Reported by Adnan and Lloydie, Year 6
This morning, on 9th January 2015, we had the
chance to go on a real life Clipper boat, named Garmin. This was a once in a
lifetime opportunity.
When we arrived at St. Katharine’s docks, a man named Jim
met us, he was the skipper of the boat. He introduced us to the boat and showed
us around every nook and cranny. We started off my using the grinder to pull up
the yankee sail. This was a competition, and luckily the boys seemed to win!
After was very exciting…we went below deck to have a look at how they slept,
ate and played. The living space was very small, and because there were not
enough beds for everyone, they had to ‘hot bunk.’ This means that it is always
used, by more than one person! In the kitchen, there were two taps; one was for
salt water, which you would use for washing up, and the other was drinking
water. They had a special mechanism on board that turned the salt water from
the Sea around them, into drinkable, pure water. Cooking was particularly
tricky when the ship is rocking from side to side, so the oven and hob were on
a see-saw, which meant that the pots and pans would always be upright.
Once we had looked inside, Jim asked us if we would like to
climb out through the escape hatch. We all shouted “Aye aye!” We had to climb a
ladder straight upwards on to the deck again. It was quite tricky, but a
brilliant experience!
It was then time for question and answers with the skipper
and his crew. We asked him if he has ever seen an iceburg, he replied that he
has, in the North Atlantic ocean. He also informed us that on the race, they
visited over a whopping 40 countries!
The trip was then over and it was time to say goodbye, but
not before a quick photo up on deck!
Thank you very much to Jim and the rest of his crew for showing us around and GOOD LUCK for the 2015-2016 race!
