Baltic and back
Wonderful report from one of our Norfolk Boat sailors from Fakenham Academy whose group sailed in the Baltic leg of the Tall Ships Race last month:
Mr Hunneyball led our annual Excelsior trip to Lithuania this year. Walter, Ben, Charley B, Travis, Layla, Charlie S, and Luca took part. Walter reports…
We arrived in Klaipeda on the 29th of June where we were greeted with boats of all shapes and sizes for as far as you can see. Eventually we found our boat and when we first got on board it was ecstatic: the crew were so welcoming and it just seemed a great place to be.
We set sail the next day and this was probably the highlight of the trip for me. The moment when we first put up the sails and it was like, wow, we did that with some rope and pulleys couldn’t have been any more self gratifying and rewarding.
The Baltic was flat and smooth with high temperatures and couldn’t be more idyllic. But then we were hit by a massive storm, which seemed like it came out of nowhere.
The crew managed to get most of the sails down, but they decided we should pull into Liepaja in Latvia to check the boat over and carry out repairs. We ended up stopping for 2 days as a member of the crew had to unexpectedly visit the hospital with an infected ankle. But this meant we had the chance to explore another country so it wasn’t an issue to us, and Luca got to celebrate his 18th birthday on land.
Our skipper was amazing and pulled off some amazing dockings and it absolutely blew my mind that she could do that. After Latvia we made it up to Helsinki. This took two days of sailing, so we had to do 4 hour watches and get up in the middle of the night to steer the ship. It barely got dark being so far north, and the watches actually passed really quickly.
We arrived in Helsinki and were given a warm welcome from our liaison officer who was the most patient and kindest person who I’ve ever met. Any question you could think of she had an answer and was more than happy to help with any problems you could think of.
Helsinki was a place I never thought I’d go to, yet was so so much fun: from the captain’s dinner I went to, to the crew parade with all the other ships’ crews right through the centre of the city, to partying with the people on the boat .
If anyone ever has a chance to sail I’d highly highly recommend it. I even had my doubts but I’m so glad I did it as I will never forget my experience. And without Norfolk Boats we would never have been able to do so. I therefore thank them tremendously!
