Sailing on Tall Ship Tenacious

Greg Smith, Sailor...
errr, Senior Consultant 

From the desk of Greg Smith, Sailor... errr, Senior Consultant: 

Greg and Marianne Smith have just returned from a month in the Caribbean, which included two and a half weeks sailing as voyage crew on the tall ship Tenacious, a three masted, square sailed barque registered in Southampton, England. They were joined aboard by close UK friends Laurie Green and Ruth Padday, who had sailed on Tenacious before. Ruth was the ship’s doctor for the trip and Laurie (originally from Australia) and Greg sailed together on a small yacht around Fiji, the New Hebrides and New Caledonia in the 1970’s.

Tenacious is one of two tall ships owned by the Jubilee Sailing Trust, a British charitable foundation which provides sailing experience to disabled, as well as able-bodied crew members. Designed and built for this purpose, the two vessels have wheelchair accessible washrooms and cabins, elevators, and other equipment designed to facilitate participation by everyone. A qualified and experienced permanent crew of around ten helps to train, supervise and assist the “voyage crew” of up to forty, which may include half with some form of disability. Disabled and able bodied passengers are “buddied” together during the various voyages, which may range from a few days of island hopping to a month long passage across the Atlantic. In 2013 the other ship, Lord Nelson, will sail around the world to Australia and New Zealand, including stops in many other countries along the way.

Greg and Marianne on the Tenacious

Greg and Marianne joined Tenacious in  Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe for an initial 11 day sail past Martinique to St. Lucia, then on to Dominica, Les Saintes (small islands that are part of Guadeloupe) and back to  Pointe-à-Pitre. This was followed by five days of maintenance in port and three more days of sailing around Guadeloupe and on to Antigua. Typically, Tenacious was at sea for two or three days, and then at anchor or in port for a couple of nights, allowing for a day on shore in between to explore.

They describe the experience as “very intense and interesting. What the Jubilee Sailing Trust is doing is incredibly ambitious and meaningful to the passengers, especially those with disabilities who have an opportunity to participate as crew members.” All of the voyage crew learn to help raise, adjust and lower sails and those who are comfortable doing so climb the masts and go out on the horizontal yards to help work with the sails and rigging, wearing harnesses clipped onto safety lines. Everyone participates to the best of their ability in round-the-clock watches, helping in the galley and with mess and other duties such as daily cleaning (“Happy Hour”), and hauling on sheets (ropes) to work the sails. Even those in wheelchairs may be hoisted aloft or participate in swims alongside the ship.

“We took our turns at all the regular chores, and during maintenance in port participated in chipping rust, cleaning the hull, stowing sails, shopping for supplies and helping to load them on board,” says Greg. “It was very hot, and sometimes hard, work but we made some great friends and learned a lot about how Tenacious works behind the scenes."

Greg Smith and crew mates
hard at work out on the yard

Among highlights of the trip were meeting other crew members, going aloft, learning how the ship works at sea and in port, and the various onshore visits to climb mountains, swim under waterfalls or in hot pools. Dolphins came alongside at one point, and whales were spotted twice, as were numerous varieties of birds, and other yachts. We also loved snorkeling in clear warm water teeming with thousands of colourful fish, swimming off the ship or from sandy beaches, and the inevitable rum punches.

 “We had one rare and very traumatic incident when one of the small rubber boats flipped while being lowered alongside while the ship was under sail, trapping a young female crew member beneath it, and dragging her under water for several minutes. When she was finally recovered, unconscious, the ship’s medical personnel worked to revive her. A Mayday call brought an emergency helicopter from Guadeloupe, and lowered a search and rescue specialist. However, they were not equipped to raise her while strapped to a spinal board, so Tenacious made for Les Saintes and she was transferred to shore, then picked up by a larger helicopter which flew her to hospital on Guadeloupe. To everyone’s immense relief, when Tenacious pulled into the dock in Pointe-à-Pitre two days later, she (Alana) was waiting to meet us, looking almost as good as new, and was able to resume some of her duties within a couple of days.

“Overall, the whole experience on Tenacious was a remarkable time. We were never seasick, which helped, had some great experiences on land and at sea, made a lot of friends, learned a lot about sailing, which Marianne had never done before. We would recommend this experience to anyone who wants to do something different – it is fantastic to pull into a small Caribbean island as part of a group of only 40 people, compared to the giant cruise ships which overwhelm a lot of these places, discharging thousands at a time.”  

The Tenacious

For anyone who wants more information on opportunities to sail on Tenacious or Lord Nelson, contact www.jst.org.uk.