Sail Training and Science on The Pelican of London

The Pelican of London is a three-masted barquentine and a Class A Tall Ship, originally built as an Arctic fishing trawler but now a sail training ship. Doesn't she look beautiful going under the rainbow in the seas between Plymouth and Dartmouth!

This was the safety briefing for 28 young people on a ten day science voyage, where I was one of the watch-leaders! I've never seen an immersion suit look as glamorous as it did on Caro, another watch-leader 😊

Setting off from Plymouth, Simon (First Mate) and Martin (Bosun) brought the rib on board and Gareth (Third Mate) got Sam, from the T'Gallant watch, settled at the helm.

Almost immediately, our lookouts saw something unusual - a naval boat, being decommissioned and helped out of the harbour by pilots and tugs.

The notice-board reflects a slow start for our marine-life safari 😊 but - very soon we were seeing groups of Tuna about 4-5ft long, leaping clear of the water, along with common and bottle-nosed dolphins. Ben did an amazing job catching them on film.

The weather was initially great and so the students got their first taste of climbing the rigging by doing an "up and over" - climbing to the first platform of the main mast on the port side and coming back down on Starboard. This is Merissa, one of the medics, kicking things off.

The students grabbed the opportunity with both hands and, before long, there was a Clapham Junction situation on the first two platforms! It was impressive to see how focussed and confident they were...

In the days that followed, many - including Ben - made it to the very top of the main mast 😊

Every climb a celebration!

Stylish sympathy for Harry, who has a bandaged finger!

And a quiet corner of the welldeck for Ben and Adam after their climbs!

The Jurassic coast, east of Plymouth, with it's arches (Durdle Door) and bays (Lulworth Cove) was a great place to base ourselves for the science experiments.

Charly was the fabulous science lead and she brought grabbers which could bring back sediment from the bottom of the ocean and an underwater rover, called "Shelly" which delivered a live relay or video as it explored the ocean at different levels. (and later helped diagnose the problem with the cooling system, because it could share film of the ships inlets below the waterline)

We had some surprising sailing conditions. The first video is of us passing through the Portland Race - an area of sea where strong south-going tidal streams meet the east and west-going streams, forming unexpected currents, waves and eddies, which can be especially tricky for smaller ships than ours. The second shot is of the race when seen from the cliffs by the Portland Bill Lighthouse - you can see the defined area of white crested waves.

There was so much spray that we had a beautiful rainbow and the ship seemed set to cruise through the archway ....

While the duty watch do the sailing, others have time for fun, for cooking and for solving some of the daily engineering challenges ....

As you'd expect on a pirate ship, there was also lots of music .... and Jenga, which I thought was charmingly ambitious, as we rolled with the swell 😊

Ayhan turned 18 on Saturday, so we had candles, cup-cakes and an ensign signed by all the professional crew, volunteers and medics, along with the other 27 students 😊

Drew, the wonderful chef, made sticky toffee pudding with home-made ice-cream one evening and this is the bosun's mate, Ronja, and one of the watch-leaders, Mara, finishing off every last spoonful!

After a week at sea, there was a chance to dock in Weymouth for some shore leave. It's such a pretty harbour area, with ferry boats rowing the crossing, RNLI stations, crazy yacht names and gigs, getting ready for the big races. It had a continental feel ....

Sadly, there was an engineering issue which needed to be solved before we went back to sea - but what a great place to be ashore! We had scavenger hunts, swimming, water sports, tea on the promenade and an expedition to Chesil beach

Oh - and this is a creative answer to one of ten challenges for the scavenger hunt 😊

Charly, science lead, and Meriel on the left and Karen on the right - mentors for two of the watches - also had some time to enjoy the promenade and swim!

Don't you just love this teapot 😊

Chesil beach was magical. 3 miles of beach with sea on one side and a lagoon on the other - and such a rich and diverse ecosystem. We collected "mermaid's purses", the egg case for sharks and rays - along with spiny crab shells and shells of all sorts. I realise, as I write this, that I am not doing justice to the incredible science projects which for example, gathered plankton of all sorts and looked at the effects of acidification on their populations. We saw some amazing, thoughtful presentations and everyone seemed to have stretched into new territory, with the help and support of Charly, Meriel and Izzy. I'm sorry I don't have an illustration to post here ....

The shot of the beach above was taken from the lighthouse, which is definitely worth a visit for the personal stories in the guided tour and to see the new LED light (top picture) alongside the original glass lamp, in the ground floor stair well. I love the abstract shot of the inside of this lamp too!

Ten days flew by - full of adventure and challenge and, also, a great deal of laughter and companionship and good fun. The young people on this trip were completely amazing and made it so delightful for the crew and volunteers. I wasn't really ready to say goodbye to the captain and everyone on his ship, who had delivered such an incredible and memorable experience for us all. I hope I'll be able to sail on the Pelican again before long.