Report by Alan McKee on the Royal Escape Voyage 24th to 21st May
Picture of Alan Mckee at the helm.
The Royal Escape race was scheduled for the 28th of May, but unfortunately the race organisers cancelled the race for the second year, so the skipper decided to still have a week’s voyage and the plan was to sail to Alderney in the Channel Islands, but we did not get to Alderney, because of the strong winds that we had on the first day, so instead of trying to go to Alderney we sailed from Gosport down to Brighton and then back to Gosport.
Visa-gb chartered an 43-foot boat called Sandpiper, the boat had two helms at each side of the large cockpit, large deck, mast and large jib and a large saloon below with two heads and a small galley and a chart table with the forepeak and two aft cabins. On the boat were Tim Sandford the skipper, Billy Forsyth 1st mate, Karen Curl 2nd mate and the visually impaired crew onboard the boat were Eddie Kitchen, Alan McKee, Sue Hogge, Lorraine Dodge and Diane Roworth.
The trip was made affordable thanks to the Whirlwind Charitable Trust who allowed us to carry forward their generous sponsorship from the cancelled event in 2020.
On the first day of the 24th we all made are way to the boat which was moored at Hassler marina at Gosport and Tim went to get the shopping and after Tim had got the shopping, we all had dinner, Eddie brought a cooked meat casserole. The next day we had breakfast which I made porridge, I made too much, and after breakfast the winds were blowing very heavy so that we could not get out of the marina, so instead of making are way to Brighton, we had an relaxing day. In the morning we had an look around a 70 foot old fashioned two masted rigg boat, everything was very large, compared to our boat and in the evening I made spaghetti Bolognaise.
On the day of the 26th the winds dropped down and we were able to sail out of the marina after we all had breakfast. Shortly after we had left the marina we put up the main sail and the jib sail and the spinnaker later on and we were having a good sail, we stopped for lunch under anchor off Bembridge, after we had lunch we set off once again in the afternoon and arrived in Chichester around 17:00hrs and after we had moored the boat, we all had another lovely dinner, a spicy casserole and some wine.
The next day of the 27th, after we all had breakfast, we carried on are journey from Chichester to Brighton. We all had a good sail down to Brighton with all of the sails up and the spinnaker and all of the crew had turns on the helm and doing some tacking. We got to Brighton about 17:15hrs, but we had to wait about an hour before we could get into the marina, due to that the marina had not been dredged deep enough, but we got into are berth in the marina with out any problems. Once in the marina we had another lovely dinner, a spicy sausage casserole and more wine with the meal.
Link to Facebook film of sailing: https://www.facebook.com/100001633948136/videos/330894232522679/
On the day of the 28th It was a rest day and the female crew decided to have an healthy breakfast, but the male crew decided to go to Wetherspoons for an cooked breakfast, me and Eddie had a very large breakfast, the are pictures of the breakfast on the Facebook page, and after the breakfast the male crew walked down to the Asda shop to get some supplies and then walked back to the boat. In the afternoon we just chilled out on the boat and later on in the afternoon the female crew came back from their look around Brighton. Before we had the evening meal we met up with some friends of the skipper and had a few drinks in the yacht club and then return back to the boat for another lovely meal which was mash, sausages and cabbage.
Picture shows Alan with his breakfast at Wetherspoons:
On the day of the 29th, after we all had breakfast, by this time Tim had a special recipe for the morning porridge, Tim put salterns, pineapple and grated ginger in the porridge, I was not sure what it would taste like, but it was very nice. After breakfast we set off from Brighton back to Chichester, we had an good sail back to Chichester and we had lunch on the move, with all of the sails up and the spinnaker and we arrived back in Chichester late in the afternoon and once again we had another lovely dinner with more wine.
Picture shows Lorraine on the helm, Billy alongside. Blue sea and Blue sky, a perfect day for sailing:
On the day of the 30th we left Chichester to sail back to Gosport after another good breakfast. On the way back to Gosport we all had turns of helming and doing very quick tacks. We all had a good sail back to Gosport and then went to the Lightship for a drink. We met up with Jane, one of the sighted volunteers who lives at Gosport, after a drink in the light Ship we went back to the boat for one final evening meal, this was Tim cooking all of the left overs of food and made an interesting mixture of food and some of the female crew made an creamy desert, which was very nice. And after that we had some chocolate and wine.
On the morning of the 3ist We had our last breakfast, we packed and cleaned the boat and after that was all done we said goodbye to each other before we all departed and went our separate ways back home. This was a very good voyage, we all had nothing serious, or any funny incidents happened on the voyage.
Written by Alan McKee, Visa-gb Trustee
