What a Craic

Thank you Belfast. What a welcome The Lord Mayor of Belfast, a Piper and fire tug. Huge thanks to Gillian Peter and all the team at NICFFC for all their hard work and assistance. It’s a great city Belfast and they certainly pulled all the stops out for us. I’ll be sad to get on the plane tomorrow. Best of Luck to the crew of Leg 12

Halfway !! Yippee

We are halfway - Huge Congratulations and Thanks to Cath, Karen Simon, and everyone who has been involved. The Second half of the adventure starts today

Frank

Halfway........

By my reckoning at some point tomorrow Scarlet will pass the halfway point on her voyage around Britain and tomorrow night will mark the half way point of the summer yacht trips in the Solent. Well done to the whole team Jo, Tracy, Cath, Karen and Simon.

Frank

As we leave prpeare to leave Edinburgh

As we prepare to leave Edinburgh a few facts on the voyage so far

Scarlet has sailed about 750 miles with 21 youngsters on board,

They have visited 5 hospitals,

Simon has driven 4,100 miles supporting them.

The crew have seen dolphins, puffins, seals, guillemotts, turns and much more.

Moored in 22 ports or anchorages.

The crew have visited 2 lifeboat stations, 3 castles, 2 aquariums and the london eye.

And over 600 cups of tea have been made on board!

Frank

Goodbye England Hello Scotland

So here we are in Scotland, on Monday Scarlet Oyster crossed into Scottish waters and said goodbye to England until August when she arrives into Liverpool!
The crew have had a fantastic time on Leg 6, they have seen seals, guillemots, turns gannets and puffins! As well as having great sailing weather.

One thing that has really made this voyage special for me are the people that I have met. The young people that come sailing with us are just amazing, they are so inspirational. We have also met some fantastic people in the ports that Scarlet has called into, whether its a friendly face in a marina or someone keen to help get Scarlet ready for the next leg I have been blown away by their helpfulness and kindness. There have also been some great individuals who have put so much of their own time and energy into making this voyage fantastic, organising parties, entertainment for the crew and lots of other things!

Cath and I are off back down to the Island this Thursday for Round The Island Race, I am very excited as it will be the first time this summer that I get to go sailing!!! RTI is also something that I have always wanted to do but have always been out of the country for. It will also be great to catch up with the team in Cowes and also catch up with Chloe, Hatty and Larvell who have all joined us on Round Britain and are racing round the Island with the Trust.
Scarlet will be having a few days R&R before the crew for leg 7 arrive next Thursday. Then its on to Aberdeen.

Hope to catch some of you at RTI this weekend.

Till next time

Simon

Thanks Pet!

Well I have just returned from Newcastle, and what a great place to visit. Scarlet was welcomed with a great party (thanks Skandia)and we were given the use of the Civic centre for Ellen's talk. What really struck me was how friendly, welcoming and genuinely interested everyone we met was in the voyage and the work of the trust! Thanks to all those who made the stopover possible and to the people of Newcastle "Thanks Pet!"

Busy Week.....

It has been some week, the weather gods were not kind to us which added to some engine problems meant that at times I thought that Tower Bridge might open without Scarlet Oyster. With some great help from Chris Livett and Tracey his engineer we managed it though. Well done to all the team. Check out the site for some great pictures and the leg two video.