We’re sitting down to lunch when there’s a call on the ship’s announcement system: “You may like to know that there’s a school of dolphins swimming off our starboard bow”. Naturally everyone rushes to the deck to catch a glimpse.
For a couple of minutes there’s great excitement as we watch several dolphins skimming through the water, and then, as quickly as they appeared, they’re off. Perhaps they’ve been reading Douglas Adams.
The remainder of the afternoon is spent sunbathing and relaxing.
It’s Sunday afternoon and we’re leaving the Scillys, heading for Lundy island in the Bristol Channel. This means we’ll initially be travelling East and hoping to take advantage of the prevailing winds. For nearly two weeks when heading South West we’ve had South Westerly winds and had to travel under engine. But today the winds decide to change and blow from the East, meaning we’ll need the engine for this journey as well. Oh well.
It’s a slow journey. With the wind and tide against us we’re not even making 3 knots. A couple of hours later we do get some sails up, we set a course that’s slightly less direct but allows us to make some use of the wind, the tide is no longer against us and our speed increases to 9.8 knots.
We keep travelling into the night, and the overnight watch report that the stars are the best they’ve ever seen, with a clear view of the Milky Way and many shooting stars. Meanwhile I’m tucked up in bed as I’m on galley duty the next day. When I wake at 6:45am it’s pitch black in the cabin: the porthole covers have to be closed while we’re at sea. But as soon as I go up to the mess it’s bright daylight, which is quite a contrast.
Progress overnight has been good, and we anchor off Lundy at 9:30am, ready to go ashore after lunch once various jobs on ship have been completed.
Today is Sunday, and we’ll be leaving our anchorage after lunch (or “weighing anchor” in the correct nautical lingo). The scientists, divers, and cadets are all off the ship this morning, and it’s initially busy getting everyone and their gear to the right places. Then there’s laundry to do, and much sand on the cabin floor to clean up.
Watch leaders Connor and Louisa hold a knots and splicing class for those of us left on board. We learn to tie a bowline, a clove hitch, a round turn and two half hitches, a figure of eight, a sheet bend, a double sheet bend, and more importantly, learn where and why you would use these knots. Every knot has a specific purpose: whether it tightens under tension, whether you can undo it under tension, whether it’s more suited to being undone quickly or is intended for long term use. It’s fascinating how you achieve so many different things with simple turns of the rope. Later in the day I put my new knowledge to use putting up the safety netting along the side of the well deck.
Next up is splicing. We are going to turn some two metre lengths of rope into “gaskets” with a loop at one end that be used for a range of purposes on board. We separate the three strands of the rope, then loop it round and tuck the strands under one by one until the splice is complete. The hardest part is knowing which rope strand to tuck under next, but once the first few are done it becomes easier. After all the tucks are done a hot knife is used to cut and seal the ends. And then it’s done: my spliced rope should be useful on board for many years.
A bit of a photo It’s a busy morning on deck as everyone prepares to head in different directions but the confusion and waiting is soon replaced by the fun of exploring new places.
The island of St Agnes is at the Southern edge of the Scillys group and is most the Southerly inhabited place in the UK. The entire island has fewer houses than my one street in Cambridge, and yet there are four separate settlements of Troy town, Lower Town, Middle Town, and Higher Town. It’s almost like some people playing the board game of Settlers have picked their starting locations and are now competing for resources. The roads on the island are concrete and only a couple of metres wide: it’s a pedestrian oriented place.
The scientists survey several areas of beach here. The broad correlation seems to be that less frequented beaches have higher amounts of plastic and litter as they have fewer organised beach cleans.
We walk to the southern side of the island and I enjoy climbing large rocks. Unlike rigging, they don’t move.
Back at the Pelican the super yacht Farfalla has anchored close by.
In the evening we go to Hugh Town on St Mary’s, have dinner ashore, and then return just after sunset.
It’s Friday morning, and we have two full days in the Scillys ahead of us. Many of us take the ferry to the island of Tresco where visit the absolutely stunning Tresco Abbey Gardens. These gardens were established in the early nineteenth century, taking advantage of a frost free climate to grow an incredibly diverse range of plants from around the world. Originally the island was windswept but the planting of trees provided shelter from Atlantic storms to enable plants to thrive. There are plants here from Australia, Chile, South Africa, New Zealand, nestling side by side. There are flowers in every colour and shape, palms, giant ferns, and sculptures. I feel like Charles Darwin exploring a tropical paradise, and spend many hours photographing plants and flowers. Red squirrels were introduced to the island in 2012, and I see a few of them running around, but not close enough to photograph. A few people are fortunate to see a “golden pheasant” with absolutely stunning colouring. I stay at The gardens until they close, then walk to catch the ferry. Happily I also see a couple of golden pheasants, hiding away behind the gardens.
I have dinner on the main Island of St Mary’s, and then while away the evening chatting on the lovely Porthcressa beach.
In the evening I do anchor watch from 10pm till midnight. It’s a cloudy night so we don’t see stars, though there are a few lights on the islands reflected in the water. Without light pollution there is an inky blackness where the sea and the sky are indistinguishable.
I’m up for 6am anchor watch today. The morning light is beautiful. It’s like being on a film set. In fact, it’s exactly like being on a film set as there’s a Game of Thrones prequel series being filmed at St Michael’s Mount.
We leave at 8am: our destination today is the Scilly Isles. The crossing from Penzance is often choppy but we seem to be clear of last week’s gales, and it’s fine weather for us. Today’s music for cleaning hour includes “What shall we do with a drunken sailor?”, but we don’t try any of the suggestions.
The wind is good and for the second time on this voyage we’re able to set the sails: the three we had last time and also one of the square sails. It’s lovely to glide along without the sound of the engine.
When we arrive in the Scillys the sunlit water is noticeably turquoise. Rachel the scientist profiles the water column alongside the Pelican: measuring chlorophyll content, of turbidity (cloudiness) and concentration phycoerythrin (a red photosynthetic pigment common in some algae).
I spend a bit of time reading up on the sailing terms I’ve been learning: I can now explain what all all of these things are:
Tomorrow we’ll start exploring islands, but tonight we stay aboard: lots of people need to catch up on sleep.
The Pelican of London is normally a dry ship but tonight is party night and we have beers and Prosecco on board. Up on deck the drinks and the conversation flow. The late evening sun on St Michael’s Mount is gorgeous.
9:18pm. Sunset.
9:43pm. Moonrise.
The full moon appears on the horizon, just a thin sliver of light at first. As moonrise continues the sliver becomes a beautiful red oval. Over on shore, unbeknownst to us, a photographer is planning a very special shot.
Photo credit: Greg Martin
A short update today. We leave the Helford River at 6am, bound for Penzance. It’s an easy run and we get there at 11am. We go ashore and I spend a pleasant few hours enjoying the sub-tropical gardens of Penlee House and Morrab Gardens. Our anchor position for the night is next to St Michael’s Mount. Everyone seems to be having a nice time.
The RIB is fixed! The scientists can do beach surveys again! It’s only raining quite a lot so I decide to go with them. We set off up the river Helford and look for a beach to survey. We soon spy a small beach to starboard and head for that. Marc the medic is piloting the boat and is keen to drop us quickly. He says this needs to be a rapid Normandy style beach assault. As the RIB touches the stones we leap out, endeavouring to avoid water in the wellies.
Normandy assault turns out to be apposite. The beach is Trebah beach, and in June 1944 around 7,500 American soldiers departed from this very beach for the invasion of Omaha beach on D-Day. You can view footage here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-cornwall-47525635
We complete two rainy beach surveys and head for the pub.
Later the RIB develops problems and the evening’s shore leave is cancelled. Never mind. It was raining anyway.
The plan for today is for scientists and divers to continue survey work. There’s just the small matter of not having a working RIB available to go ashore.
The weather is fine so there’s an opportunity for lots of people take to climb to the top of the mast. I may do this another day but today I concentrate on photographing the climbers.
Meanwhile members of the professional crew get to work on the RIB: they drain the fuel tank, inspect the spark plugs, and clean the fuel filters, then take it out on the water for a test run.
Lunch is just being served when we hear the results from the test run: great for the first minute, and then the electrics went.
People spend the early afternoon in the mess. The scientists are writing up observations, the sea cadets are brushing up on nautical knowledge. Meanwhile the hardy professional crew are out in the rain, working on the RIB. Anousch the second mate tells me this level problems is not normal.
I’m already awake when I called for 4am anchor watch. The time passes quickly and the sun rises behind the clouds and gradually brightens the sky. I get a bit of sleep before breakfast of marmalade on toast. The Mizzen crew are on watch as we leave for Cornwall at 8am.
Today’s excitement is that for the first time on this voyage the wind conditions are suitable and we can actually put some sails up. It takes many people on the ropes to put up three sails: the Stay Sail, the Fogaffe, and the Spanker. Or in non-nautical words, the ones at the front and the back.
It’s pretty windy offshore: it’s our third storm in a week. The official record is wind at force 7 to 8, with “sea state” up to 5 at times.
With the sails up the ship is more stable and rocks around less, but leans to port about 15 degrees. Sailing along like Theo’s is quite exciting. Surprisingly, there are no spillages of hot drinks, though a pepper mill heads for the floor a couple of times.
Putting the sails away a few hours later takes lots of people once again. I help with the ropes on the foredeck. Several waves break over the deck and my trousers get a drenching. But that’s not much compared to the two people out on the bowsprit who disappear briefly beneath the waves. This is why they have harnesses clipped on to the ship.
At 5:15pm we anchor in the mouth of the Helford river, where we’ll be for the next two nights.
It’s shore leave for half the ship and they head to the pub up river while those of us left on board tuck into some excellent chilli. After dinner some of us play Scrabble.
The first shore party returns after I’ve gone to bed. The RIB starts flashing warning lights just before reaching the Pelican: there’s water in the fuel. There’s a delay collecting the remaining shore party and they build a driftwood beach fire to keep warm while they wait. A temporary fix is used to get the RIB running: putting its fuel line directly into a container of clean fuel. The second party eventually get back around 12:30.
This morning the RIB dropped people at Cawsands. The scientists went to do their beach surveys but I went for a walk along to coastal path to Penlee. There used to be a gun battery on the hill here but there’s not much to see nowadays. I keep walking to the hamlet of Rame where there’s an interesting stone church. Then I walk back to the beach and join the others for a pub lunch.
There’s another storm coming this afternoon so we go back to the Pelican at 2pm. It’s a bit more splashy than usual getting back on board as the rain and the wind begin to pick up.
Sunday is laundry day for Cabin 7 so it’s important to get my clothes in the machine. There’s a regular washing machine and tumble drier tucked in a corner of the ship.
The crew decide we should have “Happy Hour” cleaning the ship and put on Sea Shanties to raise those of us who are napping.
I pass on dinner as I’m still full from my lunchtime halloumi burger.
We hear that we’re going to be leaving at 8am tomorrow. This is good news as it was going to be 4am and my watch crew would be on duty. Hooray! Half an hour later I hear that we’re going to have pairs of people on anchor watch for 2 hour slots overnight, and I’m on 4am to 6am. Oh well.
We’ve spent two days at anchor in Tor Bay while waiting for the Force 9 nine winds to pass. This morning the wind has dropped sufficiently for the divers and scientists to do survey work. I join the scientists again on the beach plastic survey, this time surveying Elberry Cove (rocky) and Broadsands Beach (Sandy). The method is to mark out a 100m line parallel to the shore and count all non natural items found up to 1m either side. The items we find include pieces of fishing line, cable ties, sweet wrappers. The scientists will record this data at each beach we visit, and separately identify factors that would affect how much plastic is found, such as whether visitors are encouraged to do a “2 minute beach clean”. The surveys don’t take long and we’re about to head to a local pub when the ship calls and says to be ready to go back in 20 minutes.
In the afternoon we head out to sea, travelling towards Plymouth. It’s good to be at sea once more after 2 1/2 days in the same place. The weather is sunny but the swell makes several people uncomfortable. I’m on the 8pm watch and I do port lookouts for half an hour, with sunglasses as we’re heading straight towards the sun. It’s surprisingly chilly once the sun sets. Some dolphins appear very briefly alongside the ship but I don’t see them. As we approach Plymouth there’s a warship on the horizon. We drop anchor in Cawsands Bay at 10:30pm and head down to bed.
The wind continues and we remain at anchor. It’s too windy either to go somewhere else or to send anyone ashore.
Today I’ve been on Galley duty. For lunch we prepared pasta and for dinner it was roast chicken. Most of my time was spent peeling these potatoes. At least I got a view through the porthole.
On board Pelican is a team of scientists studying plastics and marine life as we travel around the UK. They’ve set up a blog for the whole 13 week voyage here: https://darwin200blog.wordpress.com/
It’s 10:30pm. Three quarters of the height of our cabin is below the water line. I have an upper bunk which means my head is also at the water line. As the ship rolls gradually backwards and forwards the water sloshes backwards and forwards and it sounds like being in the bath.
The weather forecast is “35 to 51 mph winds from the South West”
Good night!
Pelican of London’s departure from Folkestone was covered by ITV: https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2021-05-18/plastic-pollution-ship-sets-sail-to-uncover-the-damage-plastic-has-on-marine-life
Tonight is Quiz Night, and my team “Sense of Porpoise” came in third place with 39 points.
After this we watch The Jungle Book.
Day five, and the plan is to reach Dartmouth later this morning for safe shelter from a big storm that’s due soon. The forecast keeps changing but the latest is that it will arrive this afternoon with up to 70 knot winds, and we can’t be on the high seas in such strong winds.
The day begins with a gentle wake up from the morning watch crew for breakfast at 7:20am. The only breakfast option is cereal until Patrik the engineer locates the correct circuit breaker to reset the toasters.
I’m on watch at 8 as we continue the journey to Dartmouth. Light wind, not too cold. I ask about the instruments in the wheel house and see the radios, the radar, the old fashioned looking barometer. We take a reading. It’s dropped 2mbar in under an hour. The wind is picking up.
The storm has arrived early. The captain has been on the radio to Dartmouth discussing how we will moor in these winds. We need to be there before the wind grows strong enough for them to close the harbour.
10am. They’ve closed the harbour. Our only option now is to head for Tor Bay and anchor off shore. The wind is gusting up to 35 knots. We head to Tor Bay and anchor off shore.
In the afternoon Pelican leaves Poole to head out to the bay for science and dive surveys. I’m on the helm as the captain directs a tight pirouette to turn the ship. The directions come seconds apart: Port 10. Starboard 10. Starboard 20. Starboard 40. It’s quite a workout for several minutes until we’re into the more open water.
We anchor in the Studland bay near Old Harry’s Rocks. I join the scientists in the Rib as we head to the beach to conduct a plastics survey. It will be a wet landing and I’m glad I followed the packing list and bought those wellies. However the water proves to a few cm too deep so it’s wellies off to wade to shore. We spend a few hours counting plastic on the beach. I find a lone blue nurdle: a pea sized piece of plastic that is the input material for plastic injection moulding.
The RIB is meant to pick us up after it comes back from supervising the divers but the engine develops a problem and can’t collect us just yet. We castaways venture into the wilds to fend for ourselves and survive until we can be rescued. A tough ten minute walk up a gentle road brings us to a local establishment where we barter for beer and chips.
We’re finishing our pints when the ship calls: Patrick the engineer has replaced the spark plug and the RIB will be back to collect us soon.
Ian has kept back portions of our proper dinner of pork stew which is just what I need as I join the first watch. We leave anchor at 10pm and sail off into the moonlight, the stars getting gradually brighter as we head for Dartmouth where we’re going to ride out a storm.
Day 4 has a gentle start. We’ve been in port at Poole so we’ve had plenty of sleep. There’s time in the morning for everyone to sort things out.
For trainee crew, today’s training is to climb up the rigging, and along the Yard Arm. The climb up is straightforward, then you clip on to a stainless steel safety wire running along the top of the arm, short clip first. Your feet go on a rope below, and you hold onto a bar that runs along the top. Surprisingly, I don’t find it scary, but I do find it uncomfortable. The foot rope is positioned too high for me, and being there for a few minutes while others get on and off is bad for my back. I’m not sure I’d be able to do this at sea.
After that it’s time for a well earned cup of tea. The morning delivery of food supplies actually arrives after lunch and many people are needed to get it all stowed on board.