Explore an offshore wind farm aboard the HMS Octopus
In July, we’re giving customers the chance to cruise through Lincs Offshore Wind Farm (off the coast of Skegness) aboard our magical Octopus boat.
How to enter
What happens on the trip?
We’ll take off from Grimsby, Lincolnshire. After a safety chat, we'll get you and your shipmates on board. You’ll be part of a group of 8-10 adults.
The journey out to the wind farm takes around an hour and a half. During the journey, our turbine expert will tell you all about farming wind, point out interesting sites and share a little bit on local biodiversity. You might even get to see some turbine maintenance – this can be pretty jaw-dropping 150m up in the air!
We’ll spend around an hour cruising through the wind farm. We’ll be able to get right between and up close to the turbines (close enough to see the seagull poo). But we won’t be able to leave the boat and actually climb onto them.
Then we’ll head back. All up, it’s around a five hour round trip, with plenty of chill time during the travel there and back.
The important stuff
There are some rules we all have to follow to stay sea-safe.
Over 18s only. We’d absolutely love to take school trips out to the turbines, but this is a commercial boat, only licensed to carry adults for safety reasons.
Wear covered, flat shoes and layer up – the temperature could vary quite a bit depending on how gusty it is!
Wear a life jacket at all times. We’ll provide them for everyone aboard.
Think carefully about coming if you’re prone to sea-sickness. Though it’s a little less likely in July, there’s always a chance it can get pretty bumpy. It takes an hour and a half to get out to the wind farm, which makes this around a 5 hour round trip. We’ll have sea-sickness tablets on board.
Prepare for a rain-check. In July, conditions are generally smoother, but the sea is a mystery and it’s always possible the trip could get cancelled if the seas are rough. We’ll let you know the day before if this happens, and try our best to offer another date.
Any questions?
There'll be a few different trips between July 10th and 21st. Sign up and, if you're chosen, we'll get in touch next week with a few options you can pick from. If none of the days work for you, just let us know, and we can offer your place to someone else.
We expect to take 4-5 trips, each with 8-10 people, which means we may not be able to take everyone who wants to come along. Hopefully we’ll be able to do this more often in the future.
These trips are always weather dependent, so could be cancelled if conditions are choppy, (though this is less likely in July).
The boat leaves from a port in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire.
We'll meet you at the port on the day of the trip, so you'll need to organise your own transport to Grimsby.
You're welcome to travel from further afield, but just bear in mind that there's always a small chance the trip could be cancelled the day before, so make sure you're OK to take that risk if travelling vast distances.
You're welcome to travel from further afield, but just bear in mind that there's always a small chance the trip could be cancelled the day before, so make sure you're OK to take that risk if travelling from far away.
This boat is an active commercial vessel, which gets regular safety inspections and is used daily by crews of engineers who work on the turbines.
The boat is carefully maintained and captained by an experienced crew, who'll be on board with you the whole time. You'll get a safety briefing before boarding, and a life jacket to wear throughout the trip.
It's an hour and a half long sail out to the wind farm, then we'll stay out there for an hour and head back. Allowing a little extra time for docking the boat, we expect the trip to take five hours all up.
You'll be able to choose 1 or 2 people when you sign up.
No. The boat and dock aren't regularly used for passenger trips (it's more for operational vessels and their crews) so there are steps you'll need to be able to get up and down to come on the trip.