ENTERPRISE SAILING

(Dodo's Delight left Falmouth on 15th September at the start of her voyage around the world. I very much hope that her skipper, the Reverend Bob Shepton, will be describing their experiences in future Flying Fish so this is really just to set the scene.)

September's Newsletter contained a sheet about Enterprise Sailing, the charity set up to aid the Reverend Bob Shepton with the expenses of a circumnavigation. OCC members were invited to buy raffle tickets to support the venture. `Why can't he find the money himself like the rest of us?' one may ask -- mainly because his purpose is not simply to enjoy himself (though it's hard to believe that he won't), but to give some twenty boys from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to sail long ocean passages and really test themselves against the elements. And that comes to an awful lot in air fares.

Neither the Rev Bob nor his 33ft Westerly Discus Dodo's Delight are strangers to ocean sailing, as Flying Fish readers will know. In the last ten years they've sailed to the Azores and back, crossed the Atlantic four times and cruised Iceland, Greenland and Norway, always with crew drawn from the pupils and ex-pupils of Kingham Hill School of which the Rev Bob was Chaplain. A circumnavigation was the next logical step.

However this is to be no easy trade wind voyage. From Falmouth the intention is to make straight for Madeira, the Canaries and the Cape Verdes -- so far so good. But hopefully their next landfall will be Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, unless it's necessary to put into Montevideo for water. On leaving the Falklands Dodo's Delight will head westwards towards Cape Horn, but veer south before getting there to visit Deception Island in the South Shetlands. Then she'll head northwards into the Pacific, possibly visiting Pitcairn and Easter Island if weather conditions permit, before a scheduled stop in Fiji to pick up new crew.

After Fiji a somewhat more conventional route will take her westwards through the Coral Sea to Darwin for another crew change, then across the Indian Ocean via the Cocos Keeling Islands and Mauritius to South Africa. The final leg will be northwards from Cape Town to St Helena, the Azores and back to the UK -- all in a planned twenty months! (Though it may turn out to be nearer two years).

A small farewell party was held the morning of her departure, and for once the sun shone. Bishop Michael Dickens-Whinney blessed Dodo's Delight and her crew -- seldom has Psalm 107 seemed so appropriate! -- and I was glad that I had remembered my camera. It was a very happy occasion.

A little more about the practicalities, specifically the Enterprise Sailing raffle. As of September nearly £50,000 of the estimated £57,000 needed to cover essentials such as food and air fares had been raised through sponsorship and donations. This leaves a modest shortfall, and modest donations should soon see it filled. Raffle tickets cost £5 for a book of five and are available from: Mrs Heather Watson, Hon Fundraiser, Enterprise Sailing Charity, c/o McMullen, Greenacres, Brockenhurst, Hants SO42 7SW. Prizes will be drawn on Thursday 13th January at Marina Development Ltd's stand at the London International Boat Show (where tickets will also be on sale) and include:

A week's charter aboard a Catalina 42 in the Virgin Islands,

plus a pair of return air tickets to New York

A Parker Knoll reclining chair

A case of Champagne Pommery Brut Royal

A one year subscription to Yachting Monthly

A one year subscription to Yachting World