Hello again! My name's Ellis, and I'm currently undertaking a 6 month traditional seafaring training course with National Historic Ships UK. I gave a brief introduction last month so make sure you have a peek at that if you haven't already.

Today I'm writing in regards to a fantastic trip I had onboard Olga, a Bristol Pilot Cutter built in 1909. The trip itself was a simple delivery from Bristol to Plymouth, but anybody that's sailed around Land's End knows that this passage is anything but easy.

We set off from the Bristol on the 18th July, having spent the weekend showing off Olga during the Bristol Harbour Festival. Having successfully navigated the lock and swing bridge to leave the harbour, we were encouraged on by a fair north westerly breeze.  After anchoring for the night, we begun our passage planning to round Land's End in the most favourable conditions, taking the tides and weather into consideration.

Happy with our plan, we left our anchorage at Lundy and continued southwest, aiming to be passing St Ives at 14:00 to catch the tide that would help to pull along.  We made good progress on this track, but arrived a little earlier than expected, meaning we had encountered some wind over tide, causing a fairly choppy sea! Thankfully everybody onboard was confident and knowledgeable, and we rounded Land's End right on schedule, although the stronger than forecast winds meant our mainsail had to be heavily reefed.

At this point, a small issue reared its head (as they always do on these seemingly simple trips), causing a failure with our onboard electronics, including all of our navigation equipment.  Fortunately, as is good practise, we had been keeping track of our position on paper charts, so we were able to safely continue by taking fixes from various landmarks, ensuring we never strayed far from our planned course.

We safely arrived back in Plymouth around midday on the 21st, tidied the boat and said our farewells on the Mount Batten ferry.  Overall, the trip was fantastic, and it was great to get back out into some heavier seas. I learned a great deal about seamanship and safe navigation, and I'm looking forward to hopefully sailing onboard Olga again one day.
Sailing Tectona and Olga