Voyages | Designing The Matthew | Building the Matthew Rob Salvidge and his crew took the ship to many places not previously visited such as Dublin, Bangor in Northern Ireland and up the River Clyde to Glasgow.
Stormy weather at the start of the tour in May, made life tough for 6 young apprentices from inner city Bristol who’d never been sailing before. This adventure was filmed for a half hour BBC 1 documentary which had a big audience when it was shown in August. When the gales abated, The Irish Sea was calm as a duck pond and the dolphins came and played around the bow. Dublin was a great city to visit, and we had some wonderful sailing in and around Dublin Bay including cruising through Dalkey Sound where all the rock stars live! We visited some interesting remote spots as we sailed north to take part in the Sea Bangor event in Belfast Lough. Carlingford Lough was a real gem with a challenging fast flowing rocky approach and fabulous mountains coming right down to the sea. Our crossing to Whitehaven was gentle with an overnight anchor stop off Ramsey in the Isle of Man. Whitehaven itself was fascinating with old quays and a really good Rum and Maritime museum. A great picture of Matthew sailing into the harbour was on the front page of the local paper; we were visited by the mayor and were stars on the local TV news. Another bumpy ride with headwinds gave our passengers an interesting experience as we tucked up the Scottish Coast and into the Firth of Clyde. Here we enjoyed two weeks of stunning sailing and wonderful scenery. Everyday we sailed was heavenly with calm seas, good winds and great places to stop for the night. The Clyde is a wonderful mixture of sheltered cruising waters and glorious industrial dereliction – little marinas where once there were big submarine bases and mile after mile of old quays and rusting cranes on the way to Glasgow. We actually managed to sail half way up the Clyde itself and were given a great reception by the city which put on a marvellous festival as it starts to reclaim some of the dock lands and quays for bars and apartments and smart hotels. We had a fairly brisk run back to Bristol. Six days it took us with a wonderful anchor stop in pretty Tenby, West Wales. And our journey back up the River Avon to take part in the harbour festival in our home port was a memorable one with tall ships Jeannie Johnston and Iris also in the river at the same time. So Matthew has now really shrugged off the cobwebs and shaken out her canvas again. At various times, we’ve experienced gales and calms, worked all the sails, been to fascinating places; great and small; and made some really good new friends for life. That’s what happens when you go sailing on a rather special ship.
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