Gwilym's Adventure Blog

Today, with the help of Simon and his special skills (ie being tall) I anti-fould the bottom of the yacht in Navy Blue. I also managed to anti foul my hand and left leg so there will be no barnacles growing on me for a while.

After spending most of the last 6 months looking at yachts and the last 2 months looking at this one, I got the keys today and hopefully will be afloat on Monday after tomorrows anti-fouling party. She is a 30ft Fin Keel Carter and should be good for some sailing adventures this summer. There is some work to do but it is mainly cleaning, cosmetic, changing sheets and halyards but I hope to get that done in the next few weeks and be out sailing in the evening after work.

On Thursday afternoon 4 teams and a number of staff headed out onto Dartmoor into the wet for a practice D of E Expedition. Fortunately the rain lasted only until the end of Thursday. The sun shone on Friday and Saturday, both were absolutely stunning days and a reminder of why I chose to work in this part of the UK. All 4 groups got some mileage under their belt and although one campsite got attacked by a hungry badger, all had a good time.

Today Dan and I took 6 students to Sheep's Tor and as Rosie was also with us, the instructor : student ratio was very good. I took 2 students off for their first trad leads. Both boys have lead indoors for some time and although both keen sport climbers, they consented to have a go at "real" climbing.

  Today I took a number of Boarding students to the Plymouth Ski Centre for some Sno-Tubing. Of course I had a go myself

It has been a busy few days. Firstly I was at St James' Palace on Wednesday for the Duke of Edinburgh Award presentations. Friday was spent assisting with Plymouth College Cross Country at Newnham Park, all the students in the school took part with year 7-10 completing 4km and year 11-13 completing 5km. There were some very quick times. Today I was at Brixham diving with Somerset Divers . Two dives of about 40mins in 9 degree water followed by plenty of hot drink. To finish off a good week, I got back in time to watch the last few minutes of Wales winning the RBS Six Nations. Apologies for lack of photos on this post.

  Today I was in the pool with a couple of students for some rolling classes but spent time at the end making some sea kayak videos. Of the 3 students in the pool today, 2 are now rolling consistantly.

Today I was on a Sea Survival Course run by Plymouth Sailing School . It was a mixture of theory and then practical sessions run at Central Park. Although I have done it before it was over 10 years ago and it was good to be reminded of what to do if it all goes wrong.

After giving up on Scottish Winter I came back down south last weekend and returned to work at Plymouth College. After a few days of paperwork I got out into Dartmoor over the weekend with Gold D of E and then 10 Tors training groups.