Wednesday 4th

Wednesday 4th August

THERE IS NO WIND!

As Skipper always says there is only good news and moderate news. The good
news for today is that the end of the race has been brought forward to
finish at 1345 tomorrow as otherwise it would have taken us until Sunday,
and the moderate news is that we have to still get to Hartlepool in NO wind.
Due to not moving and at one point moving backwards, people began to
entertain themselves by reading books, sleeping, painting nails and
eventually jumping ship..

The swim was exactly what we needed; with jumping of Rona, swimming and
generally splashing about.shampoo even made a well needed appearance! The
swim was 200 miles from anywhere and in 90 metres of beautiful bright blue
sea. Once we had dried off we enjoyed a well earned hot chocolate with
marshmallows and a cookie. Everyone is now feeling refreshed and ready to
rock into Hartlepool.

A short sing song is now raising the spirits of the crew even higher.
Hopefully it might even encourage Rona to keep moving. We're kind of moving
at the minute so fingers crossed this little bit of breeze stays with us and
fills Rona II sails again. We are due some North Westerly winds from
tomorrow morning so hopefully we can shoot down the coast to Hartlepool with
ease. We're all looking forward to hot showers, oh and seeing our family and
friends!

Mother watch has been very relaxing today, with little to no wind there
wasn't
much rocking so feeding all 23 of us was no task at all. We have made fresh
bread, pancakes and a two layered moose with Rona II decorations!

Mouse!

Mouse!

Swimming

Swimming

Swimming 2

Swimming 2

Attacked!

Attacked!

Thursday 5th August

Greetings Landlubbers (Definition, someone not on a boat!),

After a rocky wet night both Alice's rose crippled by constipation and those
lucky few in the forepeak sodden de to drippy hatches. Breakfast was served
in 5* fashion by Dory watch which consisted of scrambled egg, 2cms of
baguette and half a frankfurter. This however ended up everywhere due to
Chloe's emergency 360° gybe which led to breakfast, juice and people
scattered/splashed everywhere. On the plus side both Alice's constipation
was now relieved. After Nic & Nikki flew around whilst washing up due to
rare rough seas nap time was enjoyed by all, well except by those who were
on watch.

Food supplies short, pasta bake for lunch (again) unfortunately for Emily.W
a bowl of cornflakes was all that could be consumed. Washing up done again
by Nic & Nikki however this time made much more excitable by a few squares
of chocolate and some jollyfull songs.

Yippee! The sun kindly got his hat out and the crew got there legs out,
which for some was quite shocking due to the forest of hair that was present
everywhere! After a good 2 hours of not moving a jellyfishing rod was
created using a spare coat hanger and a sheet, to the delight of many it was
a success! A jellyfish had been caught, yup indeedie a real Jellyfish;
gloopy, splatter like and containing many tentacles. Later on, skip got out
his guitar and everybody joined in for a sing song on the afterdeck.
Meanwhile Stef had successfully plucked her eyebrows and due to the lack of
wind, helming was proving a challenge for Emily. On Rona II 4 o'clock means
CAKE O'CLOCK!! Nommyliscous carrot cake was created by Jenny & glomped by
all within seconds.

Currently bobbing around just off Hartlepool which is proving very
chucklesome and everyone has huge grins on their faces J. Off into port to
wait for the locks to open and let us in, being greeted and escorted by a
guns ship. And luckily for us Hannah's fiancé is buying dinner for all! YAY!

Much love to all you Landlubbers, over and out, Love all the crew on Rona II
J

North Sea Oil Rig

North Sea Oil Rig

Tuesday 3rd August.

With the wind picking up the crew had higher spirits today and the prospect
of reaching the way point was starting to look possible! A hearty breakfast
of porridge cooked by Crush Watch helped as well, which was followed by an
amazing (if we say so ourselves!) pasta bake. There was a crew morale low at
the discovery that our last bag of sugar was, in fact, salt (blame
misleading Norwegian packaging), but the tea and coffee drinkers have
rallied through, with a renewed appreciation for Aero hot choc.

We put a couple of tacks in today which Dory and Nemo watch carried out
beautifully in racing style. This put us closer to the wind and right on
target for the way point, which is about parallel with Edinburgh. We'll head
south after the way point to reach Hartlepool hopefully by Friday or before.
We also found out we are the most southerly boat in the fleet and Skipper
heard on the radio that the other boats were very jealous about us. As if
this wasn't enough we are also moving the fastest!

We're starting to properly get into the swing of night watches, having now
been continuously at sea since Sunday lunchtime. Bunk and oily swapping and
plenty of hot chocolate and napping!

It's now one o'clock in the morning and Crush watch have just hardened up on
the wind and worked out if we keep up our speed it's going to be around 20
hours to the way point. We've just cracked open the Haribo and are looking
forward to a speedy "graveyard shift" J

Note from the skipper. This is a great crew who have now settled into the
routine of a long off shore passage. Everyone is pulling their weight and
the sailing is good despite being very frustrating with the wind coming from
exactly where we want to go.

We are beating up to windward and sailing well. We came through the Ekofisk
oilfield today and everyone found that their mobiles started to work again.
Some hope of peace and quiet.

N.B.

Nemo watch = Hannah (Watch Officer), Emily R. (Watch Leader), Lorna, Chloe,
Sam, Liz, Becca

Dory watch = Jenny (W.O.), Hazel (W.L.), Nic, Nikki, Steph, Clare, Lisa

Crush watch = Oly (W.O.), Lui (W.L.), Alice L., Alice K., Laura, Erin, Emily
W.

Funky Norwegian boat

Monday 2nd August

Sunday came the parade of sail, a magnificent sight for those on land and
those taking part. Rona was placed near the back, but our group was lead by
the mighty Tenacious. Kristiansand bay looked more like the Solent during
the weekend rush than a Norwegian Fjord. From here we sailed out to the
start line to watch class A and B start, and practice the timing of crossing
the line. Unfortunately Skipper got distracted and we didn't quite get the
start we were hoping for, but not a bad one, Erin did a great job helming us
across the line!

The race started for us with a force 4 and we were gaining on Thermopylae
Clipper and John Laing fast, but soon the wind began to die. Dory watch went
to change up to the Genoa but found a rip which Mark fixed (what a hero) and
nearly 2 hours later Crush watch hoisted it.

Yummy food so far thanks to Nemo Watch with a magnificent dinner of burgers,
homemade wedges and salad. Throughout the night the wind dropped to almost
nothing and the watches have been doing everything they can to keep the boat
sailing, rigging light lines and a preventor on the boom. Today since lunch
the wind has been slowly building and Crush watch just spotted a tornado off
to starboard in the distance! An amazing sight.

Anyway that's about it for now, sailing hard and awaiting the 1st days
results on where we are within the fleet, which we will get sometime this
evening. Don't forget to follow us on the Sail Training International
website!

J

Crew Party

Crew Party

Boat trip

Omani Food

Dancing

Foam

Final day in Kristiansand

CREW PARTY!!!! Highlight of the weekend. The evening was amazing with lots
of laughing, fun and games. Foam went absolutely EVERYWHERE, in our shoes,
our hair, shirts and trousers. Everyone is now ready for more parties in
Hartlepool with the rest of the crews. Men in uniform beware as the Rona II
girls are out in force.

This morning started early for some with a breakfast on Shabab Oman. After a
guided tour of the Captain's quarter (which was huge compared to Rona) Oly
and Becky thoroughly enjoyed a traditional Omani breakfast followed by a
dance. The breakfast was served sitting on the floor round large plates that
had flat bread and four different dishes on that were eaten with the bread.
The tradition is that no one leaves until the dish is empty. We had a huge
challenge ahead of us as they kept filling the plate, even Oly was daunted
(takes a lot). After breakfast there was light entertainment from their
bagpipes with some dancing and lots of clapping. We sang and did the conga,
the dancing after the food was difficult, and none of us could move we were
so full. The hospitality was amazing and we were very privileged to be able
to go...A once in a lifetime experience.

Another activity that was run today was the Yresokk Boat Trip. Thirteen of
the crew attended. The boats were traditional Norwegian boats that seated
four or five, the tour guides were all local Norwegians so knew a lot about
the vicinity. The tour showed them around the surrounding area which
included seeing some spectacular scenery including forges and forestry.
Unfortunately the weather deteriorated meaning that the crew came back wet
to the bone. However they weren't bothered and were in high spirits.

While everyone was enjoying their tour of Norway others enjoyed shore leave
and cleaned the boat out. Mouldy tea bags were disposed of and graffiti
removed. The day was productive overall and everyone is feeling very relaxed
and ready to race. Tonight there are fireworks and then everyone is going to
get as much sleep as possible ready for the start tomorrow.

Dinner tonight was cooked by the after guard. They made Mexican; chicken
wraps, sauce and nachos. That went down really well with the crew. We were
then visited by Metta (another boat's liaison officer that we stole) who we
sang one of our songs to and she sang to us to say goodbye from
Kristiansand.

Next time we blog we'll be racing back to Hartlepool. Hopefully we should be
back by Wednesday although the wind isn't doing anything to help us it could
take a lot longer. Fingers crossed it doesn't, we're all looking forward to
being home, cheap booze, parties and showing the other crews some English
culture.

skipper on parade

Crew parade

Crew parade

After handing out the invites and scaring most of the other crews with our
bright colours and loud chanting we headed down to the opening ceremony. The
Prince and Princess of Norway opened the Tall Ships Celebration and despite
the rain, there was a good vibe in the crowd. After the opening ceremony,
the crew went off on a reconnaissance mission to meet some other boats and
were rewarded by an excellent juggling and fire performance.

Today we all got up in high spirits, ready for tall ships sports day. After
banter on the beach volleyball pitch, collisions on the canoeing course and
swaying in the soda box stacking contest, we were all exhausted. However, we
still had the crew parade ahead of us.

We entered the crew parade in rave colours and rugby shirts, daring anyone
to be louder than the famous Rona II crew! We sang all our favourite songs
and as the heavens opened we cracked out 'Singing in the Rain' proving our
high spirits even when the weather doesn't agree. After a mishmash of the
Macarina, the Hokey Cokey, chants and general fun and games, we are
exhausted so we're gonna eat our dinner, beautify ourselves and head on down
to take the crew party by storm! J

Honourary little miss......