Norway to Ireland 2011: Arrival in Waterford, Ireland

In which we arrive at our destination, Waterford, Ireland. We arrived a day earlier than forecast (Wednesday) and we then partook of the Tall Ships Festival in Waterford for the next  three days. It was a monster party. More on that next time.

Day 12   Thursday             June 30, 2011

All day yesterday was spent getting the ship ready for port and ready for public tours. The 12-4 watch pulled in the remaining three staysails and the 4-8 watch did the final trimming of the braces. When we got on deck at 8, our watch had the pleasure of starting to polish the brass. We hadn’t realized until then how much brass the ship carried: door handles, signs and plaques, half the pins for securing the lines, window rims, the two compass pedestals, and the ship’s bell.

Yikes! We spent four hours in the morning and then were “invited” back to help the 12-4 watch get it done. I don’t think we finished until about 3 p.m.

By now we were in sight of the Irish coast and following the Soerlandet to the mouth of the Suir River. I was really looking forward to the trip up the river and seeing the other class A ships, especially the Russian ship, the Mir, the only serious competition that the Christian Radich has at this point in the history of the sport (at least that’s what the crew says!).

 

Yesterday we were so busy that I had no time to make an entry. We tied up in Waterford last evening about 6:30 with great pageantry. It was a remarkable ride up the Suir River with an Irish pilot on board directing the helmsman. It was a beautiful entry, mostly sunny with a couple of brief showers to give us a view of why this country is so green. There were people lining both banks of the river the entire 15 miles into port. They were waving and cheering, some with Irish flags, and when we thought they could hear us, we shouted back. Alan tried to get across the point that he was single and whenever we passed a pub, he tried to order a Guinness.

On our final approach we were met by three tugs that deftly pushed
and pulled us into our mooring. The crew did a great job working with the dock hands to get the spring lines on the bollards.

After all the docking procedures were complete, the cooks and the stewards set up a buffet dinner on the main deck. Before dinner Captain Jagdum had all the watches assemble and passed out diplomas to each trainee signifying the distance and dates of the voyage. This was completely unexpected and a really nice touch. Mine was printed in Norwegian and Caroline offered to make one in English, but I think it’s better in Norwegian so I said no.

The dinner was exceptional and we finally had beer after 8 days at sea.  In between the diplomas and dinner the Captain passed around a shot of rum for everyone and toasted to a good voyage and a safe trip home. This ship and crew is a class act.

Next up: the Waterford Tall Ships Festival

Norway to Ireland 2011: The West Coast of England

Four years ago this week, I had the adventure of a lifetime. Two weeks on a square-rigged ship sailing from Norway to Ireland. I kept a journal, but never published the entire thing and now I want to close the gap. If you're just visiting for the first time, please read the entries that precede this to get the full story.

Day 10   Tuesday               June 28, 2011

Another 18 hours and too much to tell. I’m going to forget something.

Out on the bowsprit

Last night on watch we started setting sail again. First, four staysails starting in the bow. For the first and maybe only time I went out on the bowsprit to untie the sizing on two of the three staysails. That’s the most pleasant place to be on a sailing ship I think. After the staysails it was up in the rig to let out the store stump, the store mers, and the fore stump. This may have been the most satisfying hour of the whole journey. This was now about 10 p.m. and the sun was setting on the port side. It was absolutely gorgeous and I was totally at ease. There were five of us and we felt as if the ship belonged to us. What a rush!

Sunset under sail

I forgot to mention that before we touched the sails, we had to brace all of the yards. Now that’s hard work. We moved all 15 yards to a port tack in about 45 minutes. That requires uncoiling about 50 lines, pulling like animals on 1/3 of them, and then coiling them back up. You don’t stay cold for long with that kind of action.

I was so sore when I hit the sack that I thought I’d be asleep in minutes, but not so. First the 12-4 watch gathered in the companionway for a chat (they should have been on deck!) and then Christian decided to open a bag of cheez doodles in the bunk below me and munch on them one at a time while watching a movie. Ah, the joys of the banjer!

During the night the 12-4 watch decided to have a songfest while working (?) and that was annoying. Have to speak about that with Henrik & Nils in the morning. Maybe they can kick some ass for us tomorrow! There’s a strong feeling on our watch that we have the best teamwork and produce the best results of the three watches.

The morning dawned sunny and sparkling. We’re now fully in the Atlantic, although the western coast of England is still in sight and we discovered that the 4-8 watch had put us on a starboard tack. The big question on everyone’s mind is how long we’ll sail before going back to power and whether we’ll get to Waterford Wednesday night or Thursday during the day. We’re approximately 100 miles south of the Irish coast right now. For the first hour of the morning watch we were at the white board again with our third lesson in tacking a full-rigged ship. We learned that we will do another tack later today and now that sail is set, it’s an “all hand on deck” operation, just as it will be during the races.

At our request we also got more stories about maritime history. We learned about the astonishing inhumanity of the slave ship captains and more details about the training ship Denmark. Both Henrik and Nils are Danish and Nils trained on the Denmark. These guys are amazingly experienced sailors with fascinating life histories. Henrik actually has a wife and children in Thailand and hopes to start a diving business there when he’s done sailing.

After lunch we did the tacking. First, the Captain gave his “Clas’s Corner” daily update. He said that Waterford won’t allow ships to enter the port on Thursday so we’ll be coming in at high tide late on Wednesday afternoon. On the approach tomorrow, I guess we’ll be getting the ship ready, part of which is polishing all the brass fittings on board, and there’s a lot of it. And we paid for the pleasure!

Of course, everyone is salivating about the Guinness and Jameson that awaits. There’s talk today also about parties on all the other ships. It’s probably a good idea we’re coming in early so we have time to party and then recover before we have to travel again for hours. I learned about a better Irish whiskey than Jameson, but I can’ remember it now. Starts with a T; I’ll have to have Allan write it down.

Lines for the braces

Back to the tacking. Actually, it was jibing, tacking with the wind, or to put it bluntly, ass of the boat first! To do that, all of the lee lines had to be slacked and the lines for the lee braces coiled in a special way so that they will run free and not get tangled during the jibe. Then it’s haul away on the main braces, the mizzen braces, and the fore braces in that order, all of it on whistle signals.   it in my hands. I imagine doing it for the races would get you calloused before they were over.

Clewlines and buntlines

The ship is too big and the deck has two levels so the AB in charge can’t be seen by most of the crew. For primarily trainees who’ve only been together for six days and only done the exercise twice, we did pretty good, I think. I didn’t wear gloves this time and I could really feel it in my hands. I imagine doing it for the races would get you calloused before they were over.


Next Up: Arrival in Waterford, Ireland

To see all of the photos from my adventure, visit: Oslo,  Oslo to Waterford, Waterford and Dublin 2011.

Splash!

I bought a small cruiser late in the season last year and got her on the water a couple of times before I had to put her on her cradle. I had all winter to get excited about setting her back in the water again. It was excruciating!

The big day happened two weeks ago Tuesday.
I had arranged to meet the marina guys at the boat and they would move it to the water's edge, use the crane to drop her to the water and then motor her to our slip. When she was being lowered into the marina, I noticed that the guys were each carrying fend-off poles which I thought was a little curious. I soon found out why.

Rod, the service manager, very gently and quietly said "Usually before we do this, the owner gets the docklines ready on the boat, puts the fenders out and has the batteries back in place so we don't have to spend extra time waiting for the boat to be moved out of the way." Ooops! I was so much a green new boat owner and they were so patient and non-judgemental. I thought to myself "I'm going to like these guys alot, but I hope I don't wear out my welcome with the thousand questions I'm in need of asking."

My brain is overloaded with trying to anticipate all of the things I've decided I need too acquire or fix to get Querida ready for the season. She's in pretty good shape for being 36 years old, but there are definitely signs of aging and there's also a number of broken or non-functional items that I'd like to replace as time and money allow.

Her bottom hull is in great shape, which is probably the most reassuring fact to recognize. Her hull above the waterline is in need of cleaning and buffing, but I think that will need to wait until next year. She'll sail fine the way she looks now and I really don't want to wait another couple of weeks just for that.

The batteries probably need to be replaced and I need to get a trickle charger, but the sails and rigging are in fine condition. There's a fair amount of really old and expired supplies on board which we'll need to dispose of, but that's just part of the job any new owner has. Now we need to turn our attention to working on becoming better sailors and enjoying the summer breezes.