For summer camp, Riparian’s Explorer Sea Scouts didn’t just take to the water — they crossed a sea. Two 49-foot yachts, the open North Sea, and a crew who came home certified.
Setting sail from Ipswich on Saturday 2 August, the Riparian Explorer Sea Scouts pointed the bows of two 49-foot sailboats towards the Netherlands for a week-long cruise, working the boats across the North Sea and up the Dutch coast, calling in at a number of ports along the way.
These young people are no strangers to the water — but a North Sea crossing is a different order of adventure, demanding real seamanship, teamwork and trust in one another through every watch.
By the end of the week the achievement was written into the record: every single member of the crew earned their Competent Crew certification — a nationally recognised sailing qualification, earned not in a classroom but at sea.
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