| Skipper: | Andrew Halcrow | |
| Crew: | Robbie Tait | Sandra Hollingdale |
| Ian Jamieson | ||
| Voyage Crew: | George Martin | Ruth Scott |
| Daryl Martin | Graeme Lawrie | |
| Cameron Gordon | Shelley Humphray | |
| Jenna Fraser | Stephanie MacKenzie |
The Scalloway Youth Club trip to Norway is the Swan's third run to Norway this year. The youth club members, spurred on by the leaders George Martin, Ruth Scott and Jane Malcolm, have been planning this for a long time and worked very hard to obtain funding for the trip. They have been familar figures in the checkout lanes bag packing and did a sponsored "bike ride to Bergen" on exercise bikes. The biggest and best of this was an organised concert in the local hall with youth club members each doing a stint.Now all the hard work has been done and they are ready for off! Here they are to tell you all the gory details......!
They say that Sunday is an unlucky day to set sail which could have been the cause of the seasickness or perhaps it was just the bouncy weather. Scalloway Senior youthclub members Graeme Lawrie, Cameron Gordon, Daryl Martin, Jenna Fraser, Stephanie Mackenzie, Shelley Humphray and two senior youth workers Ruth Scott and George Martin hit the North sea without realising what was going to hit them. After a lot of fund raising bids for grants and keen attitude money had been raised for a trip aboard the Swan to Norway. The trip was rough. Nearly half of us were spewing, but we were all happy when we got to Bergen.
Our crew was Andrew as skipper, Sandra as mate, Robbie (definately the best cook on board) & Ian (who only appears to have two pairs of underpants cos he is permanently washing his drawers & pegging them on the rigging to dry.)
Although nobody liked the toilet it had to be done and we did have a lot of bother with the smell and it blocking but we managed it in the end.
On Monday we got to Bergen safe and half of us (the ones that were sick!) were glad to be on dry land, but it never stopped any of us from going shopping. There was one draw back it was pouring with rain and everyone got VERY wet. Everyone was very tired but the bairns still made a lot of noise at night that stopped Ruth and Sandra from having a good sleep. We had been there half a day and Bergen didn't know what had hit them yet with very noisy bad singing bairns and youth workers but they would find out soon enough.
When the girls went shopping they bought a lot of things and when they came back about quarter to nine they met the boys and Ruth going to watch Tomb Raider. They told the girls that Pearl Harbour was on so the girls said they would put their stuff on board and go to the cinema. When the girls set off they got lost and had to ask 5 people where the cinema was but they all said it was in a different place but they got there in the end soken, and after all that hassle they got thrown out because they were half an hour late.
After a 4 hour steam, we reached the sleepy village of Baldersheim. Baldersheim is the home village of many of George's in-laws and a very warm welcome was extended to the Swan on her arrival. It seemed that half the village had turned out as a welcoming committee. A supper was laid on at the hall and then it was all back to "Bunty's" for some real home grown Norwegian hospitality. Baldersheim is an exceptionally beautiful place, and it's beauty was appreciated by everyone, (even the teenagers).
We left Baldersheim in the morning and after a quick pit stop in Stord, we set off for Haugesund. A few of the young folk and the youth workers had a shot on the bosun's chair up the mast. The view of the fjord from that height was spectacular, as was the experience!
We had some difficulty securing a berth as there was a large boating festival planned for the weekend. All tired but very much looking forward to a couple of days of merriment, (and no doubt some more shopping) before heading back across the North Sea ever hopeful that the weather will be a bit kinder than on the way accross. We have all enjoyed the trip so much, and are hoping to repeat the experience in a year or two, perhaps for longer this time.