Daunting Challenge for Gap Year Student
A young student from Portsmouth is making plans to conquer her fear of open water by taking to the seas on a square rigged ship as part of the Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge, which starts in May 2009. Along with 40 others, Jocelyn Smith, will be joining the Bulgarian tall ship Kaliakra in Vigo, Spain, before sailing to Tenerife and then across the Atlantic to Bermuda and then to Charleston in the States.
The eighteen year old is currently on work experience in Gloucestershire during her gap year before going to university to study mechanical engineering. Jocelyn has taken part in two Tall Ships’ Races before but realises the Atlantic Challenge will be something quite different.
“It’s not called a challenge for nothing so I’m well aware that it will be a life changing experience,” says Jocelyn. “But I want to take part to prove I can conquer my fears and see how far I can push myself. I realise it may be difficult at times but when I step ashore in Charleston after having sailed some 3,000 miles over two months I know I will have a sense of elation and achievement. This will be made all the more sweet as I have family in Charleston so arriving by ship will give me a great sense of pride.”
Jocelyn believes the experience will also stand her in good stead for her future. “Sailing on a tall ship requires good teamwork and self-determination and I believe this will be great preparation for study,” she says. “Not just because I will be meeting new people and living with them in close quarters, much like university, but because it will help me learn to motivate myself and others and that’s a great thing to learn in life.”
Kaliakra is just one of a dozen or so tall ships that will be racing across the Atlantic, arriving in Bermuda in time to coincide with the Island’s 400th anniversary. The Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge is to form a key part of the Bermuda celebrations and special first day cover stamps are to be issued, featuring some of the tall ships taking part.
Captain Toma Tomov will be the master of the 52m three masted barquentine Kaliakra for the epic voyage. Captain Tomov has many years experience of sailing the seven seas with his ship, including taking part in a past Atlantic Tall Ships race in 1992 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America when the ship came third of 143 participants.
“Kaliakra is one of the fastest and best looking tall ships in the world,” says Captain Tomov proudly. “She is owned by the Bulgarian Maritime Training Centre. We always have a wide range of different nationalities on board which creates a wonderful informal and fun atmosphere on board. We fully intend to race to win and so encourage others to come and join us. It will be a wonderful experience I guarantee!”
Jocelyn is hoping to get some sponsorship for her participation. “It is quite expensive to take part but I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she says. “I would like to donate some money to Cancer Research UK but obviously the current economic climate doesn’t smile upon sponsoring people but we’ll see how much I can raise. Thankfully my employers are happy for me to take two months off and then I’ll still have a month or two before starting university.”
The youngster believes her parents are more worried about it than she is. “My mother didn’t even know Bulgaria had a coastline, but I think my father is secretly very jealous of my impending adventure. The longest I’ve ever been without seeing land is six days so to spend a couple of weeks at sea is going to be a whole new experience,” says Jocelyn.
The Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge is being organised by Sail Training International and the full race will go from Vigo in Spain (30 April – 3 May) to Tenerife (14-17 May), across the Atlantic to Bermuda (12-15 June) to Charleston in the USA (25-29 June) to Boston in the USA (8-13 July) to Halifax in Canada (16-20 July) and then back across the Atlantic to Belfast (13-16 August).
Ships from all over the world will be taking part in the event and anyone is invited to get on board and have an adventure of a lifetime. No experience is necessary so if you fancy joining Jocelyn and others visit the website and get planning your own challenge.
www.tallshipsraces.com/atlanticchallenge.
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