Even
though it's been some weeks since my last post, I'm going to continue
to publish the journal that I kept on my Tall Ships adventure last
summer. This episode is at about the halfway point in the voyage when we
went through the English Channel.
Day 7 Saturday June
25, 2011
True to the captain’s predictions yesterday, we should be
entering the English Channel by nightfall today. We’ve been steaming for almost
24 hours now and the combination of our speed and the fact that the waves are
coming right into our bow (we’re only 20 degrees off the wind) has made for an
incredibly active ride. We woke this morning to rain and heavy seas so the
first part of the morning watch was spent learning to make a Bensel, another
way to make a bight in a rope that's different from the splicing we learned yesterday.
After mid-morning, the Captain passed the word that we
should change the braces (in spite of the rain) in preparation for a coming
wind shift and resumption of sailing once we pass Dover in the channel. That
meant our watch needed to slack a couple dozen lines, haul away on 9 braces and
re-coil all the lines. It took about an
hour and was really hard work, but quite satisfying to get praise for having
done it well.
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| The 8-12 watch in the English Channel |
Lunch was heartily welcomed by everyone, both for a break
from the morning’s work and because everyone was famished. Other days lunch has been followed by
immediate napping, but today most of us went right back on deck. Water was now
covering the deck on the lee side of the boat and the sea was coming over the
bow. The lookout had been shifted from the bow to the quarterdeck to avoid
being swept overboard and safety lines were now set on the main deck to allow
sure footing across the open deck. I shot a couple of short movies both from
the quarterdeck and bakken.
The heavy weather continued into the evening and through
most of the night. I had lookout at 2100 hours and about halfway through the
hour we encountered fog which also lasted all night. The 2nd Mate
(Steiner) gave us a look at the ship’s ASI which thoroughly convinced us that
we had zero chance of being run down at night, even in fog.
Day 8 Sunday June
26, 2011
The only weather change in the morning was that the sea was
calmer, which also meant that the wind had dropped. Great. So far we’ve sailed
only two of the five days and motored the rest. She’s a beautiful boat and all
and I’m on vacation, but all of us, including the crew, came to sail!
I had the helm for the first hour of the watch and the only
excitement there was when the Captain asked me to change course by 15 degrees
to avoid a fishing boat “going in circles in front of us.” However, as soon as
I gave up the wheel, we were directed to set three sengestagseils, one at each
mast. Now we’re getting somewhere!
Except as soon as we tied them off and coiled the lines, we
were given buckets of soap and water, and brushes, and told to wash the deck.
Seriously!! Actually, with the fresh breeze yesterday for about 18 hours, we
shipped a ton of salt water and the salt isn’t good for the varnished floors
below decks, so we scrubbed and rinsed the entire main deck.
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| Watching Windjammer in the banjer |
I should give a mention to Jan Petter Hanson, an Oslo
filmmaker who works for Munch Films. He and his daughter are along for the ride
and he’s filming and interviewing everyone for a piece that will be shown on
Norwegian television in the fall. I doubt I’ll get to see it, but it shows the
tremendous love and respect that the Norwegians have for the Christian Radich
and her two companion vessels, the Statsraad Lehmkuhl and the Soerlandet, and I
love that. Yesterday, he had a crowd around his laptop because he’s got bits of
the movie Windjammer on his hard drive and lots of behind the scenes footage.
I feel like I’m in heaven!
Day 9 Monday June
27, 2011
I’ve only got about 20 minutes before we go on evening
watch, but I just realized that I haven’t written anything since this time
yesterday. We had some excitement this afternoon when I’ve normally made my
entries.
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| Penzance Bay |
Penzance Bay lies on the south coast of England just east of
Land’s End, England’s westernmost spit of land. I’m told that Gilbert &
Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance was inspired by this bay, at least the name.
Don’t know if that’s true, but I’ll go with it. The officer of the watch
(Steinar, I think) took a little detour into the bay to take us close to a
small island topped by a magnificent castle the name of which I haven’t yet
heard. While making this side trip, a Sea King helicopter flew by a couple of
times and we joked that it was probably Prince William at the controls.
During the morning watch we got another soaking with some
spectacular lightning and thunderclaps. This turn in the weather required that
we take in what little sail was yet flying, the three last staysails. We went to bed last night with a good bit of
sail up (although it wasn’t doing much), but overnight the wind died and the
other watches took in all but the three staysails.
Before the rain we had a lesson on tacking since that’s what
we’ll need to do on the run up the west coast of England on the last leg to
Waterford. Making a tack in a full-rigged ship is about an hour’s work, most of
it in preparation. The actual change in the position of the ship takes about 15
minutes.
Nils then told us a couple of sailing stories from the
annals of the British and Danish navies. One was about a shipwreck in the
Scilly Islands in which an English widow removed the gold teeth and fillings
from the drowned sailors that washed up on shore and the other was about a
Danish shipbuilding company which planted trees to be used in the construction
of a ship for the king that matured in 2005 after the government had forgotten
about them in the ensuing decades.
Next up: The West Coast of England
Next up: The West Coast of England
