Contents:
EDITORIAL
Here it is - December’s issue of Revelations. In this issue there is news of the latest goings on of the Trust and recollections of some of the many activities of the summer. Sitting here writing this gazing out on a grey and rain swept view, I cannot help but dream about sailing next season. I hope that Revelations will whet your appetite for adventure next year.
Thank you to all of you who have provided contributions for this issue. Please send in any contribution (stories, pictures, thoughts, etc) that you might have for inclusion in the next issue of Revelations to the office by 1 March 2000.
Wishing you a very happy Christmas and successful new year...
Will
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NEWS Tim writes....
The Millennium Brochure
All being well, this edition of Revelations will reach you before Christmas and come together with the new Brochure for 2000. We have taken the plunge and gone for proper printing in two colours this time. I hope you like the result and can use it to interest people in joining one of the many activities next year. More brochures are available, but they were, to say the least, not cheap, so please do not waste them. The full details of our plans for next year are in the brochure, read all about the exciting new activities that I mentioned last time.
Of course, Morning Star’s own programme for most of 2000 has been fixed for a long time. Our crews for TS2000 are very nearly complete, but there are some places on the Southampton to Cadiz leg in particular plus just possibly one or two others.
Another winter...
It is the refit season again. This time both boats are staying afloat, though Morning Star will need two or three weeks out of the water after Christmas for attention to her bottom. The emphasis is very much on completing the major work done by Steve and team last winter and through the year in preparation for TS2000. This includes installing a Navtex receiver and a proper printer for our Inmarsat C. The guardrails and stanchions need some redesigning and an annoying deck leak has to be dealt with. Rewiring work needs to be completed. We also hope to replace saloon headlining and the Treadmaster flooring in the saloon and galley, refurbish the companionway steps and so on and so forth, no lack of anything to do!
The big event - getting close
After more than a year of planning and preparation, the start of Tall ships 2000 is approaching almost too rapidly for comfort. Morning Star leaves Chatham on April 6 for the delivery to Southampton, which will be run as an ordinary six day cruise. Between April 12 and 16 the fleet will be in Southampton. This time may include an informal race round the Isle of Wight. Then out into the Channel and the Bay of Biscay on the first race to Cadiz. After that into warmer waters, with Bermuda, USA, Halifax and back to Amsterdam at the end of August. Excitement is growing. You can follow the event on the Internet, at www.tallships2000.com or from ISTA's homepage.
Go South, young man
Andy Rankin, known to many as one of our younger skippers, works as a scientist for the British Antarctic Survey. Based in Cambridge, he is spending the southern summer in the Antarctic. Far from vanishing into the blue of the southern ocean, he has been emailing us regularly with news of the stunning scenery of South Georgia, albatrosses and aggressive seals. Even pictures have arrived via email! When last heard from he was relishing the situation as the ship ploughed south in a force 11.
Or should that be East?
 Chris Wren has worked for us for three years now in a completely voluntary capacity, working wonders with all sorts of engineering aspects of our boats. Perhaps his biggest single contribution has been the installation of the generator on board Morning Star. Now he has found a paid job for the winter, and no ordinary job either. Through RedR (Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief) he is working in Kosovo as part of the United Nations relief effort. Mainly, one gathers, on central heating installations - presumably no luxury in temperatures down to -20. Back here we shall miss him, with a deadline of April 6 for when Morning Star leaves Chatham for TS2000.
Insurance and VAT
Two things were a bit worrying for a while. Insurance for Morning Star that would include our participation in TS2000 proved far from easy to come by. Ferrocement has a poor reputation with underwriters, especially at Lloyds. It became a matter for prayer as the threat to our plans did not bear thinking about. The answer came in the shape of a friend of Sara’s sister who is an insurance intermediary in Birmingham. By his skill or good fortune, or even by divine providence, he located Lloyd’s insurers who were prepared to quote and not at a silly level of premium either. We shall, however, have to pay a substantial additional premium to maintain the level of public liability cover while in US waters - this reflects the litigious nature of USA and is, we gather, par for the course.
The VAT saga began when a VAT man arrived and said we have been doing it all wrong for years. Mind you, we had only been doing what they told us last time! There was, briefly, a threat that we might have to repay vast amounts of VAT that we had claimed. The final outcome, however, is considerably to our benefit. For those who understand such things (I have been forced to!), most of our fees for Morning Star will now be zero rated, unless the activity is a course (Competent Crew) in which case it will be exempt. Our ability to claim back VAT will not be affected unless the exempt element reaches 50% of the total, which currently seems unlikely. This represents a saving that is allowing us to waive any price rise this year, you will see that the prices in the brochure are much the same as for 1999.
Hammond Innes Legacy
The author, Ralph Hammond Innes, left the bulk of his estate to ASTO, of which we are a member. Because of the Lloyds 3 year rule, no money has been released yet, but it may now begin next April. The estate is now worth around £6 million and the plan is to distribute the income from this to ASTO members as funds for training and bursaries. To take advantage of this we shall be working out new pricing structures from 2001, with substantial discounts for those we particularly wish to encourage. Our overall income should increase, and the main use to which we hope to put this is towards paying more proper salaries to those who actually work for the Morning Star Trust. This, however, will in no way do away with our policy of funding salaries from regular committed giving, though some redefinition will be needed.
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SCOTTISH ADVENTURE
By Margaret Boorman
The Scottish Adventure was a first for Morning Star Trust, and it was a first for us as we had never been sailing before. I suspect a little divine intervention in the weather meant our first experience wasn’t also going to be our last and deter us from trying it again. No doubt there were others on board who would have liked a bit more wind and a bit more action! The glorious sunshine did mean we could appreciate a good view of the Western Isles - so wild and remote you feel you are in a different world. It also meant that we had wonderful sunsets, sunrises and night skies to marvel at. We were fortunate to experience a full moon the night we did a night sail. It was amazing to see how bright it was in the absence of any artificial light. There was also plenty of wildlife to see in those northern waters. We stopped counting the numbers of seals as there were so many, especially in the Sound of Mull. The colony of puffins on Staffa entertained us with their method of take-off and landing. Each time they came into land on the cliff ledges it looked as if they wouldn’t quite make it, but they did consistently! To get brief glimpses of porpoises and dolphins in the wild was also special.
The night sail was not only memorable for the moonlight but also for the impression (especially while trying to sleep through some serious tacking) of vast distances being covered yet discovering that for half the night we had simply been sailing round in circles!
Dave and I, though not ancient, wouldn’t class ourselves as young people, but it was great fun being with a crew of young folk even if waking one or two of them in the morning did prove difficult at times! It also meant that I couldn’t avoid being winched up the mast or not take my turn to row the not-too-stable looking inflatable dinghy along with the rest of them. Miriam, our daughter of 11, a younger than normal crew member, took it all in her stride and really enjoyed the week.
I was surprised at the amount of work involved (was this really a holiday?) but equally surprised at how enjoyable such a team effort was. Then there was the competent crew course, which Mike had casually said that we might like to attempt. I thought I could casually not attempt it, but we all managed to complete it nevertheless, thanks to both Chris and Mike.
For a couple of days after we came ashore I could still feel the motion of the boat which made me wonder what it would be like after sailing for longer periods of time. My sense of balance was restored but the experience of that week made various impressions on me - I could move on and learn new skills, especially in areas I had not previously considered and the things we had seen confirmed my faith in the limitless creativity of God and made me thankful for his generosity in giving us so many things to enjoy and for the opportunity to enjoy them.
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CHANNEL CRUISE
(3-9 July 1999) (1)
By Annabel Gullett
This was the first time I had been on a boat larger than a topper and smaller than a cross-channel ferry, and I was nervous about the experience.
When Abigail and I arrived at Southampton some of the crew were already there, so we introduced ourselves. Everyone seemed very nice, although we were the youngest of the eleven crew members. When we got onto the boat it seemed far too small to fit 14 people, but then I realised that everything we would need was there, it was just really compact. To my surprise there was plenty of space in the lockers for all my stuff. I was, however, a little worried about how high up my bunk was (it was in the fore cabin), and how narrow it seemed.
We had an introduction session and met the skipper and mates, who seemed nice. We then went around the Solent for a while to get used to the boat. On deck, there seemed to be ropes and sails everywhere. How was I ever going to work out what was what? My first job was to help put up the mizzen, which was satisfactorily accomplished. After a while we went into the open sea and anchored in Osborne Bay for the night,
The next day we started our voyage properly. The watch system went into operation on the second day, which was a really interesting new experience. It was hard to get used to sleeping for four hours and then working for four hours but I think that we got a few hours sleep everyday! We spent one night in St Vaast La Hougue and had a gorgeous breakfast of baguette and French cheeses, and this brought back my appetite after not having eaten much because of seasickness. The next day it poured with rain and I was on the wheel as we came into Honfleur. this was a really pretty town and it was good to feel land under our feet again, and go and explore. there was lots to see in Honfleur and it felt very safe, even at night. One great thing about it was that there were some showers there. What a luxury it was to wash our hair! I also brought some presents there including some Camembert, which by the time I got it home was stinking beautifully, despite the four carrier bags wrapped around it!
We had moored up next to a school boat skippered by a friend of Steve’s, and I was shocked to find that the crew of 14 year-olds were drinking constantly. The first night the whole of the other boat’s crew was completely drunk. This put a blight on my enjoyment of the place and by the next morning I would have been happy to leave, but we stayed another night in Honfleur, again with the drunks nest-door!
The next morning we were out on the water again - what a wonderful feeling that was! The sea was quite rough and it was really exciting to help Camilla put up the jib topsail. To do this I had to sit right out on the end of the bowsprit and clip the sail on. The bowsprit was plunging right into the sea and coming back up again, so it felt like some kind of rollercoaster ride. Unfortunately after that I got a dose of seasickness and was incapable of doing anything. That night we didn’t moor up but ailed through the night. I was on the midnight to 4am watch and, if everyone hadn’t been feeling so awful, we would have thought the sight of us all huddled in the cockpit funny. As it was, we were too cold, tired and seasick to notice. Ws started arguing about the strangest things like, what would happen if the earth stopped spinning, why the moon was red at that particular moment in time and, if the sun died, what effects it would have on us and how long it would be before we noticed them.
After we came off watch Abigail and I stayed up to watch the dawn. I t was the first sunrise I had ever seen, and it was wonderful. Because we were in the middle of the sea, and there was nothing else in sight, we could see the whole sky.
At the end of the day when we were on watch again, we saw the sunset, which was more sudden and dramatic, but not quite so special. Now we had seen the dawn and sunset of the same day.
During the trip everyone had to cook three times and I think the meals I made were probably the worst of the lot (despite the fact that I got an A in GCSE food technology!) I had to cook twice with Jeff and found that his cooking skills were just as bad as mine. One day it took us 3 hours to make a potato salad and some chips! And everyone said they liked our rock hard lumps of spaghetti with not enough sauce!
We also had to clean the boat twice - the first time I got to clean the deck which was great. But the second time Abigail kindly volunteered us both to clean the galley and that was awful. It’s so small, it hardly fits two people trying to clean it, and people kept asking us for cloths, brushes and buckets of water. What a nightmare!
The whole trip was really excellent; it was so much fun and I felt that I had achieved a lot. By the time we got back into Southampton everyone had had a wonderful time and we were all sorry to say goodbye to each other, and to Morning Star.
I would like to thank the skipper and mates for a good trip, and also Kent Youth Bursary Fund for making this excellent trip possible.
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SCOTTISH ADVENTURE CRUISE 1
(24-31 July 1999)
By Andrew Farrell
Ardfern - Lussa Bay (Jura) - Lowlandman’s Bay (Jura) - Port Ellen (Islay) - Scalasaig (Colonsay) - Fingal’s Cave (Staffa) - Loch Na Keal - Geometra (Ulva) - Calgary Bay (Mull) - Tobermory (Mull) - Fishnish Bay (Mull) - Oban.
 Thanks to Chris, Mike and the rest of the crew for a memorable week on-board Elan Adventurer. For Dan and I, the trip not only qualified us for the residential section of the Duke of Edinburgh Award, but also represented our first real experience in sailing.
Everyone all got on well straight away, and gelled as a drew quickly (I think!). Although not going far, the freedom gained from travelling in a 43ft Elan did allow us to travel where we wanted. We all had the chance to do each of the various tasks on- board, although I did prefer being helmsman or navigator quite a lot more than cleaning the heads!
I had a great time, and am still telling people back home ‘all about it’. The highlights are endless, but include: meeting up with a Danish tall ship on its way to Greenock, watching Danny trying to 360 the outboard, being winched up the mast, tacking up and down Loch Na Keal at 4am, just for the crack of it, and the evenings down the pub, especially the Minhnish, where we met some of the islanders (some of whom just growl, ay Sid!). But if one thing has to stand out, then it was the night sail. Having the 8 ‘till midnight and 4 ‘till 8am watches, I was lucky enough to see the sun set and rise. Couple that with the sight of whales, mountains and unbroken silence, it had a truly magical feeling.
From just one week, I have learned many new skills, some related to sailing and some just useful in life. I made new friends and learned quite quickly the art of good teamwork. I also learned something about our skipper, Chris. In the words of Sid, "No matter how hard you try, Chris has always got a story which is ten times as good as yours!"
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CHANNEL CRUISE
3-9 July 1999 (2)
A report written to the Kent Youth Bursary Fund Committee by Abigail Millward.
This is a short report of my voyage on the Channel Cruise in July [on Morning Star]. After having had a picture of the boat pinned under my exam timetable for about two months to inspire me, it was worth the wait.
During the six days we anchored twice off the Isle of Wight in between sailing across the channel to St Vaast La Hougue then Honfleur. The high points of the trip for me were the night sail and watching the sun rise and set on the same day. I also found cleaning the galley on two occasions satisfying. I felt I was given a very broad experience which I would certainly aim to repeat at some stage. Activities included: swimming, rowing using the outboard, sampling French culture and making bread.
I felt I got to know the group quite quickly and enjoyed spending time with the interesting variety of people. The leadership team was good and I especially appreciated talking to Camilla. The only aspect that I was slightly unhappy about was possibly the length of time spent in Honfleur. The bars did not attract Annabel and I but it was a great opportunity to become more firmly acquainted with her. More wind would have made the sailing better. I gained my competent crew certificate and enjoyed learning about sailing in more depth.
The discipline of the watches, cooking in slightly uncomfortable conditions and coping with seasickness was very character building. The food was of a very high standard, I particularly enjoyed fresh French frenchbread! Thankyou very much for enabling me to experience this.
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SOUNDS OF A SCOTTISH ADVENTURE
By Ruth Bruid (Scottish Adventure II - August 1999)
Just the slap, slap, slapping sound of sun cream against human flesh.... the gentle hissing of a boiling kettle.... Pages being turned over idly - one eye on the book - one eye on the lookout for dolphins or diving gannets.
Endless blue sky, no wind, loads of sun, an occasional snore from the crew. The continual cry of the shearwater in the background, and the gentle call of, “Mine’s black, please, no sugar.” These were the sounds as we returned to Oban on the Friday before hand over.
It was a glorious week, the scenery defied description, the company was good, and the weather was perfect.
But, sshh! Promise you won’t tell anyone else? I want to go again. Coming?
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PRAYER FOR THE QUARTER
BEYOND OURSELVES
A prayer from Lindesfarne (David Adam)
Give us a vision, Lord,
to see what we can achieve,
to reach out beyond ourselves,
to share out lives with others,
to stretch our capabilities,
to increase our sense of purpose,
to be aware of when we can help,
to be sensitive to your presence,
to give heed to your constant call.
So may we be your hands
and offer your compassion
in our daily lives.
Amen.
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