Day Three : Ellen MacArthur Trust Residential Dinghy Week
Over to Jess
I’d done two trips with the EMT before but I wanted to try something new and have a go at dinghy sailing. It was great because I knew a lot of faces when I got here and straight away everyone was made to feel very at home.
When we went out sailing on the first day I was terrified! The boats are a lot more unsteady than the yachts I’d been on before and they’re smaller and there’s a lot more work involved than on a yacht. I love it when the sea is calm and you can rest on the side and just watch the waves. I did get to do that on Monday and it was great. On Tuesday we went biking in the morning and got ice-creams! Then in the afternoon we went crabbing and saw the seal. That was amazing because I hadn’t seen one before; it just popped its head up and was looking around for ages. I caught 16 crabs!
Going over the weir when we went canoeing on Wednesday was really fun – I was a bit worried to start with because I didn’t want to get wet but then at the end I jumped in with everyone else! I’ve been really impressed with what we’ve done, I didn’t expect to do all the things we have but my highlight so far is getting to drive a RIB. I had to go in and out of all the boats and that was brilliant!
and over to Matt
I chose to do the dinghy week because it was something different. I thought dinghy sailing would involve us being more independent and we would have more responsibility than we’d had before on the yachts. We were out on the catamarans on Monday and I was really impressed. I enjoyed it because it was a lot more hands on, we were having to pull the jib and control the power in the sails. To start with I was disappointed we couldn’t go out sailing on Tuesday but then we went canoeing and that was so so good, especially being with the Bear (EMT volunteer Andy Dare).
The RIB driving was also really good fun and the fact we haven’t been sailing much hasn’t made any difference, it’s been so much fun. I was a bit apprehensive about coming here because I was worried I wouldn’t know anyone and I sometimes struggle meeting new people but it’s not been like that at all, it has been so good. I would say to anyone who gets the chance to do this trip in the future definitely do it.
Matt’s Christmas Wish List 2007 (look away mum)
1 dinghy
1 RIB
1 canoe
Previous Page | Next Page
|