Saturday

On Saturday morning, 18th October, Ben and Sam Clayton, Ed Rees and me, Niamh Stoneman, headed off on our journey to Portsmouth for a week on T.S. Royalist.  After sitting in the doorway on the train for an hour we dragged our bags across the London Underground and got the onward train to Portsmouth.  We then had to get the ferry across to Gosport.  Departing the ferry, we then trudged along for about two miles to where Royalist was berthed.  We took a little detour down a pontoon by accident then told the lads it was to see if they were awake, by this time they seemed like they were on auto, it was so funny, yet tiring too.

After unpacking our bags we had a tour of the ship and learnt our bracing and sail setting stations.  Then we took part of an “up and over” exercise.  We hastily climbed the rigging and secured onto the tiny platform at the top of the mast.  However, because of my extremely small hands, I couldn’t make it over the platform. Eddy resisted the challenge after giving it a go.  After lights out and the excitement of meeting the other cadets, we calmed down and went to bed.

Sunday

After being woken up at 6:30am and being fed, we went to our sail setting stations.  Sam climbed up the rigging and onto the yards and released the topsail, as her duty was Yardsman.  This day was filled with loads of hard work but all four of us had so much fun. Although I was sea sick we kept getting called to bracing stations and tried to keep our balance as the boat tilted sideways with the wind and the waves.

Then we anchored and had lunch.  A group of people came out to sea with us on this very windy day, and we attempted to show them what our jobs were onboard.  We returned to Gosport and had shore leave.  Coming back from shore leave a cadet from Lincoln called Jacob jumped on a fender, it was a laugh as he screamed like a girl.  Boatswain read us some bedtime stories as we clambered into our bunks and slowly drifted to sleep.

Monday

Sam was woken up by a PO cadet treading on her head at 5:30am, shortly followed by me when I heard her squeal.  We couldn’t leave the harbour until 11 am due to the weather conditions.  To make time pass we had lessons on sail setting stations and the parts of the boat and parts of the sail as well as bouyage.  The weather was so bad we had to wear our oilskins and couldn’t travel by sail.  This day got worse and worse as it carried on.   Later that evening everybody scoffed their faces with sweets, while listening to music, before that we got our first shower of the trip, which cheered us up, as every cadet was soaked.  All four of us, Sam, Ben, Eddy and me fell asleep on the fore deck - I guess we were tired.  Our new friend Chewbacca fell in a bush and hit a boat with a battery by accident, though it was really funny and he needed the battery.  By the way he got this name Chewbacca because he made noises just like the one off Star Wars.

So far we have plenty of photos, taken by Sam Clayton, except for the ones of Sam, which I took.  We then went for a tour of the engine room which was a small room filled with lots of technical equipment.  The room had very small ceilings yet the engineer was 6 feet 5 inches.  He said I was the perfect height to be an engineer as I’m only 5 foot 4.  More bed time stories, e.g.: Cinderella, the three little pigs, jack and the beanstalk, and I don’t know the rest I fell asleep.  Snoring echoed round the messdecks!

Tuesday

We started the day at about half past 6 with the sound of The Proclaimers’ 1000 miles through the tanoy system - that was a shocker.  We left Southampton and put the sails up and began to travel to Bramble Bay.  This I would say was the most tiring day yet it was the best day for sailing and getting parts of our offshore handling 1 signed off.  We got to Bramble Bay and began to tack to Poole as the wind and waves were really, really forceful.

As we tacked to Poole we had bracing stations at least five times.  We got to Poole at about 9 or 10 o’clock in the evening.   We came along side just outside a nightclub, so we had to have night watches to look after the boat and make sure nobody came on -especially the drunks!

Jacob and I were on watch together.  The hour went really quickly though, we had rounds of the ship and a man looked like he was about to come onboard, so I said “not today mate, maybe next time”.  He looked blank faced and walked away eventually.  Then Jacob and I had to wake up the next two watchmen and then we went back to bed.

Wednesday

We had problems with the engine; this was discovered about an hour after we woke, at about 7.00am.   We couldn’t go to Cowes as planned then so we went back to Gosport so we could get engineers in to fix the problem in the engine room as the engineer onboard couldn’t fix it himself.  We travelled back on one engine and returned to Gosport at about 6 or 7 o’clock at night.  Then we had shore leave and we went to the shop.  We didn’t stay out long as there aren’t a lot of things to do in Gosport and it started to rain.  We began to play Uno “Sam’s style”, which means if you haven’t put a card down within two seconds you get a penalty card for being slow!  I went to bed early as I was really tired, there were most likely bedtime stories but I’m uncertain, as I was asleep.  Earlier this day nearly every cadet was seasick, I was so cold I ended up hugging most of the cadets!

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Thursday

We couldn’t go out on Royalist on this cold blustery morning because of the problems with the engine so we went to the historical Dockyard in Portsmouth.  We had fun anyway and it felt good to be on solid ground for the day! We went for a tour round HMS Victory, that was fun though the engineer had to duck very low down.  I didn’t have to at all he said it was unfair and we found out the carpenter onboard when Nelson was around, was 6 foot, 7inches.  We went for a look round this other place and went on a rock climbing wall but it moved at the same time and tilted so far back you fell on the padded mats at the bottom, though some cadets didn’t fall.  This day was a great laugh and we went back to Royalist, and we had shore leave again and every time it was shore leave we were allowed our phones and rang home.  We had a laugh playing Uno (a card game) and listening to music.  After coming back from the tour TS. John Jerwood was berthed alongside Royalist.

Friday

Friday was the day we packed our bags and got ready for the journey home.  We didn’t go out to sea on this day.   It was sad to see all our new friends leave us.  We got the ferry from Gosport to Portsmouth and went to Portsmouth’s train station and got our train to St Pancras.  Then we met up with Sam’s cousin and sat down and waited for the next train from St Pancras straight back to Leicester - no stops!   Back in Leicester and so, so tired Sam and I fell asleep on the way home and were awoken with a thump from Ben! It was great to be almost home and seeing our parents waiting.   My Mum and Dad were waiting for us at the station and packed Sam and Ben’s bags in the car as well as mine.  Mrs Clayton had taken us to the station at the beginning of the week so mine were bringing us back.  Ed’s Mum and Dad were there waiting for him too.

Although it was great to be home, we had a brilliant week on Royalist, met loads of new people and can’t wait to do it all again!

Written by Cdt Niamh Stoneman, Pictures by OC Sam Clayton.