The first one up puts the kettle on and your skipper really appreciates a cup of tea in his bunk! Breakfast consists of: orange-juice; cereals; muesli, toast or croissants with jam; marmalade or Marmite; fresh fruit, tea, coffee or hot-chocolate.
We aim to be showered and breakfasted by 0900, when we'll commence a short briefing on the day's exercises before setting sail at around 1000.
We tend to drink a lot of cups of tea and coffee throughout the day and there are always plenty of chocolate bars, biscuits, apples and bananas to help yourself to.
We normally anchor or pick up a mooring for lunch, although sometimes when we’re on passage, we eat as we sail. Lunch might be: cheese or ham rolls; a Cornish Pasty; bacon and Brie rolls; a jacket potato with beans and grated cheese or Kipper’s famous Portuguese fish soup with crusty bread. All meals can be adapted to suit vegetarian or special diets.
Sometimes will have a short “theory” teaching session after lunch, perhaps practicing our knots or planning a passage or pilotage for later in the day. Then it’s more exercises until about 1730 or 1800 when we put into port. Typical ports of call are Cowes, Portsmouth, Yarmouth or possibly further a field to Poole or even Weymouth.
Because we have to put in 4 night hours, unless the weather is truly awful, we spend one night at anchor in either Chichester Harbour, Newtown, Osborne Bay or Studland Bay at the end of a short night passage.
If we’re in port, supper is prepared whilst the crew showers. Dinner is either: chicken pie with peas and new potatoes, followed by chocolate mousse; pasta with arrabiata sauce and salad, followed by yoghurt; or chilli-con-carne with rice, jalapeños, rice and nachos followed by bread and butter pudding. Students bring wine to share. There are vegetarian alternatives for those who notify us in advance. We eat ashore one night, normally the last night of the course. After dinner we either go to the pub or stay aboard, talking rubbish, listening to music, reading or playing cards.
Kipper has 6 bunks in two cabins. The forecastle (the front cabin) has 2 single berths, there are 2 permanent berths in the saloon, with a very comfortable pipecot above one of them. Your skipper sleeps in the quarter berth aft. If there is a couple on board or two women, they are normally offered first refusal on the forecastle. We have a heater onboard for cold nights.
Kipper is equipped with a PC and Internet access. You are welcome to use this to access your email. Otherwise you may bring your own PC. We have 240v to charge mobile phones.
