Leg 4 - Day 2 back in Walton Backwaters

Karen
New crew, new day - it’s been excellent. Back in the same wee anchorage we stayed at in Walton Backwaters - well it was so nice we thought we should introduce our new crew to it! We did have intentions earlier of rowing ashore to the beach - unfortunately it was rather breezy and with a pretty hefty tide running in the same direction as the wind - out to sea - we thought better of it so our paddle will have to wait until another day. Until then I will sit and listen to the wind, watch the sun set and play some more Articulate.
Laters Karen

Lizzy
I arrived in Ipswich yesterday at about 3 o clock (not sure exact time) at the harbour to find Frank and a few others who told me that the Scarlet Oyster had just gone out for a sail and would be coming in any minute.
In came Scarlet,WOW! What a magnificent boat!!!!!! Amazing, but not Scarlet like I expected but a beautiful Ellen MacArthur Trust blue_ still very cool. Mum, Dad and I Got shown around Scarlet inside and explained all my complications of medics over a cup of tea.
I was interviewed and filmed by several different people whilst on the boat and then after that BBQ had been aranged for us.Yum! Climbing off the boat , People wanted autographs and then walking up towards the BBQ, amazing atmosphere it felt a bit like star-dem!!!

Larvell

had a late night on wednesday still packing for the trip as i’ve had a very busy week because i had to hand in all my college work for it to get marked and feedback to be given. The next morning me, my mother and grandmother woke up at 7 am we got ready and left the house around 9:30, i was map reading while my mum was driving, it was a 4 hour drive from Nottingham to Ipswich we finally arrived at about 14:00 and saw Frank and Simon had a little chit chat, frank invited my mum and gran to a BBQ that started about 18:30. we then walked back to the other ends of the doc and met Lizzy and her parents and then i saw Dan. we then had a walk to the boat Scarlet Oyster, it felt good to be back on her, it brought back some memories from previous trips, it was also sad news to hear that the owner of Scarlet Oyster passed away he was a great guy and very friendly.

At about 17:40 to 18:20 we had lots of different people coming on and off the Boat they were news crew and people from the local papers we got lots of pictures taken and lots of questions asked about ourself and the trips, after that the BBQ had stated so we began to walk up as a group on our way up there some people came and asked for the crews autographs, made us feel like we were celebrities and all the cameras and film crew contributed towards that feeling as well. When we got to the BBQ we had a look at the food, some of the food i had never heard of before, i had a spicy chicken cob which was nice. after the BBQ we then headed down to the boat there we lots of people crowded round it and more people asked us questions, have you ever been before?, do you like it?, would you ever of started sailing if the trust was here?, when everyone had left it was getting on for 21:30 so we had a little time for us all to get to know each other better and had a little safety brief. About 22:10 we then came inside and played some games we played articulate which i had never played before, after few games we all headed to bed.

In the morning at 7:40 i woke up and had a shower we was going to set sail at 11:00 but we had a problem with the boat as a seal in the toilet was broken so a guy had to come and repair it. Some of us went round the new sailing shop that had opened because down at Dover on another leg a fender was popped because it was getting slammed against a big boat, we then went to Tesco in Simons nice Volvo we went there to get a few things for the boat. when we got back to the boat we then had a safety brief and then set off we did a bit of sailing down to Walton Backwaters, we then was getting ready to get off the boat and go to the shore but the wind and current of the water was to strong so we didn’t do that instead we listened to music and was talking till dinner time, we had chicken wraps which was very nice and now I’m writing this.

Luke

One of the things that I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by so far is the number of people who seem to have taken an interest in the trip, from the various media outlets to local people, such as the man who came down this morning to offer us some soft plastic balls as a form of stress relievers, and also to play us a tune on his accordian as we left the marina this morning.
The creek we’re spending the might in is beautiful, all soft sand and gentle waves, a brilliant frame for the particularly picturesque sunset we had tonight.