6th & 7th August
Osprey
John Bowering
Mon 7 Aug 2006 16:11
We woke up early and having changed and showered we went to the get the
shuttle back to bar harbour. This time we got the right bus and an hour
later we arrived at Bar Harbour. We looked at the bus times and tried to
squeeze on the right bus however it was so crowded we decided to get the
next one, which was half an hour later. We wondered around bar harbour for
20 minutes and then returned to the place where all the buses were. We
waited for the bus to arrive and were the first people to get on. After
arriving at Sandy beach we took off our shoes and walked along the packed
beach. It was very busy, hot and the water was below 10oC, so after just
an hour we decided to get the bus down to the otter point. After arriving
at otter point and finding just a car park we were a bit confused, however
we crossed the road and found an ocean path. We walked down the path and
found stacks of loads of huge boulders which you could walk across. Rishi,
being supernatural boy, was jumping around all over the place. We stayed
there for half and hour and had a great time jumping across all the rocks.
We arrived back at bar harbour and had 15 minutes for the bus to arrive.
We were all starving so we went to a café and ordered paninis and
sandwiches. By the time they arrived we had already missed the bus back
and so we had to wait another hour. We went and sat in the park and ate
our food. Then when the bus arrived we got on and went back to the boat.
We were back by 3 o clock and John informed us that we would be leaving at
4 to head back to South Bristol (where we started off). It was going to be
the first and the last time we would do night sailing and be on night
watch. The shifts properly began and 6 o clock when Rishi and Ani had
there first shift. Then from 8 to 10 John and I took over. There was
hardly any wind during our shift and at one point we were actually going
at 0 knots so we decided to turn the engine on. Everybody else had gone to
bed by 9 o clock so we tried not to use the motor but we had to. The night
was beautiful and we could see all of the stars shining. After our shift
we let Ria and Anish take over while the rest of us slept. I was woken
again at five to 2 to do my next shift. I quickly got into all my wet gear
as it was freezing outside and went up for my second shift. The wind was
good to begin with however by the end of our shift it had gone right down
again. This time we didn?t put the engine on because everyone was fast
asleep. We saw a number of shooting stars which was very exciting since I
had never seen one before. After my shift I went straight to sleep while
Anish and Ria took their second shift. They were fortunate enough to see
the sun rise and even saw dolphins swimming in the morning sun. After
their second shift Ria and Anish went to bed while Rishi and Ani took
over. John was awake by this point as he usually gets up at 5 every
morning. He stayed with Rishi and Ani and they didn?t have to drive the
boat in their second shift because John decided he wanted to try out the
Autopilot. I woke up at around 8 to go and do by second shift to find
Rishi and Ani sitting in the cockpit and John sitting at the helm but not
touching the wheel! I was soon told of the autopilot and then Rishi got
out the fishing rod to see if we could get an early catch. All we caught
was seaweed after seaweed after seaweed! As we were coming into Pemaquid
we saw two seals and two dolphins. John then said that he saw a porpoise.
We all looked around to see (apart from Anish and Ria who were still
sleeping) and then we saw this huge great ?porpoise? coming out of the
water. We soon realised that it was actually a whale, but it was too far
away to catch properly on camera. We turned the boat around to have
another look and we saw two dolphins swimming near the whale, it was
amazing! As we came into Christmas Cove and John decided that he wanted
pictures of the boat sailing, so Rishi and I went in the dingy (while the
boat was still moving) and we took many pictures of the boat with the
sails up. Rishi and I then went to our usual berth at south Bristol and
waited for the boat to arrive. There was no room at first but we soon made
space and settled in our usual spot. After going for lunch at the café,
Rishi, Ria and I went for a spin in the dingy and then we all had a
siesta. After waking up we started packing up some of the sails and put
all the life jackets away. We had dinner on the boat and then Anish,
Rishi, Ria and I went for another spin in the dingy. We came back and
played the zero game before going to bed.