Wow, time really flies when you're busy

OK, last time I promised some pictures from our meeting with the Denmark so here we go:

On first glance one might say the Denmark looks a lot like the Picton Castle but if you look at the last mast you will see there are yards on that mast, for square sails.  Picton Castle does not have yards on her mizzen mast.  Denmark is a Ship Rigged ship and Picton Castle is a Bark, the difference being the square sails on the mizzen. This photo was taken at Carriacou.

Here is the Picton Castle for comparison.  We have our spanker set to help keep us pointed into the wind while we're at anchor.  Note the lack of yards on the last (mizzen) mast. This photo was taken at Antigua.

Another difference between the 2 ships is that the Denmark runs her generators 24 hours a day, while we run ours twice a day, for a few hours each time, to charge our batteries.  Since they always run their generator they light their ship up at night, which I thought was very pretty.  We just have an anchor light on the bow and a stern light.

The Denmark sailors toured Picton Castle and we all toured the Denmark. She is a more modern ship and on the Denmark the trainees all sleep in hammocks, so they all fit in a smaller space.  That leaves room for a few luxuries that we don't have, like a laundry and 8 heads (bathrooms).  We have 3.  Our visit was a very brief one though because we had to get to Aruba for the Sail Aruba festival so we only spent 2 days and then both ships departed Carriacou together.  It has probably been well over 100 years since 2 square rigged ships were in the harbor at Carriacou at the same time, so it was pretty cool to be a part of it.

Here she is getting under weigh.  We set all our sails before they had these set but, because she's bigger than us, she was still faster and kind of ran away from us.  We had planned to sail along side and give them a big cheer but we couldn't get close enough.  It was really nice getting to see her under sail though.  I've been to many tall ship festivals and have always loved them but one rarely gets to see them while they're sailing.

Denmark sailed to Aruba, which is South and we headed to Bonaire, which was west so we had to part company pretty quickly.  The main point of meeting up with them was for the captain to try and entice some of the Denmark sailors to sail on Picton Castle in the future, and it probably worked.  I talked to a few who thought it was pretty awesome that we sailed around the world.  Most voyages on the Denmark are only 4 months and cross the Atlantic and then head back home.

I'm in Aruba now on my only day off while we're here.  We spent the last 3 days being the flagship of the Sail Aruba maritime festival.  Interestingly, we were the only sailing ship, all the others were military ships.  We hosted the captains from all of the other ships and the King and Queen of the Netherlands on the Picton Castle after we were in a parade of ships.  A group of us, including me, danced the Hakka for the our guests.  Saturday we were in a crew parade, with groups from all of the military ships.  We all wore sarongs and gave ourselves facial tattoos and danced the Hakka during the parade...it was quite fun but extremely HOT!  Because of all the important guest coming aboard, we've been working extra hard on ship maintenance and beautification so there hasn't been much time off, really since we got to the Caribbean.  Now it looks like this may very well be our last stop of the voyage.  We depart tomorrow for Lunenburg, 2,000 miles away.  We're scheduled to stop, briefly, in Bermuda but it seems unlikely that there will be enough time.  The ship is scheduled to be at some tall ship festivals in the Northeast so we kind of have a deadline when we have to be back.  I'm way behind on blog posts so, if you're interested, please check back, even after the voyage is over and I will try to fill in some of the blanks after I get back on land.

I know, it's been a long time

Hi family and friends.  I know it's been a while so I thought I better post something so everyone knows I'm doing well.  We're in the Caribbean now and island hopping, so we changes islands every 3 or 4 days.  Now, one might think that should allow for more frequent updates but so far it hasn't been any easier to find the time and the Internet connection at the same time.  We've actually been very busy doing fun side trips, much more so than any of the other islands we've visited so far.

This is a sea turtle sanctuary on Carriacou.  There is nothing there but this incredible beach and the one hut.  It's a 2 hour hike to get there and it is really beautiful.

We just arrived in Carriacou, for the second time, yesterday.  We came back here because the Danish tall sailing ship is also in the Caribbean and they agreed to meet up with us in Carriacou.  We left Antigua on Monday to run back down here.  Today I toured the Denmark.  She's about 30% bigger than Picton Castle and she carries around 80 trainees between the ages of 18 - 25.  I mentioned before that we had a lot of really nice Danish sailors who all had sailed on her.  Only one of them is left on Picton Castle now but he was sailing on the Denmark until 2 months before he joined Picton Castle in Bali. Pictures to follow, hopefully.

Last weekend we were in Antigua for the Antigua Classic Boat Regatta and I really enjoyed that.  The ship was able to borrow a 40', wooden Carriacou Sloop for the races so I got to crew on her in one of the 4 races.  We also took the Picton Castle onto the race course for race 3.  It was a perfect chance to get some great photos:

I'm not aboard on this shot because I was on watch.  This is the boat, crewed by the off watch on Saturday, race 1.  I crewed on her on Sunday.

On Monday I was on Picton Castle and got a few nice pictures:

This was actually a pretty new yacht built to look like the classics and it was really lovely.  Note the size of the people to help get your perspective of the size of this Schooner.

Here is another beautiful schooner but this one is smaller and older than the one above.  There were around 40 classics racing and they were almost all amazing.  I have 200 pictures.  I found several that I would be perfectly happy to own!

This little one is our 23' longboat, built in the 1920's, sailing in a 34 mile race in the Caribbean.  I requested a spot on her crew but didn't get selected.  They, along with the Picton Castle, only did half the race.

It was great fun racing again and it got me excited about the up-coming racing season in Chicago on our new sled, RedHot.  It was also really fun sailing with the fleet on Picton Castle.  It was a truly marvelous weekend!

So, as you can see, it's hard to find time to blog and I know I've fallen way behind.  I guess we'll have to fill in the blanks in person!

In the mean time, we're departing tomorrow for Aruba, possibly by way of Bonair.  I hope that is the case because I would love to go diving in Bonair.  The trip is winding down to the end, we're scheduled to be in Lunenburg on May, 23rd, one month from today.  We still have a couple thousand miles to sail but the time is flying by.  I'll do my best to get something posted from Aruba.  I hope you're all having a great spring!

Life Changing Experience?

The Picton Castle web site says that sailing aboard is a life changing experience.  Now, I'm not done with my voyage yet so maybe there's more change to come; however, I don't feel like I've changed that much.  What do you think?

Around October 1st, 2014

November 30th, 2014

December 10th, 2014...OMG, I'm 53!

January 1st, 2015 with Via who is from Tonga and has been aboard for 18 months now.

Early February, 2015, in Luderitz, Namibia

Late February, 2015, at St. Helena.  We were looking for Whale Sharks to snorkel with.  The tour captain threw out a line and we hooked a nice Wahoo but it got away.

Around March 15th, 2015, while we were waiting for Neptune Rex to come aboard and initiate all us Polly wogs as Shell backs because we had sailed across the Equator.

And, later that same day, after I was initiated as a Shell back.  Part of the process was a seriously raggedy haircut which, for some reason, I didn't think to get a picture of.

I had decided a little while ago that I wanted to snorkel and dive as much as possible while we were in the Caribbean.  To get a good seal on my mask the mustache had to go.  Interestingly enough, a female shipmate mentioned that if I shaved the mustache and left the beard, "her people would never speak to me again!" so it seemed necessary to take it all off; however, it wasn't necessary to take it all off at once so I made a small change every couple of days before we got to Carriacou.  This is beard V2.0

Tried to fancy up the Mutton Chops.

March 31st, 2015 in Carriacou with Agnes who left today from Grenada.  She's a Canadian who has been living and sailing tall ships in Iceland for the last couple of years.  This is the Biker look for me.

About 2 hours later that same day, just before leaving to go snorkeling.  And:

This is pretty much what I look like today.  This was taken April 1st, 2015, with Dkembe, who also left us in Grenada.

I noticed that I seem to be wearing the same shirts in a lot of these pictures.  Please don't worry, I never wear the same shirt for more than 2 weeks before I wash it!

Anyway, I really don't feel like I've changed all that much!

St. Helena

Hi All,
We arrived in St. Helena on February 15th, as predicted.  I didn't get to go ashore until the 17th though and the first thing I learned was that there is no free internet here.  Internet cost over $10.00/HR.  They also don't have ATMs or cell phones.  It's a pretty remote part of the Great Briton but I was a bit surprised.  In addition to all of that, I was not able to get money out of my debit card.  I have not had an issues using ATMs at all of the places we've visited so far but, for some reason, my bank rejected my attempts to get some cash for here...that reminds me, they don't use credit carts here either, cash only.  They also don't have many hotel rooms since the only way to visit the island is by ship or boat, I guess they don't need too many.  So I haven't been able to get a room while we're hear either.  So, with all that in mind, I just wanted to let you know that I will not be doing an actual post from here.  The island is absolutely fantastic and I have mush to tell you but I just don't have the time or money here.  I will be leaving on 2/21 for Grenada, which is a 30 to 35 day passage, please check back in a month or so and I will do my best to have something for you!

Sunset, Atlantic Ocean 2/13/15

Luderitz, Namibia

Luderitz was basically a diamond boom town after diamonds were discovered in 1908.  It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, along the South coast of Namibia and in the South-west corner of the Namib desert.  The town is built at the foot of a pretty well protected bay and is, pretty much, built right on top of the rocky landscape.  There is a ghost town about 10k outside of town where the first mining town was setup.  (There will be a separate post about the ghost town.)  The town has a population between 3500 and 5000 people.  Namibia was colonized by the Germans in the late 1800, shortly before diamonds were discovered but it was colonized because of the potential for mineral resources. Luderitz has definite German feel.  Most people speak very good English, with a German or Afrikaans accent.  It's a small town but, because it is so far from any other place, it has everything one needs, with many restaurants, hotels, hostels and B&B's.  The Town mainly works in fishing or diamond mining.  We've only been here for 5 days but we've seen a cargo ship, a petroleum research ship and a cruise ship in the harbor since we've been here.  Luderitz gets an average rainfall of 23 mm per year (that's about 1 inch) so it's been sunny and dry but very windy most of our visit.  If the wind is from the South or off the sea it keeps the temperatures fairly chilly but the it's warm in the sun, especially if you can get out of the wind.  Today the wind is very light and it's the warmest day we've had.

As of now we're scheduled to depart tomorrow, headed for St Helena, about 1300 nautical miles to the North-west.  It should take us almost exactly 2 weeks to get there.  I'm not sure how long we'll stay there but my guess is 4 or 5 days.  So, this will be my last post for a couple of weeks.

How about some pictures?

Sunset somewhere between Cape Town and Luderitz

Luderitz, from the wharf we're tied to.  The town doesn't extend past the hill but it goes a little bit farther north and south.

This is a good example of the landscape  around Luderitz.

The beautiful Ocean Cafe + B&B where I'm staying.

My room.  It can get pretty rough in these small towns but, that's the price you have to pay when you're adventuring!

My Bathroom...like I said, I'm roughing it.

OK, I just paused for dinner here, where they made us crayfish (small lobster) we ate with the hostess and her husband and the food and company were just wonderful.  It felt like a family dinner.  There are only 3 of us from the ship here and the couple who own the place.  They sailed here from Germany 3 years ago and just opened this place in November last year.  My room, with that amazing bath is only $60.00 a night and Gunther and B'artie (hopefully I spelled those correctly) are wonderful people. I've learned that it's incredibly easy to find friends, no matter where you are.

The view from the deck

Right now, while I'm finishing my blog post, the rest of the group have moved from the outdoor kitchen where we had dinner to the "Winter Garden", a glassed in dining area with a fireplace, where they are going to relax by the fire with a glass of South African wine.  Gunther said that during the diamond rush, before WWI, Luderitz was the riches town in the world.

Here is a sampling of real estate here.

This is right across the street from my B&B and nicely shows how they build around the rock formations.  I would love to learn more about the geology of this place, it's amazing and beautiful.

A lovely Lutheran Church.

This place was amazing, the fanciest place I saw.

The side of the place above, which faces west.

Up the hill from the place above

Next to the place above

This is a light house on the point that must be rounded to enter the harbor.  Between this lighthouse and the point is all a camp ground that is really lovely, with tent and RV camp sights.

All in all Luderitz is much nicer that one would expect, given its remoteness.  The people here have been very friendly and our visit feels like it has been much too short.  That being said, we have a pilot coming aboard tomorrow morning at 1100 and I believe there is some more Captain Morgan's rum and a fire waiting for me!  If I'm able, I'll post next from St Helena, where I hope we'll have sailed out of the cold Antarctic waters, back into some warm weather.

I read online today that Chicago just had a "top 3 worst blizzard in history" snow storm so, before I go, I feel like I should clarify that, when I say it's been cold, I mean, it might have been all the way down to about 50° at night.  You know, that feels really cold after sailing for 3 months in the tropics!

Departing Cape Town

Picton Castle cast off the dock lines and headed back to sea on January 25th, one day later than planned, because of some complications with immigration.  They wanted us to move from one wharf to another before they would clear us out of the country but we had to stop at the fuel dock first.  To move around the harbor we were required to have a pilot aboard but our pilot left when we got to the fuel dock and when we were ready to leave the fuel dock the new pilot never showed up.  The guys at the fuel dock said we couldn't stay there overnight but the guys at the harbor master said we couldn't move without a pilot so we spent several hours waiting for that issue to be sorted out.  Ultimately we got permission to leave without a pilot but by then it was getting dark and very foggy so we just moved to the outer anchorage and dropped anchor for the night Saturday night and left Sunday morning after breakfast.  Cape Town was great and I wasn't able to do everything that I wanted to do so I would be happy to go back again.  Cape Town also brought some mixed emotions because several shipmates departed the ship at Cape Town.  15 people left and 6 new people joined.  Even though I had only know my shipmates for 3 months, I feel like we had become friends and it was hard to see any of them leave.  I want to thank them all again for the companionship during the voyage from Bali to Cape Town and I wish them all safe travels in their next adventures.

Table Mountain peaking out of the fog as we depart Cape Town

There wasn't any wind so we motored for the first 24 hours before we got enough wind to set the sails and sail the rest of the way.  We had force 5 winds most of the rest of the way and we actually took in some sail to slow down, otherwise we would have arrived at Luderitz in the middle of the night.  The biggest factor during the 4 day passage was how cold it got.  Strong winds blowing pretty much right out of the South from Antarctica, along with the cold sea, due to the currents coming North from Antarctica combined to keep the temperatures pretty low.  Other than the cold, we had a pretty fast passage and arrived in Luderitz, Namibia about lunch time on Thursday, 1/29/15.

Safari

Cape Town is the biggest city that we've visited since I joined in Bali.  There is so much to do and see here that I had to make a special effort to get out of the city and see a little more of South Africa.  As always there were too many options and not enough time or money to do all the things I wanted to do. If one could afford to one could easily spend several months in Cape Town and the surrounding area without running out of new things to see and do.  One of my new shipmates, Norma, from Sweden, and I decided to do a 2 day safari at a private game reserve.  The place is called Aquila Game Reserve. They are about a 2 hour drive North-east of Cape Town and both the drive there and the game reserve itself were great.  The prince for the safari included pickup at the V&A Waterfront near the ship, meals, lodging and 2 game drives on the reserve.  The captain and his family happened to have scheduled the same safari and Norma and I so had them for company on the road.  It also happened to be Tammy's birthday as well, which we celebrated at dinner.

Aquila Safari is at point B.  We passed through some mountains and the valleys around them were filled with vineyards.  South Africa is wine country.

The halfway point snack stop.  The area reminded me of Southern California, just outside of Death Valley.

The vineyards started very shortly after we left the service station and the entire valley was full of vineyards, except for a few small orchards.  Some of the vineyards appeared to try and provide decent housing for their workers but many of the vineyards had shanty townships on them.  Small corrugated metal shacks crowded together in some dried out little bowl that must not have been suitable for grapes.

In some areas the grapes were heavy on the vines.  It appeared that they have sections that ripen in a cycle so the entire vineyard doesn't have to be picked at once.

They went on for miles.  We must have driven for 30 or 40 minutes with vineyards on both sides of the highway the entire way.

We're there!  It's funny how long a 2 hour drive in a van feels after spending a couple of months at sea.

This is the back of the main lodge.  There is some new construction on the left side but I didn't ask what they were adding.  The whole wall of windows is the dining room.  All the meals were buffet style and they were very good.  There is a large salt water pool just outside the dining room.

Swim up bar on this end and an infinity edge on the other end, looking out over the reserve.

The luxury accommodations, adjacent to the lounge building.

Inside the lounge.  There was a bar and several comfortable seating areas with fire places and TVs.  Then the back side of this building was a huge kids play area, indoor and outdoor.

This pond was beyond the end of the pool and the bungalows were beyond the pond.  There was a fence between the main grounds and the pond because the pond was within the preserve grounds.

This was our bungalows.  They were little duplex units with their own patios and each had a small fireplace.  Firewood was provided but we didn't have a fire.  The rounded section was the shower.

The accommodations were very nice.

I used the shower but I didn't try out the lovely bathtub.

Yes, there were also animals. I was a little disappointed to learn that the big cats are kept separated from the other animals.  They have their own large enclosure but they don't really hunt for their food, they're fed by the reserve and they're pretty used to people and the safari vehicles being around.  The reserve is over 18,000 acres of hilly scrub and offers safaris by horseback, quad runner or by truck, which was what we did.  Nate did the horseback safari and said he enjoyed it a lot.  He also said the countryside reminded him of his home in Wyoming.

So, without a lot of commentary from me, here are some animals:

Springbok

Wildebeests, the young one is onely 4 weeks old.

Youngish male White Rhino.  It looked like he was going to charge the truck we were in so we had to move away a little.

Female White Rhino.  Females have longer horns.

The young zebras were about 4 months old.  The zebras and rhinos were all herded together.

The other truck got closer than we did.  No windows or even walls on the trucks but the lions just ignored us.  They appeared to be pretty well fed.

Kudu.  I can personally testify that Kudu, Springbok and Ostrich are all delicious with Ostrich being the best and most tender of them all.

Aquila has an Animal Rehabilitation Center (ARC) where they were rehabilitating a pair of cheetah that were found nearly starved.  They said they did not expect to be able to release them back into the wild.

Cape Buffalo

These guys were about 40 yards from the pool on the day we left.  I didn't get to taste Cape Buffalo.

Yep, I was a bit surprised myself.  This was the biggest rabbit I have ever seen.

They also have a leopard on the reserve, though we didn't see it.  It isn't contained with the lions and so hunts for his food and we did see some of his handy work. It had killed a springbok the night we were there and we found the carcase.  One hind quarter had been eaten and the rest was just left laying. My guess is that it knows there are no other predators looking to steal the kill so it can go back whenever it wants to eat more. All in all the safari was a great experience and I'm very happy I did it, even though it was a little over budget, how can you come to Africa and not go looking for animals?