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Margaret King - A Big Heart, a Tall Ship and a Wide Ocean

Margaret King at work on a yard. (opens in new window)

Aberdeen based SAC Flexible Learning Manager Margaret King recently sailed the Atlantic as one of the able bodied crew of the Jubilee Sailing Trust’s tall ship Tenacious.

The JST is a charity which encourages disabled people to take up the challenge of sailing, supported by able-bodied volunteers. Leaving snowbound Aberdeenshire Margaret headed for the Canaries to join her ship bound for English Harbour in Antigua with 3000 nautical miles of ocean to cross. This is her story.

“In total, we made up a voyage crew of 38 mixed ability volunteers guided by a permanent crew of Captain, 1st and 2nd Mates, Purser, Bosun, Cook and Engineer, plus five experienced assistant main crew members. Initially they had their work cut out teaching us the art of Tall Ship sailing. This includes helming, sail work and navigation and learning what the fourteen kilometres of “ropes” were for. Incidentally no one calls them ropes on a Tall Ship. Each set has its own name depending on what they are attached to.

Tenacious was built specifically to ensure disabled people have the same sailing experiences as able-bodied crew so everyone joins in That can be hoisting the 21 sails or helming (with the aid of an audio compass or joystick for disabled crew) and taking part in ‘Happy Hour’. This is not what it seems but entails cleaning the ship from top to bottom every day. Scrubbing decks, cleaning bridge-deck windows, accommodation and galley areas and, worst of all, the showers and heads (or toilets to landlubbers). It was the worst hour of the day but kept us all in good health and maintained the ship in excellent condition!

However it’s not all hard work. We had time for relaxing on deck, socialising in the bar and taking part in challenges testing our ingenuity and general knowledge.

Each disabled person is buddied with an able-bodied person but everyone helps each other and it was one of the life enhancing aspects of the trip learning to get on with a mix of people, in very close quarters, twenty-four hours of the day. You may be working alongside someone in a wheelchair one minute then listening to the audio compass as a blind person keeps the ship on course later in the day. Talking about days – days were only half the story as each ‘watch’ - consisting of volunteer crew and one of the permanent crew - worked two shifts of approximately 4 hours each, one during the day and one at night.

However, ‘all hands on deck’ over the intercom meant getting up even if you were in your bunk having just come off watch! Shifts changed daily so it wasn’t possible to get into any sleeping routine. Night watches were wonderful – the vast expanse of ocean under what seemed like millions of stars. We were even lucky enough to see the full lunar eclipse half way into the voyage.

Everyone had the opportunity to climb the rigging and work on the yardarms. It was a great experience to reach the top of the main mast more than 120 ft above the deck. Disabled crew did not miss out on this experience and were assisted by permanent crew to climb as high up as they wanted to go. On my trip all the disabled crew went at least to the first stage and some went further – for a blind or physically disabled person with restricted arm or leg movements this was quite an achievement and a real boost to their confidence. It made the rest of us feel very humble.

Seasickness hit most of us, even those with lots of sailing experience, and I fed the fishes for three days before I got my sea legs. Sailing the Atlantic was a tremendous experience made more special by the wonderful people taking part. Ages ranged from 18 to 80 and everyone pulled their weight – Tenacious takes no passengers! There are bursaries for young people to undertake the Leadership at Sea qualification and medics can volunteer on the ship at reduced cost.

I learned a lot and consider it the best value for money ‘holiday’ I have ever done. In fact I have just signed up for another trip from Greenock to Shetland on the JST ship Lord Nelson, the sister ship to Tenacious. This is one of the legs of this year’s Tall Ships Race so should be a tremendous experience sailing with the other tall ships and accompanying yachts. Lord Nelson will be sailing from Lerwick to Aberdeen at the end of July and there may be spaces on one of the legs so if you are interested in taking part in what should be an exciting and fun couple of weeks, or if you just want more information visit the Jubilee Sailing Trust website.

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