Thursday 17 April 2014

Stavros S Niarchos - A tall ships adventure

Spending a week living on a Tall ship was certainly an adventure that I will never forget! After some training, turning us from inexperienced sailing rookies into full fledged sailors (almost), we set sail from Liverpool and across the Irish sea. Our watch took the sunset shift and the early morning watch, most of which was spent stargazing. 24 hours of gentle sailing later later we arrived in sunny Dublin, which I may cover in a separate blog post. The following afternoon we set sail again aiming for the Ilse of Man, unfortunately, due to rough seas and an unfavourable with direction we had to hand in the sails and change tact, heading back towards Liverpool. The rough seas continued as we headed towards Anglesey in search for a favourable tide. The highlight of this leg was seeing Dolphins playing in the waves by the side of the ship, causing all of those being seasick to pause and watch in wonder. Anchoring just outside of Liverpool gave us the opportunity to complete a social climb to the 123ft high masts with our cameras! The favourable tides arrived with a pilot and tug boat and we were safely guided through a series of locks to our dock. Anyone interested in booking a similar trip should check: http://tallships.org/.


A view out over the Bow sprit

The Foremast.

On board photography lessons in time for the setting sun.

Keeping watch towards Ireland.

The Bowsprit and the foremast.

Our view of the sails while on the sunset shift.

A view from the highest yard arm; the Royal.

The Main mast from the top of the fore mast.