Ahoi everyone! First of all, big thanks to all of you who sent me lovely Birthday greetings!
It is really one of the best things to get when you are out on sea and then checking your emails when back on land! Tradition on the Class Afloat tall ships for birthday kids is to wet them in the morning with at least 8 buckets of water in front of everyone… so yeah, that is how my birthday started… but at least the cook prepared a delicious birthday dessert for dinner!
But now to the update: Instead of an expected 10-day-sail from Walvis Bay/Namibia to St Helena, we arrived here 2 days earlier on the 25th of April having set all our impressive sails and being blessed with fair winds. We are so lucky having a new captain since Walvis Bay who is just loving sailing and trying to expose the youngsters as much as possible to sailing opportunities. We have not used the engine once – not even when getting out of the harbour in Walvis Bay! But the best part is that he is quite famous for surprise ports, which means he is stopping at additional interesting ports which in our cases are the two beautiful tropical islands Ascension and Fernando on our way to Brazil… so you can imagine our unlimited excitement!!! However, we are dependent on good winds as we otherwise will not make it in time…
Before setting sails for the 2nd leg, I took some pills this time so that I only felt quite seasick the evening of departure (as most of our youngsters again) and after that, I finally felt like having developed my long hoped for sea legs being able to fully focus on my daily duties. Most of our youngsters made it finally aloft (working high up on the mast and the yards to un/wrap the sails), got their chances to helm/steer the ship and to work out on the bowsprit (the net in front of the ship), which is the best relaxing spot to watch sealife, especially dolphins and seals. We still have to catch up with the Canadian team with regards to sail training, getting extra sessions from our funloving bosun John, so that we are able to work efficiently in sail maneuvers. That means learning more then 150 lines, pins and sails, really a whole new language!
As daily life out on sea is filled with academic classes and different watch duties, the real time for socializing is during port time, so that we all were very happy that we even arrived 2 days earlier in St. Helena, one of the most remote islands in the world, situated in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. This island stretches around 10 to 17km in lengths and has only 4000 inhabitants, mainly of African descent, but also White (British, Dutch, Portugese, South African) and interesting enough also Asian descent (especially Chinese/Mongolan), all connected with times of slavery and colonialization.
This beautiful island with Jamestown as its capital (700 inhabitants), falls still under British territory and is mostly known for Napoleon’s grave, as he was exiled here for 6years before he committed suicide feeling so lonely…
Ups, have to leave now quickly to catch our rubber duck boat back to our anchored ship as we leave at 4pm, setting sail to get hopefully to Ascension!
Please check out our weblog where you find the team’s logbooks and pictures: http://windjammers09.blogspot.com/
