Month: July 2017

Tall Ship Adventures in Cornwall

Guest taking helm of Johanna Lucretia

Our three-day Cornish taster weekend on the Johanna Lucretia begins as we watch the stately two-masted topsail schooner moor up on the quay at Fowey on Friday afternoon. We’re greeted on board by Captain Roger Barton and meet the crew, James, Josh and Radic, who brings the guests a mug of tea and a big slice of coffee cake each as we introduce ourselves. We’re shown to our double cabin – the definition of cosy but comfortable.

The clouds part, the sun appears, and we edge away from the quay as the bow swings out into the channel. There’s a breath of a breeze – ‘a bit of north’, in Roger’s words. With much winding of winches and pulling on ropes, sails are raised and we’re gliding silently, serenely southwards, leaving the town behind.

There’s a surprising amount of room on deck to walk about and relax as the crew go about their tasks. It’s so peaceful. The only sound is gentle conversation and the even gentler wash of waves against the sides of the boat.

The plan is to head as far west up the Cornish coast as we can, before coming back east with the westerly tomorrow. We won’t make it past The Lizard, though, says Roger; the tide will be against us. Roger is only the boat’s third owner. He regularly competes in tall ship races around Europe, and has even won a couple of events.

In open sea, we stay close to the coast – a coast of coves, green hills and harbour villages. We take it in turns to take the ship’s wheel, which is quite a feeling. A pod of dolphins joins us, darting back and forth across the bow of the boat, playing games with the would-be photographers among us.

Johanna Lucretia sailing

Dinner is served downstairs by Radic – a fine, warming mushroom risotto. Sure enough, we don’t make it round The Lizard; we drop anchor at Coverack just after sunset, and head to bed soon after. All of this watching the crew work hard has taken it out of us.

Next morning, we take the dinghy ashore and have an hour to take in the unspoilt charms of little Coverack, unaware that 48 hours later flash floods would wash homes away and make the village a national news story. Back on board, we head a little further south down The Lizard’s east coast, and tack into Cadgwith Cove, catching a glimpse of The Devil’s Frying Pan, a spectacular natural rock arch that angrily spits out seawater in heavy seas.

We all chip in a little labour to raise the big square sail and we’re heading downwind, back up the coast the way we came. After a small detour into Falmouth harbour to pick up fuel, we make our way slowly up Carrick Roads and the River Fal, past the King Harry Ferry, with densely forested banks on either side… Under heavy skies, in eerie quiet, it all feels very Heart Of Darkness…

We moor up on a jetty with a dozen or so smaller boats, and enjoy top quality pork sausages and creamy potato mash on deck as evening draws in.

On Sunday morning, there’s time for a stroll around the rolling grounds of the National Trust’s Trelissick House before the final leg back to Fowey and some fond farewells. It’s been a wonderful weekend of reflection, relaxation and gentle education in the ways of traditional tall ships.

Michael Evamy

How to service (serve) a rope

The Bessie Ellen - 1904 West Country Trading Ketch

The arts of a sailor such as serving, splicing and knotting is fast becoming a dying art: skills are lost, tools are harder to come by, and sailors seem to have less and less wish to whittle or turn out their own. Drugged by the power of smartphones, social media, the fo’c’sle has become a very different place than when I started life at sea 20 years ago.

One of the first arts we would learn was serving a splice. Aboard sailing ships much of the wire rigging would be parcelled and served, rope eyes and strop-blocks all dressed smartly in turns of marlin. Today, even though materials are modern and hardier, serving is still an important task to learn, finished off with a waterproofing of linseed oil and tar offering the appearance of a well-dressed ship.

TO WORM AND SERVE A ROPE – TAKEN FROM THE RIGGERS GUIDE & SEAMANS ASSISTANT – PUBLISHED 1877.

Set up your work between two points and heave taught.

Worming the rope is to fill up the vacant space between the strands of the rope with spun yarn in order to render the surface smooth and round for parceling.

Parceling a rope is wrapping old canvas round it, cut into strips two or three inches wide according to the size of the rope.

The parcelling is put on with the lay of the rope.

The service is of spun yarn, put or hove on by a wooden mallet; it has a score in the under part according to the size of the rope so as to lay comfortably on the rope.

The serving is always laid on against the lay of the rope, a man passes a ball of spun yarn taking the turns well out of it at some distance from the man that is serving the rope; when the required length is put on, the end is passed under the last 6 turns and hauled taught before cutting off.