Home / Ocean Youth Trust Scotland - does Zero to Competent Crew in only 6 Days

By RStearn

June 20, 2004

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Kererra and the Sound of Mull

We arrived at Oban train station at about 3 in the afternoon, and were all glad of the 5 - minute walk to the boat (the 70-ft ketch the Alba Venturer, owned by the OYTS) as it gave us all a chance to stretch out legs after the train journey.

Upon arriving at the boat, it all seemed a bit intimidating to begin with, the first thing that struck me was the sheer size of everything - the Alba was easily twice as big as any other sailing vessel I had ever been on.

After the safety talks and the allocation of bunks and oilskins was over, we motored out to the island of Kerrera, getting up the mizzen on the way, which took us a good half an hour, but then it was only the start of the week...

The next day we beat up the Sound of Mull in light winds, perfect for learning the functions of all those bits of string and flapping things (not that they were flapping for long). That day we were divided up into two watches, and were allocated partners from our watch who we would do galley duties and anchor watch with.

The watches were 3 hours long, and we were all allowed to helm at least once in every 3 hours that we were on watch.

That night we stopped at Loch Drumbie for a barbecue on the beach, after which we were introduced to the joys of anchor watch, with each of us, with his or her partner, doing 1 hour on watch and watching the sky, which finally darkened at about 2 in the morning, and stayed dark for a grand total of about 3 quarters of an hour.

Over the next few days we worked our way north as far as Canna, learning all the time in the balmy winds that we had, before turning southwards again, to Loch Moidart.

That night, while on anchor watch, anchored in a sheltered part of the loch, hidden behind a castle, we could hear the wind getting up, and the recorded windspeeds taken every 20 minutes told the same story.

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