25/09/11 - Lord Nelson

We’ve had mixed sailing and motoring in light winds and strong currents since Friday. The winds were perfect to set all the square sails and the spanker. With all the sails set and the motor off, Saturday afternoon became a very relaxing off-watch and many of the voyage crew took the opportunity to catch up on some sleep.

We had a bumpy night of motoring, before Aft Port watch came on and set some staysails and the topsails and the engines finally fell silent. Fortunately, the only casualties of the night were a few sleepy crew,having been shaken in their bunks , and some fruit that tried to escape the main mess.

On Sunday morning we wore ship and headed towards Jersey under sail. We had a busy morning of sail handling, but had to furl the sails to meet our pilot at 1300. All hands assisted in mooring the ship in St Helier harbour. The rib disappeared on a special mission code named "lobster pot". Hopefully, this will lead to some additions to dinner!

The captain called shore leave and the crew headed ashore to explore the town. Meanwhile a motley section of the voyage crew decided to ply the Captain, Neil, with rum (he would only accept a tot as he was duty for the night ! ) and stories of daring do.

Then we headed off ashore with the intention of informing the rest of the island that the ship had arrived, followed by a fantastic meal and a couple of drinks or three. They then headed back to the ship for some well deserved R and R.

A place is always more interesting when you have sailed there – which is certainly true of St Helier. A few crew were back on board for tea and headed out afterwards to enjoy the nightlife of Jersey on a Sunday evening, having been walking, swimming,coffee drinking….. and Marco went bodyboarding in the sea …. unwitnessed !