Monday 5th-Wednesday 7th August saw two of our staff and nine Young Carers and Young Adult Carers set sail on Pioneer for a two night/three day voyage.
The experience was supported by three highly trained crew who led the experience which required the participants to be actively involved in the sailing of this beautiful boat, originally built in the 1860’s; a boat of that size cannot sail itself!
Alongside the strenuous jobs that needed to be done (lots of rope hauling to raise the sails, they are really heavy) the participants also had to quickly learn how to live alongside each other in very close quarters ( tiny bunk beds or hammocks, lots of bumping of heads below deck ) and take a share in the cooking and cleaning whilst on board.
We were blessed with beautiful weather so downtime enabled the group to chill out on the desk, swim in the water or leisurely watch the seals who liked to pop up alongside us to see what we were doing.
Nine strangers joined the boat at Brighlingsea on the Monday but nine new friends left the boat on the Wednesday. We shared much laughter, singing on desk and card games which made the hard work seem not such hard work.
The Pioneer crew were very impressed by the behaviour and attitude of the group and hope we can secure funding to return next year.
A once in a lifetime opportunity for all who took part. A big well done to all of the group and a big thank you to Pioneer.
“I loved the sailing and everything. I would definitely come again”.
“ It was all great, even the hard work”.
