Following in his brother's footsteps landed Timothy Davidson smack in the middle of a force eight storm while crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

But the 19-year-old Sandy's Parish native would not have it any other way.

Mr. Davidson breezed into Hamilton Harbour on Sunday aboard the British sail training vessel the Astrid .

He is the latest Bermudian to take part in the annual ocean crossing venture on board the 108-foot brigantine.

The Astrid makes two trips every year. She crosses the Atlantic from Britain to the West Indies and back again to Britain.

The voyages are aimed at developing young people between the ages of 17 and 25 by showing them the benefits of teamwork in the arena of sailing a tall ship for the first time.

Mr. Davidson told The Royal Gazette that this year's voyage had taken on the air of a delivery trip as the Astrid will be sold when she reaches her home port of Weymouth in the south of England.

"I'm not sure what's happening as it's all up in the air at the moment. I don't know if it will stay as a training vessel,'' he said.

Built in Holland in 1918, Astrid was originally a topsail cargo schooner called Wuta . She was given her present name in 1929 and she traded in the Baltic until 1974.

The ship was damaged by a fire in 1977 but was completely restored between 1983 and 1988 and converted to a brig, which has five square sails on each mast.

The Astrid could possibly become a museum piece but the vessel is equipped with a lot of safety equipment necessary for sail training, said one crew member.

"It's not much good for anything else,'' said Mr. Davidson. "It needs a large crew of at least ten people to sail her and has enormous operating costs.'' He added that: "It's not very luxurious so it would be a pretty expensive refit. Someone with that kind of money would probably buy a new yacht.'' Mr. Davidson said he learned of the programme through his brother Andrew who made the trip two years ago.

He joined the vessel in St. Lucia on March 8 and has travelled to the Island via Dominica, Les Saintes (an island off Guadeloupe Mr. Davidson described as "a French tourist trap''), Antigua and St. Maarten.

Mr. Davidson said he will remain on board until the Astrid reaches Weymouth when he plans to head to Europe for a month before returning to the Island.

This leg of the voyage begins tomorrow morning and will see the ship heading for the Azores and an as yet unnamed port on the south coast of England -- "wind permitting,'' he added.

Wind has played a large part in the young man's experiences so far on the voyage as the vessel spent four days in a storm while on her way to Bermuda where conditions never dropped below force eight and on occasion hit force nine.

This translates to about 55 knot winds with hurricanes normally classed at force 11 or 12, noted an officer.

"I enjoyed it. It was rough but we were pretty sound. Some people got frustrated as we got further and further off course but I it was fine.'' Other crew members were not as happy about it.

One officer -- who was busy testing the ship's fire alarms -- said: "I hated every minute of it.'' Another said: "I've been at sea for 35 years and I suffer from arthritis so I had a slight problem standing up during it.'' He agreed with Tim that it had "proved the boat was very stable and safe''.

Mr. Davidson repeated: "I really enjoyed it. I guess it was just the young bloods who had a good time.'' Undoubtedly a love of the water also helped.

"I've always been out on the water. Just last summer I worked with the Aquarium doing collections.'' And Mr. Davidson admitted that he had sailed before although it was in sunfishes and enterprises at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club summer sailing programme.

But life on board one of the last three square-rigged brigs in the world is quite different to scooting around local waters in a two-man craft.

The Astrid normally carries a permanent crew of eight and 26 trainees between the age of 17 and 25 who are learning how to sail a tall ship.

But on this trip there were a shortage of trainees so the age limit was waived to allow older people to take part, said Mr. Davidson.

He said the 24 trainees on this voyage were divided into four watches of six people each who took two four-hour long watches a day while at sea.

In turn, two officers would be keeping an eye on them, he added, as they performed the tasks required.

These could include furling and unfurling the sails and setting them while one trainee was always at the helm, said Mr. Davidson.

A typical day on board the vessel consisted of breakfast at 7.20 a.m., an hour of cleaning the boat and then morning muster where the plans for the day were outlined by the chief officer.

Once his travelling concludes, it will be back to studying for Mr. Davidson who said he hopes to get accepted to the University of Vermont.