jbsh

Uploaded on February 5, 2006 by drobnikm

What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen in another country?

This is a Plinky inspired post. My short answer is the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands.

The longer answer is that it got me thinking about navigation and charting a route through choppy water/difficult times.

The backstory is that my sister was working out in the Virgin Islands when she decided to get married. Sam and I were a bit stuck for a gift, since she was already working in what many would consider to be paradise a holiday seemed a bit pointless. They were also living in temporary rented accommodation so house-type stuff was equally pointless. However, they hadn’t really explored the islands since arriving there.

So we chartered a yacht to take them around the islands for few days and to provide a different setting for the actual marriage ceremony. The backstory to the backstory is that my parents met running a yacht charter business in the Virgin Islands so there was a nice symmetry to the whole thing.

Being the height of hurricane season (late Sept) charter prices were cheap, if you could find a yacht still in the water. Fortunately we did, a very tidy Hylas 49. We provided the food & booze, the boat came with diesel & water. I was also expecting navigational charts of the islands. What I got was a 3-fold A4 drawing, pirate style, of the islands. Including several areas that were coloured in red – danger, don’t go near there!

Call me old fashioned but I wasn’t keen on taking a $500k yacht anywhere with what amounted to a novelty drawing of the area.

So I went to the nearest chandlers and bought a set of navigational charts, that now make very attractive wall art. One of the areas that was coloured in red on the novelty chart was the bay where the Soggy Dollar Bar is located. I did the simple calculations, checked our draft, planned an entrance pilotage, knew where the safe water was, and safely navigated in for a wonderful afternoon (and some excellent rum cocktails). Without having good information we’d have never found the place, and if we had, we could have easily run aground since the entrance was a bit tricky and there wasn’t a lot of room.

Are you navigating your business by high quality information or a novelty napkin?

This is awsome!

Its sometimes difficult to explain to people what sailing training is really about. They tend to think of big square riggers a la Hornblower and the Tall Ships Youth Trust (which is part of it). Generally they believe me when I tell them that the young people do everything on board (sail handling, helming, repair work, cooking, cleaning, engine maintenance, navigation, etc), but that’s not what it’s really about. I try and explain that its about bringing a group of young people (that have never met before) together and over the course of a week help them form into an effective and social group, but that doesn’t really convey what it’s about.

As a volunteer Ships Captain with the London Sailing Project I could refer to our ‘mission statement’ which is accurate but a bit dry:

No more – I’ll just point them to this YouTube video, produced by the 22 kids and Afterguard (yes the Captain is in there) over 6 days sail training (plus a bit of post production) filmed between the UK, France and Channel Islands. They’re raising money for the project (visit http://www.justgiving.com/rockstar to donate). Oh, and of course there’s the website and Facebook page.

Remember, those young people hadn’t met beforehand to plan that out, and because of the volunteer nature of the LSP, the afterguard (Captain, First Mate, Watch Officers and Watch Leaders) probably hadn’t met before either.

Fantastic!

IMAGE_00018
Originally uploaded by Poo Bar

Having said I was off sailing & drinking around the Solent, this is what we woke up to in Ocean Village this morning.

For the last 20 years I’ve been a member of the London Sailing Project (a UK based sailing charity) whose aim is, in the words of Commander Walter Scott written in 1960: ‘providing (through the medium of sea training in offshore craft) opportunities for London boys to acquire those attributes of the seaman, namely; a sense of responsibility, resourcefulness and team-work, which may help them throughout their lives.’ Of course, these days we take both boys and girls and they come from all over the UK.

Part of the deal with the Project is that we spend one weekend each year helping out with refitting the boats, and one weekend re-familiarising (FAM) ourselves with all the bits that get changed as a result of legislation, upgrade, repair etc. This weekend was my FAM.

We’d spent the day pottering about the Western Solent before heading up to Ocean Village for the night. With Northerly winds forecast we didn’t fancy bouncing around in Cowes and we wanted to be back at the LSP home port of Universal early on Sun once we’d finished the FAM.

Although very nice, Ocean Village doesn’t have much character being mostly a waterfront re-development. However we did, entirely by chance, stumble into the oldest pub in the UK (the Red Lion in Southampton). As well as fine ale, Mike (the barman) was able to tell us about the trail of the conspirators to the plot to dethrone Henry V, the Saxon cellars, the unique carved kitchen fireplace and how it was the only building in the street to survive WWII.

An excellent, if slightly chilly, weekend.