Baptism of fire (really water) for crew of Leg 13

Well it's a wet dreich day here in Holyhead. After a tops time in Liverpool visiting my sister and surviving my horse riding it was back on the boat to meet our new crew for our trip to Holyhead. Yesterday we headed out of the Mersey all hopeful of an excellent sail to Holyhead to arrive at a civilised hour of late afternoon!! How wrong did we get it!! Once out of the Mersey the wind shifted from left to right and back again by over 40 degrees - not the best when you're trying to sail in one direction. It also decided that instead of delivering the expected Force 4/5, it would deliver any wind strength from Force 3 up to Force 6 (soon to be followed by a quick dip into the Force 7 bracket as we approached Holyhead Bay). It was at this time that we had the delights of seeing the Skerries for a tad too long this evening as well, due to the unexpected winds during the day we missed the tide off this corner of Anglesey so we sat looking at the Skerries for rather longer than hoped. So our late afternoon arrival soon became a late evening arrival in some delightful torrential rain with wind blowing a hooley! Im not sure how much our new crew enjoyed their baptism of fire (more likely water). Initially the waves crashing over the boat were great fun but this amusement soon dwindled and our crew slowly disappeared below to warm up - although they did take some convincing to go down to their bunks. Woke to the wind blowing the doors off this morning and the rain coming down in torrents - how happy was I to be tucked up in my bed safely arrived in Holyhead. We've had a tops day doing what you do on days like this - drinking copious quantities of tea, playing boardgames, pool and eating too much!! Dinner still to come too. Must venture out into the mist now to dry off. Until later Karen out x [19/08/09 21:00]

This is James Victoria, Beth, Tyler and Will. we are all aboard the Scarlet Oyster. we are currently at Hollyhead docks after a very busy (and sleep for some) day yesterday. Everyone is in high spirits after playing our own version of Articulate! The first day was quite quiet as we were all eating to know each other. We arrived in the afternoon and had all of the tour and instructions before Will and Vic cooked dinner an then everyone played a late night game of Balderdash!!! Next morning was an early awakening after a late night but everyone was excited about the sailing to come. We prepared the boat and left Liverpool with Holyhead as our aim. Everyone was having fun however the wind wasn't being kind and kept on changing so the boat was very rocky and spirits drop as they saw there lunch again in a bowl... no more need be said. Lots of us went below to warm up or sleep to stop feeling ill. We had a great day and it was exciting and after we arrived at Hollyhead and everyone felt better. After a long day we were all soooooo excited about having a warm shower ! And then we were even more excited about pizzas being delivered! We all ran back to the boat and got wet but sat down for a good few pieces of pizza. The boat had never been so quite and full of people making yum noises. Everyone swiftly went to sleep soon after that. Next morning we all had a lovely lie in appreciated by all. Soon after we had all woke up we were treated to eggy bread and bacon for a late breakfast. It then started to rain so we had a relaxing morning playing Articulate, boys vs girls, guess who won.... the girls! Later on we went and played pool and investigated the marina shop. After a competitive morning we came back and cleaned the boat and watched the lifeboat leave for practice. Everyone is getting on really well and we are all having such fun. It is an amazing experience and we still have two days left. So we all want to say thanks for the experience and don't try and cook soup while the boat is tipping on one side! x

James, Victoria, Beth, Tyler and Will