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.

Norway to Ireland 2011: The English Channel

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.

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 2^nd 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.

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.

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

One Year Ago: Norway to Ireland 2011

I've been thinking a lot this week about the adventure I had at the same time last year. I took part in the Tall Ships Races in northern Europe and sailed from Norway to Ireland aboard the Norwegian vessel SS Christian Radich. Many of you may have seen the photos and videos that I posted after I returned home.

I also wrote a journal of daily life and never shared that with anyone. We were completely cut off from all communication so I couldn't post to Facebook, Twitter, send text messages or even make phone calls. It was marvelously liberating! But it just occurred to me that I could post my journal entries now and relive the experience, so here goes. Depending on the length of the entries, I may combine more than one day in a post. I hope you enjoy the story.

ABOARD THE CHRISTIAN RADICH

Summer 2011

OSLO TO WATERFORD

Day 1     Sunday                 June 19, 2011

So, I’m really doing this. We’re climbing past 20,000 feet and heading ENE and the sun is blinding, coming through the west windows.  Good thing I’m on the east side of the aisle. What’s really noticeable below is the number of fields that are still brown.  Here we are past the middle of June and crops are just barely out of the ground.

The SS Christian Radich

As I said, I’m really doing this.  It’s not just a plan anymore. Day after tomorrow I’m going to board the Christian Radich in Oslo harbor and head out into the North Sea for passage to Ireland.

I’ve been smitten with the love of wind and water since childhood, but it’s been particularly evocative in the case of this specific ship.  I saw the movie Windjammer as a grammar school boy and actually, all I ever wanted was to see the movie again.  Instead of that (which may never happen, I fear), I’m going to board the Christian Radich and spend nine days at sea with her. I really don’t think it will be easy to top that, even if I’m lucky enough to see the movie again.

Day 2     Monday               June 20, 2011

Icelandair

The two flights to reach Oslo were flawless, at least on the part of the airline, Icelandair. On time, comfortable, perfect weather.  Just minor annoyances caused by fellow travelers, but nothing worth discussing.  Flying over Greenland was awe-inspiring.  All I could see as far as the horizon was lofty mountain peaks, glaciers, and snow, snow, snow. As we moved off the eastern coast, the icebergs were numerous and though it didn’t seem like it from 36,000 feet, massive, I’m sure.

Greenland from 35,000 feet

The terrain in Iceland was a stark contrast: nothing but rock as far as the eye could see.  I’d love to spend some time in Iceland, but it will have to be at a later date. I want to do my friend, Bill Holm, justice at some point. The language is singularly distinctive.  I wonder how long it would take for a guy to get the hang of it.

I did think it odd that in Rekyjavik travelers had to go through customs just to enter the airport and proceed to a connecting flight and then present their passports before boarding again. All without leaving the secure perimeter of the airport.  Never really thought about Keflavik Airport as a terrorist target.  Oh well.

Descending into Oslo Gardamoen felt like coming home.  This is my third visit to Gamle Norge, but I haven’t been here for eight years.  Gorgeous cloud formations and the countryside a brilliant variety of hues of green.

Took the Flytoget (Flying Trains per my daughter) to Oslo Sentrum and walked the approximately one kilometer to my hotel on Rosenkranz Gate, the Best Western Bondeheimen.  Some interesting bits to ponder: it’s not surprising to need your key card to use the elevator, but inside your room, you need your card to work the lights. Now that’s a rational way to control energy costs.

Christian Radich at her home port

First piece of business: find the Christian Radich. It’s a very short walk from my hotel to her berth at the foot of Akershus Castle.  There she was in all her beauty, the queen of Oslo harbor.  Walked bow to stern and back and took a bunch of pictures.  Couldn’t go on board, but did observe several trainees who arrived early.  I tried to get a berth on board the night before embarking, but was denied. We sail at 4 p.m. tomorrow.

Relaxing after an all-night flight

Back to Spikesuppa for an open-air lunch (and a couple of beers) and then back to my room for a nap.  After sleeping, I walked a square from my hotel to Universitet Gate to Stortingtgate to Nedreslots Gate and back. Took some time to enjoy the new pipe Kari gave me and had a few drinks at O’Leary’s Pub. Chatted with the bar keep, a 25-year-old from Sweden, recently emigrated to Norway because the pay is better.  He is a world traveler, telling me about his two trips to Thailand and his next trips to Miami and Barcelona.  Now it’s back to the hotel and a big day tomorrow.  Had a manic session at the bar emailing and facebook and twitter posting in anticipation of the upcoming 9-day blackout.  See you on the other side!