Michelle takes the helm
Michelle Samways is a familiar face in the Club. She is a regular rescue boat driver and crew on Evisa. She has spent thirteen days sailing with the Tall Ship's Youth Trust and has sent the Club this account.
"After attending a Y.O.B’s meeting on the Tall Ship's Youth Trust I became quite interested myself. I’ve been aware of the trust for many years but have never taken a big interest.
I found out on Saturday 16th February that Starvros Niarchos was currently based doing trips in the Caribbean, so after much help from Ernie Lee and my parents, the following Saturday I was on the plane out.
At this time I couldn’t afford to go on a trip of this expense, however Ernie arranged for a sponsorship allowing my current funds to afford it.
I arrived in Bridgetown, Barbados in the early evening of Saturday just in time to watch their quick sunsets. There were about 8 of us on the same plane out and we were the last to arrive on the ship, everyone was chatty and the main conversation starter was ‘So why did you decide to do this trip?’
There were people on board from all over Briton, an American and 10 Bajan’s, so lots of culture.
After spending the first day on board learning the ropes we set sail on Monday to Dominica. We sailed for approximately 48 hours and arrived in Dominica in the darkness of Wednesday evening.
Thursday we spent the day on a tour bus travelling around the island, seeing where the Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed and eating fresh fruit off trees.
Our last stop was the rain forest where we trekked for about 8 miles to where there was a water fall an stream we were able to swim in.
We left Dominica Wednesday night in the darkness of night to travel to St Lucia, here we arrived mid Thursday and anchored in a small bay where the ship was tied to palm trees for stability on the anchor. 
We swam for the afternoon, and continued Friday with rowing races, water fights and more swimming.
Friday night we set sail from anchor and arrived in Bequia Saturday morning, I was lucky enough to be on watch that morning to see the best sunrise of the trip.
We spent the weekend in Bequia eating, drinking, on the beach and a bit of shopping, leaving Sunday to head back to Barbados, the final leg of our journey.
Arriving in Bridgetown Tuesday. "
