Battalion Blog

David Gilmore (1st Kilrea Company) recently participated in a ‘Youth Exchange’ project, which included a tall ship voyage, organised by Sail Training Ireland. The week began with a weekend spent in the Mourne Mountains, mainly just to get to know one another. This was good, as it meant we already knew each other before setting sail. On Monday afternoon, we boarded the Gulden Leeuw (Golden Lion), and set sail in the evening. The group, 44 in total, were split into watches of 11. Each watch was on for four hours, and was responsible for navigation and steering, along with setting the sails for the duration of their watch, under the supervision of a crew member. When not on watch, time was spent cleaning, cooking, sleeping, socialising and learning about the different sails and practising various knots. Not one for sitting around for too long, I got stuck into it outside of my watch hours, helping out around the ship with sails (they’re very heavy, it can take up to 20 people to ra