REVELATIONS

Contents:

• Editorial
• News
• Some thoughts
• Cryptic Communication
• Channel Cruising on Tiger Moon
• Thought for the Quarter

EDITORIAL

Welcome to this issue of Revelations. Don't worry, you haven't lost a month, we have altered the timing of Revelations (and the prayer diary for those of you who receive it). This means that Revelations should now be coming out for the start of December, March, June and September. (Only I forgot this, so this issue will reach you slightly after the start of September.)

Thank you to those who have contributed to this issue. Please, do send any contributions for future issues to the office, they will be gratefully received — it is a pleasure to have to reduce the font size to fit everything in!

Will

News

Tim writes

Walking Tall with the Tall Ships - Sea training for the Mayor! - Eagles Wings on expedition - Tiger Moon to the Channel Islands and the Scillies - Staffing-all change - 2002–on we go - Personal news

Walking Tall with the Tall Ships

This has been yet another outstanding summer for our involvement in the Tall Ships events. This was the twentieth anniversary of our first ever race (which started in Great Yarmouth, where Morning Star happened to be moored this morning, 4 September!). The race from Antwerp to Aalesund was memorable for strong winds, reported up to force 10 at one point. Both the boat and our crew coped really well, finishing fourth overall and second in class. Next came the cruise through the spectacular fjords and islands to Bergen, second city of Norway, then the second race to the end point of the series at Esbjerg in Denmark. This time, again in strong winds, we could only come 5th in class – there were several of the Norwegian double ended sailing lifeboats in this race, and they always come out very well on handicap. On the combined results of the two races, we were awarded the trophy for coming first in class, representing a real achievement by both race crews. There was a great spirit among these crews, and they deserve this success. Nor was our Christian purpose forgotten, with much talking and sharing, and evidence of lives changed by the experience. It is also good to mention that we are known as a Christian boat within the Tall Ships "family," something for which we are held in high regard by many.

From Esbjerg Mike Ling brought Morning Star home over two weeks, visiting various of the Friesian islands, then via the Ijselmeer, Amsterdam and the waterways of south Holland, with a final passage from Flushing to the Medway. As so often when Mike brings her home from that direction, most passage making was against strong headwinds. This included the first night out from Esbjerg, a real test and challenge for the new crew.

After a busy four day maintenance and restocking period, Morning Star was away again, first with The Oundle group who had a happy visit to Holland, and now with young people from the Fens port of Wisbech. At the end of the week, a group of us will bring her back to Chatham, the occasion serving as Clive Miller's stag party!!

Sea training for the Mayor!

Thanks to the welcome publicity efforts of Wilf Lower, a marine events organiser and part time journalist, who happens to have an office along the corridor from us, Morning Star was waved off from Chatham on July 2nd by the Mayor of Medway , Councillor Tony Gould, and the Mayoress (Val). During the race period, news of our successes appeared in the local media. On the morning of August 20, when we were still out at sea approaching the Thames estuary, Mike Ling gave a live interview by phone to BBC Radio Kent – I don't think we have ever done that before. The next morning, Tony and Val turned out again. This time we took them down the river in a motor cruiser and put them on board Morning Star in Pinup reach. What we had not realised was that Mike intended to sail all the way from there, which included a brisk beat to windward for the last mile up to Thunderbolt Pier. The passengers enjoyed themselves. Even for a Mayor, whose job seems to be to attend every zany event going, this must have been quite memorable. A full page article in a local paper followed, including a splendid picture of her under full sail just off the pier. Well done Mike and team!

Eagles Wings on expedition

During July and August Eagles Wings saw three Day Skipper courses, almost entirely to qualify DofE gold award expedition candidates, and two weeks of final practices and assessed DofE expeditions. This group of seven young people from Oundle School (six of them girls) started their training with a shorebased course over the winter taught by Mike Maconochie. At Easter some sailed with me on Tiger Moon and some with Tim Smith on Eagles Wings. The Day Skipper courses came next. The question then was would they be experienced enough to run the expeds entirely on their own? In the event they most certainly were. We visited them whenever they came within reach from the land and stayed in touch every day by mobile phone, and they did extremely well. The first group of four girls set out from Chatham and spent their time between the Orwell and the Blackwater. On the last day, approaching Harwich harbour in very little wind, the engine control died on them, giving them a real challenge to get safely up the Orwell to Ipswich. They rose to the occasion and arrived under sail well after dark, with a real sense of achievement. The second group (two girls and the one boy) went on to the Deben and the Alde, managing both difficult entrances well, before returning in a well planned series of passages to Chatham. All in all a great success and a pointer for the future.

Tiger Moon to the Channel Islands and the Scillies

Meanwhile we had three weeks of Tiger Moon bookings in July. Chris Wren took her to the Channel Islands, Steve Thompson stayed on the South coast as far as Falmouth, a particularly happy time with a happy crew, and Duncan Miller and friends made it to the Isles of Scilly. We hope to continue our link with this lovely yacht into 2002.

Staffing – all change

Rather unexpectedly, Jill Hammond has left us, so at this moment we are without an Administrator. At the same time Tim Smith has finished his year with us. His contribution has been brilliant (among many other things he was the first volunteer ever to be responsible for the catering), and he goes on to his teacher training year in Cambridge with our thanks and the hope that we shall see lots more of him soon!

It has been great to work with Jill over the last eighteen months and I am sad to see her go, but we are looking at this positively as an opportunity to see where we go from here and what God has in store. The first thing is that we have two new one year volunteers joining us next week. Kristina Batt comes from Poynton Baptist Church, from where groups have come regularly over the years. She is 19 and looking for God's will for her life. Will Mitchell is 20 and comes to us through the "Time For God Jacob" project. It is likely that Will can help in many ways with the admin, so for a while we shall probably manage with all three of us sharing all aspects of the work. They will both live in Clive's house in Rochester, which Andy Challis already occupies and which Clive is keeping on after his marriage, at least partly to provide a "Morning Star staff house." Beyond that, however, it is possible we should be looking to the situation when I retire, as I plan to do, in three years time. There will be a real need for continuity at that point. Maybe we should be looking now to appoint a full time manager who will provide that continuity. If so, we need the right person and the funding. It is just possible that both are in sight – watch this space!

2002 – on we go

As we enter the last (but busy) lap of this year's programme, planning is under way for next year. Tall Ships crosses the Bay of Biscay to North Spain, then returns to Portsmouth, so it will be one of those summers when Morning Star spends time based on the South Coast. There is also a new "Small Ships" race for Tall Ships class B and C vessels. This goes from Weymouth to St Malo and return during the early June half term week. We may or may not enter this depending partly on whether we can recruit a crew as the exam season looms. One opportunity might be for another Irish two week cruise in late June/early July. Our two previous visits to southern Ireland were both very special, it feels to me like time we went again.

Be all that as it may, I plan to post programme information on our web site (www.morningstar.org.uk) as it comes together, so you can pick up information and make your plans that way before the actual brochure is published, probably shortly before Christmas as in most years.

Personal news

As I mentioned last time, Clive and Sandra marry in Canterbury on October 13. Now comes news that Tim Smith became engaged to Laura Shuff during the two week cruise home. No, this wasn't ultra rapid work by our first mate! He and Laura have been together quite a while, and Tim had this moment all planned in advance. They expect to marry next summer sometime. Congratulations!

Jolyon and Martina plus family are moving to Germany at the end of September in response to Martina's calling to serve in the struggling Christian church in Germany. Not sure how this will affect Joly's involvement as a skipper and trustee of MST, we hope we are not losing them, but our prayers go with them for this new and challenging part of their lives.

Martin Oram, my old school friend, and father of Brandon, leaves his job as chaplain at Denstone college at Christmas, to become vicar in a parish in Stoke on Trent.

Adrian (Tall Ships 1 skipper) has since started his new job looking after water flows in the many channels of Fenland.

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Some thoughts

By Kristina Batt

The world hides so much beauty from us, we don't notice until we go out looking for it. And when we do find it, it's astonishing and sometimes words can't describe God's outstanding creation.

Over the last three months I have been sailing twice, together they come to just over ten days and in that time I've been to places that I never knew existed and I have felt so much peace and relaxation that my mind goes blank and concentrates on the scenery before me. Without three important/special people I wouldn't have made it to these sights and I'm glad it worked out. During that time two people changed me even more and with God's help I hope to keep it up.

Value the moments that you have with God and know that He's with you. He knows your future, past, present, thoughts and buckets will never be able to be filled with his love. I hope that every trip blesses me in the way that it has in these last few months.

"I can do all things through Him [Christ] who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13 NIV)

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Cryptic Communication

Adrian Wynn reports in from Antwerp

The following is an amusing email was received from an internet cafe in Antwerp during Tall Ships this year. Something to do with the keyboard he was using apparently. Anyway you might find it amusing...

Sent: 07 July 2001 14:10 Subject: hello > > Just a quick note fro, 
q very strqnge Europeqn Keyboqrd - youùll hqve > to guess zhich keys 
qre not in the right plqce: Otherzise I aould hqve to > type incredibly 
slozly but I think itùs just qbout reqdqble. Qfter q > riotous 
crez pqrqde through the streets of Qntzerpen yesterdqy, involving > very 
lqrge qnounts oàf zqter qnd some very excitqble Mexicqns, the > 
crez, by noz q very close unit, qrrived qt the crez pqrty qnd zere 
delighted > to discover thqt not only qre the drinking qgelqas different 
in Belgiu,, but > the beer zqs free qs zell. On the principle of not hotting 
zith the ozl > unless you cqn hoot zith the ozl, ze got up this ,orning to 
severql groqns > qnd cleqned ship qs nor,ql; It zqs unqni,ously decided 
thqt q lqwy dqy zqs > cqlled for. > > Zeqther for the rqce doesnùt 
look too bqd, qnd ze qre qll now very > keen to get bqck to sleep, ahere, 
qs is typicql in tqll ships events, ze > should be qble to get so,e sleep 
qt lqst! > > Iùll phone qgqin to,,orroz. In the ,meqnti,e, feel free 
to edit thjis > qnd post bits on the zeb site. > > Thqnks to qll for qll 
your prqyers. They qre definitely zaorking qnd qre > very uch qppreciqted. 
The four of us qre noz stqrting to zork qs q auite > closely knit unot qnd 
the crez qre qlso getting very good qt looking qfter > eqch other. > > 
Speqk to you soon, > > Qdriqn > 

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Channel Cruising on Tiger Moon

30 June—7 July 2001

By Will

This was my first trip on Tiger Moon and upon arrival at the marina in Plymouth I liked what I saw immediately. We spent our first night in the marina having decided to delay our departure until the morning. A grey morning dawned and we set off for Alderney. The trip was fairly uneventful but was lacking in wind so we had to motor for some of the time. Sailing through the night we arrived off Alderney in the fog, which lifted just in time for us to be able to see the rocks either side of the entrance to Braye Harbour. Having spent six weeks last year doing three hour watches, I had forgotten how hard the last hour of a four hour watch is. The rest of the watch and I had great difficulty in staying awake as we stared out into the fog.

We spent a relaxing day in Braye harbour, once the sun burned through the mist it was gloriously hot. Some of us swam whilst others spent hours at the top of the mast. We left Braye the following morning in bright sunshine bound for Jersey. Passing between Guernsey and Sark, the wind started to die so in order to get to Jersey before the shops shut, the motor went on. Upon arrival in St Aubins Bay we dropped anchor and headed ashore by to stock up on food. Whilst coming up to the beach we learnt how not to take the dingy through the surf—still our acrobatics and dunking must have entertained those on the beach.

The upshot of this was that the outboard engine would then not start to take us back to Tiger Moon, so I volunteered to row us back. It is quite difficult to aim for a boat which is swinging around on its anchor That evening saw the end of the sunshine.

The following morning we set off early for Guernsey, in order to make the best of the tides. There was sufficient wind to sail to St Peter Port where we stocked up with water. We then hopped along the coast a bay or two to Fermains Bay, a very picturesque anchorage, even in the murky conditions. After eating our evening meal, we set off in the dusk bound for Cornwall. A lot of the 28 hour trip was spent motoring in the rain, although there was some good sailing at times. We picked up the buoy off the Helford River as the evening mist was descending and made our way up the river to some crowded moorings off Helford, arriving almost exactly at the ETA that we had given the Guernsey coastguard, and more importantly, just in time to make last orders.

A lazy morning was spent in the beautiful Helford River before our embarking on our final leg back to Plymouth. The trip back to Plymouth was a good downwind sail which allowed us to have a play with the spinnaker. That was quite tricky to start with, with the spinnaker seemingly wanting to collapse at the slightest provocation. Once we mastered its use there was no stopping us. We arrived back in the marina late that evening, navigating through the mass of illuminated buoys in Plymouth Sound.

All in all it was a great week, although I should have known better than thinking that it was going to be a relaxing holiday!

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Thought for the Quarter

I was sat in a prayer meeting before work the other day waiting for some others to turn up, thinking about praying when I thought that I'd just read a bit from my Bible for inspiration. I don't normally just dive in but I opened up the Bible at 2 Peter and thought that as I hadn't read this in a while, I'd have a look. Anyway, the third and fourth verses (after Peter's greeting) kind of leapt out of the page and as words of encouragement, I thought that I'd share them.

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption of the world caused by evil desires." (2 Peter 1:3-4 NIV)

These two verses reminded me of the fact that God gives us everything we need for our lives as Christians. So often I know that I forget this fact and struggle on in my own strength. Sometimes things go well, sometimes they don't go so well. But if only I remembered that God longs to help me and if I ask, he will give me all that we need. How much better might things go? How much more could I do in my life to bring glory to him? How much closer to him might I grow?

We just have to keep on remembering to ask God for his help in everything that we do. I find it helpful to say the Lord's prayer at the start of the day. By asking to be given today our daily bread, we are asking God to meet our needs for the day.

I long to be able to make more time to read and study the Bible, it is just so full of encouragement and help for living the Christian life, pretty obvious really, given that it is God's word to.

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