Back to Records
Back to Racing
Back to Homepage

Click on photos for a bigger picture. Click on browser 'back' button to return to main document.

Photos of Anne during the 2005 Women's Cup Races by Michael Swarbrick

July 2005.

Cherbourg to Newcastle – Adventures on a Tall Ship.

The Jubilee Sailing Trust is a charity that encourages people with disabilities to sail tall ships and their two ships “Lord Nelson” and “Tenacious” are specially designed to overcome the barriers that disabled people would encounter on other tall ships. This includes lifts to all part of the ship, specially adapted heads and bunks, braille, special lighting and locking on points on the deck so that wheelchair users can pull ropes or be stable in rough weather.

On 15th July 2005 Paul and I set off by plane, train, boat and taxi to Cherbourg to get to the boat. We arrived to find a dockyard full of enormous ships and bemused French people. After being introduced to the ship and our watch leader we settled down to the ship routine. The weather was good, the captain female, things were looking good.

I was introduced to my “buddy” for the trip, Joanne who was paraplegic and used a wheelchair. We quickly established exactly what help she would need and had a few giggles about the facilities. Also on board were people with MS, partial sight, deafness and cerebal palsy. The able bodied people were some young people doing young leadership courses and the rest of us were just old!

We left Cherbourg in a parade of sail and soon got into serious rope heaving as we “braced the yards, dropped the buntlines, clews and tacks and eased to the pin and made good”. I was entranced with the magic of the language used to describe the ship and her processes and after a few days found out what it all meant. We all had a go at going up the mast which was terrifying at first but I found it impossible to refuse to go out on the yard when I realised the woman coming up behind me was 73. Out on the yard I looked along to find that on our yard it was all women and we all had grey hair except for Sophie who was 18. It looked like a bad old ladies’ day out.

After a text book sail to Dieppe and a good French meal we set off up the channel where things got a little more dodgy. We had a force 7 and were making 11.5 knots and when I went on watch at midnight Joanne and I had to navigate a heaving deck (good brakes and a rope on the wheelchair) and heaving crew (buckets of water and crystallized ginger). The ship flew with the sails up and the rushing of the wind and waves was fabulous.

n full body harness and oilskins I was locked onto the bowsprit when a Minke whale came alongside, having never seen one before I thought it was a purple dolphin. Of course you never have your camera with you on these occasions.

At some point here I was commissioned to write a shanty and get people to sing it. Some of the disabled crew did assisted climbs up the mast with the rest of us encouraging them from the deck. A particularly poignant moment was when one young man with cerebral palsy went right to the top of the mainmast. Most of us on deck were in tears.

After a few more days at sea going up the East and North East coast we were all getting a bit bored with spotting oil rigs and tankers when we arrived at Scarborough and anchored in a heavy swell. We had some fun winching Joanne and her wheelchair into the tender and the rest of us tackled the hazards of the ship’s ladder. Fish and chips and the purchase of false beards in Scarborough was followed by fireworks at the castle as we upped the anchor and sailed away at midnight. The fireworks set the grass alight around Scarborough castle and there was a bit more of a spectacle than was planned as the North Yorkshire fire brigade all turned out.

We had a performance of the scurrilous shanty by the ships’ crew (in false beards) and sailed/motored up the coast towards Newcastle. On night watch I saw the lights of North Yorkshire pass us by and we amused ourselves by trying to name the pubs in each village we passed.

We arrived at Tynemouth and the whole population of Tyeside was out there to greet us and all the other tall ships sailing into the Tyne. Hugely emotional for all the Geordies on the ship. We stopped to take on diesel and I was detailed as a linesman. Back down the side of the ship into the tender then up a 40ft vertical ladder covered in industrial slime and barnacles. I was holding the sides of the ladder so tightly than my bosom kept getting trapped in the rungs.

After a few more trips up and down the ladder to retrieve lines after the bunkering we sailed further up the Tyne past scenic spots such as Jarrow Marina and Wilton Quay Gut, despite the industrial nature of the river we all thought that the welcome from the Geordies on the banks and the waving of the Geordies on the ship was brilliant. We had a lot of fun water bombing other ships as they arrived in the river.

At Spillars’ Quay we moored the boat. This involved catching the lead line, (first time thank goodness as the heckling from the quayside was ribald) and hefting huge mooring warp over one shoulder, climbing up the quayside (on another ladder, I’m thinking of starting a career as a roofer) and walking along the 18” ledge on the inside of the quayside fencing as a Mexican wave of people leant back to allow me to hold on to the railings and moor the ship.

The whole experience was inspirational on lots of levels. It was a tremendous spectacle of beautiful ships and the company was of the best. We were all very sad that our adventure was over, but determined to do it again as soon as finances allow.

I have some good pictures of the sailing and the sailing ships if anyone wants to have a look I can bring them up to the club.

Anne Bourner

Back to Records          Back to Racing       Back to Homepage

Back to Records
Back to Racing
Back to Homepage

Click on photos for a bigger picture. Click on browser 'back' button to return to main document.

Photos of Anne racing at the 2005 Regatta by
Michael Swarbrick