Blue Mermaid’s east coast tour – 11 ports visited!

Blue Mermaid is back on her home mooring after a very busy start to the year. She visited 11 ports between Lowestoft and Ramsgate to a timetable on her ‘Skipper’s of the Future?’ tour, supported by the Heritage Fund. There were sail training voyages in between ports with trainees doing their National Historic Ships ‘Traditional Seafarer’ certificate. At weekends Blue Mermaid opened to members of the public to come aboard, look around the barge, meet the crew and view an exhibition of Thames sailing barge heritage in the main hold, and in the fore-hold there were screenings of the nautical feature film ‘Wind, Tide & Oar’. Primary schools were able to visit during the tour and the children could to try their hand at maritime heritage trades like shipwrighting, sailmaking, and rigging. The aim of the tour was to connect people in maritime communities with their nautical heritage and to inform about the Thames sailing barge and the work that the surviving fleet do today.

Blue Mermaid does not have an engine, and with the exception of a small amount of  towage assistance to reach ports that do not allow a vessel to enter under sail, or are too congested these days for it to be safe for us to do so, the whole tour was undertaken using just wind and tide  for propulsion.

100+ primary school children visited our maritime heritage trades days. 800+ people came aboard to watch the film ‘Wind, Tide & Oar’. 2000 people came aboard to look around Blue Mermaid to view the exhibition and learn about Thames sailing barges.

This tour would not have been possible without support from the Heritage Fund, The Society for Sailing Barge Research, The Thames Sailing Barge Trust and many, many people in the rivers and ports that Blue Mermaid visited who welcomed us and supported us in so many ways. Thank you!