch on deck. We were then given the opportunity to go ashore and explore around. For a few of us, it was to find a local bar, outside and in the sun.
Penny and Anna