Contents:EDITORIALWelcome to the June issue of Revelations. I must apologise for the late arrival of this issue – I have just been away for two weeks, sailing on Morning Star and didn't manage to compile it before I went. Anyway, I trust that it is worth the wait. Amongst other things, there is an update from base and, as promised last time, the first instalment of the History of Morning Star, with lots more to come in future issues. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this issue. Please send any contributions, stories, pictures, poems, thoughts, etc., for future issues to the office. If you are off sailing this summer, then I hope that you have a great time (and please do think about writing something about your trip to share with us). Will NewsTim writes... Fully booked programmeAfter a rather slow start (slow enough to have us worried), every place on all our summer activities has now been taken. Indeed, we are still getting enquiries on a daily basis, and have to tell people the first activities with vacancies are the October weekend, October 11-13 and the Late Season Cruise October 21-25. The major source of enquiries is still our free classified ad in the Duke of Edinburgh's award journal. DofE is becoming ever bigger business, nationally and locally, and it is good to be connected to this successful and growing youth scheme. Fighting the elementsAs I write these notes, Morning Star is based at Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth. She left Chatham on May 24 and Oliver and crew delivered her on time to Poole on May 30. This was no mean feat. You may have noticed the weather has not been all that kind. You may even have noticed the wind has been mainly strong and westerly. The passage down channel was achieved entirely by motor sailing with only the staysail and mizzen up. From Poole, Tim took over, with your editor as first mate, for the Small Ships Race event. Over the next eight days, we spent every other night at sea, usually in quite tough conditions, finally roaring north through the Channel Isles in the dark and emerging from the Alderney Race like a cork out of a bottle. Earlier, in the Small Ships race itself, a frustrating passage across Lyme Bay ended when the triatic stay (between the mast heads) parted company. This forced retirement from the race and a quick dive into Brixham for repairs (and a rest!). In the event, only one boat in our class completed the course, so we were not disgraced, and we did make it to St Malo, where we received a "seamanship" prize for getting repaired and carrying on. Since then Mike Ling with a group of Carrie's friends from APU have experienced force 9 on the nose in the Solent. Sadly, Carrie was hurt when another crew member fell against her, but she recovered fast and they have had a good time, though the planned crossing to Cherbourg had to be reduced to circumnavigating the Isle of Wight! In all this we have tried to maintain our Christian work, and we have certainly been looked after. For instance, how good that the triatic did not wait for the middle of Biscay to collapse? Rather, it happened within easy reach of a port where local people were willing to open up shop and help, even on a Jubilee bank holiday! Tall Ships coming upNext activities are the two full week cruises from Portsmouth. After that our Tall Ships crew joins on July 10. The first leg, skippered by Mike Maconochie, joins the fleet in Brest then races to La Coruna. Here Andy Rankin takes over with a partial crew change, for the cruise to Santander and the return race to Portsmouth. The first race starts on July 16, and you can follow the progress of all the boats by visiting www.tallshipsraces.com. Click on 'results' for latest race positions and 'mapping' for a map of where all the boats are. If we can get it all set up you should also find news updates from Morning Star on a special page on this website. Tall Ships 2003It was originally planned that next year's major series in the Baltic would visit St Petersburg, Russia. This plan has now been changed, and the ports to be visited are now:
Although Turku is not as far as St Petersburg, this is still an ambitious programme. With lengthy cruises to get out to and back from the Baltic, Morning Star will be away from base for some ten weeks. To get involved, particularly in the race series itself, get in touch with us in early September. Keep an eye on the What's New page on this website too. Eagles Wings reportSteve and Jemma Morgan have been looking after EW in Ipswich since last Autumn. A great deal of work on the boat has been accomplished, and they have ensured compliance with the Code of Practice, including inventories and reporting procedures. Taking the boat out from Ipswich has been a real pleasure and it is sad that this arrangement has to end. This it has to do, as Steve and Jemma are off to Scotland where Steve is to be ordained this month. They will be based and working at Ardeonaig, one of the Christian outdoor centres of the Abernethy Trust. Thank you, both, for your commitment – we shall miss you. Volunteers variousThis has been a bad year for retaining volunteers! Kristina left us at the start of the season. Will (Coonie, aka "Big Will") has soldiered on and been more than useful in the office and on the boat. But he will leave us at the end of June to get stuck in to the local job market. Although Tim will miss his support at times when he is not away, it did not seem fair to hold on to him when he would spend much of the summer with little to do. In September it is all systems go again with our two new volunteers. Libby has just finished her history degree at Cambridge and comes to do admin work, though she will be sailing as well. Catherine is similarly a new graduate, this time archaeology at York, and will be mainly working on the boats. They will both, once again, live at Pluton House, where I suspect Andy Challis will notice a few changes! And the latest on the way aheadMention of volunteers brings us to the question of the whole future leadership of the work. As you will know by now, Tim plans to retire in September 2004. Taking the work on from there will not be easy, but on the other hand there are real opportunities for it to grow and develop under the right leadership. We are talking to a number of possible people, and getting quite excited that there are really good leaders out there who might come and join us. As usual, the possible major obstacle is money. But much of this is a short term "overlap" problem, which should be manageable. We hope to bring you more precise news over the next few months. Skippers' travelsAmazing where Morning Star people get to. We have already mentioned that Steve and Jemma are off to Scotland. Jolyon La Trobe-Bateman is all over the world in his work, quite apart from being based in Germany. When he responds to emails we wonder where he is this time! Colin Rettie was recently sent for a week on business to Perth. No problem there, you might think, as he lives in Scotland anyway – but this turned out to be Perth, Australia. After one day back he is due to skipper Tiger Moon out of Plymouth (Devon, not Massachusetts!). Finally, Chris Wren is now skippering a Christian sail training vessel – in Greece! Tales of a Surveyor in WhitehavenBy Chris Wren "So where is Whitehaven?" you may well ask. I did, last December after saying I was interested in the job. "Do you mean to say that you have never heard of the third largest port in England?" At least it was, centuries ago, after Bristol and Liverpool historians tell me. It is actually an historic small town, which has not been spoilt with the ugly development seen elsewhere, because they could not afford it. Some of you may view a visit by a surveyor to certify your boat with some trepidation. What will he find? What have you missed? What will he not agree with? Will he give you a long defects list to be rectified? Not in Whitehaven apparently: for "treated well" by the owner he may allegedly sign all manner of papers on the quay to be filled in later. If he tarries long enough he may even venture on board for a few minutes! Not only may he not see any problems, he will sign his name to items that do not exist. He may even pass whole systems that have never existed – except on paper. "Where is the emergency VHF aerial?" I hear you cry. In the First Aid locker courtesy of Halfords is the reply. It will not connect to the Icom hand held VHF, of course, Icom's are not used in cars, nor is it likely to be specifically tuned to 156.8 MHz. But it was a bargain! "Where is the hand-bearing compass?" you may say. Any experienced hill-walker will be familiar with the flat clear plastic item one can twiddle with on an Ordnance Survey Pathfinder or Landranger series map. We don't have these problems with the other boat because, in spite of what the survey says, we only have one set between two boats. "Which of all these navigation lights do you use at night?" These ones here, but as there is no steaming light we are only allowed out on pilotage duty! Whilst in the engine room, after some thought, you may say, "In a heavy following sea could a big wave not go up the straight exhaust flooding the engine?" Not according to the survey, it has a "swan-neck" to prevent this. Twin bilge pumps that operate at 300 gallons a minute, splendid! Well it would be if part of system wasn't missing, the valves worked, the pumps worked, the pipes weren't blocked and the bilges weren't full of everything from cable ties to pieces of rubber glove! What is all that red stuff in the bilges? Ah, that comes out the top of the injection pump and runs down to clean the bilges as she rolls. "Well, if we get a leaking pipe turning off the seacocks will stop it." Well, it would, but first you have to remove the saloon carpet and sound-proofing underlay, then the chart seat, fold down the chart table, unscrew the side seat, move the cupboard housing the radar three feet aft, lift the floor and find someone with a five foot arm and a spanner with a missing handle. By which time, they would have had to hold their breath underwater and hope someone had unseized it. "But, you do have an impressive fire extinguishing system." Trinity House must have required a high specification. Pity the bottle is dated 1977, the year of build. "Seeing as neither sets of fuel gauges work, if you run out of fuel the second vessel could always give you a tow." Yes, but, the towing hawser is only in the survey papers. "Do you have an emergency spare drinking water container?" Well, at least the liferaft is up to date, just. Yes, but, the way it has been rigged you can't launch it manually. You will have to wait until the boat sinks and the hydrostatic release unit operates and they usually work out of date. Then you may have to help the relief skipper of 75 years into the liferaft along with those crew who can't swim. Recent sea temperature 5o Celsius. It's a good job I haven't been asked by the owner to go out to sea since discovering all these problems, due to the weather. I will probably have to leave before I do.
Thought for the quarterTeamworkOn a recent sailing trip, I became very aware of the importance of teamwork in terms of sailing. The crew had virtually no sailing experience between them and certainly not on Morning Star. This meant that the first day's sailing was very hard work for the leadership team and as a result our capability was restricted. However, as is usual, there was a massive transformation in the crew as the trip progressed as they came together working as a team. As the level of teamwork increased, so our sailing became more efficient (and easier for the leadership team). This is one of the "amazing" things about putting a group of people together on Morning Star and seeing them develop as a team. I think that this also illustrates the importance of teamwork in our wider Christian lives. As Christians, we have been called to carry out a task far more arduous than sailing Morning Star, that of doing God's work here on earth. This idea of teamwork can go by the name of unity. However, sometimes I think that we can be wary of unity, because we mis-spell it uniformity. Teamwork does not work when the team is made up of identical members. Returning to Morning Star, if the entire crew were expert cooks, but couldn't raise a sail, it would not be possible to sail the boat, a good crew has to be made up of people with different strengths and weaknesses. The success comes when the crew with different skills works together as a single team. In the Bible, Paul writing to the Corinthians*, likens the Christian community to the human body, made up of many diverse parts, all of which are essential to the effective functioning of the body. In terms of teamwork, each part of the body works with the rest of the body as a team. Jesus himself prayed that all who believe in him might be one, in order that our witness to those who do not believe might be more powerful**. So as a Christian, I believe that we should strive to work as a team with all those Christians around us, using our particular strengths to the benefit of the whole team, and then like the sailing, we will be more effective in what we do. *1 Corinthians 12:12-31 |
HTML Edited by Mark Wigmore