Estonian Bay

2009 07 15 – Day 19 – Baltic Sea


Christian Radich invited us over to watch the first cut of a documentary that had been filmed on their vessel during the race. Both ships dropped anchor in an idyllic Estonian bay and we shuttled over in our 'hip' boats because Radich didn't have hers.

Locals sailed or rowed over to take a peek at us: An intriguing sight no doubt, Tall Ships in the bay, echos of another era.

Boogie on deck with some gals from Radich while the sun goes down. Nice.

All good parties come to an end, but few have such a beautiful environment to soak up.

Leaving St Petersburg

2009 07 14 – Day 18 – St Petersburg

As with leaving Gdynia, the Tall Ships' departure was a bit of an event. Crowds lined the banks of the Neva to see us off and each ship in turn made its exit stage west, often heralded by hooting, honking, squeeking and booming of nearby ships' horns. Even the submarines joined in, their horn sounding more like a space age whale cry – quite otherworldly and odd sounding above the waves.

This is a couple of moments after a near impact! Apparently this ships old engine needs to be turned off to change from reverse to forward before being turned on again. The current was strong and they drifted backwards across the river towards us, only managing to engage their engines fully 2 or 3 meters from our port side, hence the deployment of their balasts to cushion the impact many of us thought was inevitable.... just like in the movies!!! :)


Leaving a modern harbour is done under engine as I mentioned elsewhere and apparently leaving under full sail like this is dangerous... nice sails though don't you think?


Being tugged out gave us a better view of those subs.


St Petersburg receives a mixed review from the trainee jury.

Crew Party

2009 07 12 – Day 16 – St Petersburg

A big party was held on the beach in front of the Peter & Paul fortress. It could have been quite good if it hadn't been for the worst bar management I've ever seen! Given that there were hundreds of thirsty sailors and each with enough tokens for 3 free beers, I don't think 2 bars with 6 staff between them was enough... epecially when it was slowly poured draught beer and they let some genius order for his whole crew! After 20 mins being pressure cooked by the heaving mass by the bar, who seemed oblivious to the fact they'd be waiting for days at this rate, I squeezed out, barely alive, threw my tokens at the nearest infant, got myself a free water or three and went off to dance!
The music could have been better too, half the time it was dodgey Russian techno but at least it was upbeat. I think it's the first time I've been on a dancefloor where all those dancing were at the back... because the front was occupied by transfixed seaman, bamboozled by the on-stage gogo girls...

...seemed like a particularly Russian addition to a party.
Managed to still have a good time boogying with some of my crewmates.
Positivity & enthusiasm wins the day.

Crew Parade & Prize-Giving

2009 07 12 – Day 16 – St Petersburg

Sunday of the Tall Ships event in St Petersburg and all the crews took part in a big parade along the riverside.

Stian proudly bearing his nations flag. In his own words:
“A big-ass Norwegian waving a big-ass Norwegian flag. That's what you need.”
I couldn't have put it better myself.
Stian and his flag were so 'big-ass' that they did their waving from the back of Sørlandet's crew section. Here's the view to the fore.

The parade finished in front of the Central Naval Museum where a large stage was erected.

Prizes were for 1st,2nd & 3rd (handicap corrected times) in categories A, B, C, D – we were class A because we were 'big-ass', coming 2nd : the Result – and various other categories... cynics amongst us might reclassify them as 'Russian Ships' categories... though Russian ships didn't win all the other categories. One they did win was the 'First Across the Line', claimed by the giant ship Mir, crewed by professional sailors, based in St Petersburg. Presentation of that award was met with chants of 'En-gine, en-gine, en-gine' from the assembled crews led by the colourful (orange of course) and noisey Dutch. Certainly the Russians have a reputation amongst the crews.
Full award list can be found here : Tall Ships results from Sail Training International

And who was the admirable figure who presented the prizes to the valiant captains and trainees?
None other than the big man himself... Vlad the Impaler! Ooops! Typo. Let's try that again:
None other than the big man himself... Vladimir Putin!

Here he is, impaling us with his best belittling look.
I'll interpret that face... it says:
“Don't mess with me. I know judo and topless fishing. You are little people.”

Wandering St Petersburg

2009 07 10 – Day 14 – St Petersburg

The race had been a fast one and we had arrived early. The official Tall Ships in St Petersburg hadn't yet kicked off and the crew perks like free entry to certain sights or free metro travel were not yet applicable, so I spent the day wandering the city... the 3rd biggest in Europe! Phew! I was tired at the end!
Following are reproductions of the light that bounced into my retina that day.

Big Opera type building. There was another of equal size just across the road that didn't look as good.

I doubt the real transforming credentials of this particular vehicle... but if anyone (Ross most likely) is interested, the exchange rate was roughly 50 Roubles to the pound when I was there... admittedly I'm writing this a while later but you never know!


A typical St Petersburg street – in the central area at least. Looking closely, you should be able to make out the monster storm drains they have... it must really rain cats & dogs here sometimes!

St Petersburg Arrival

2009 07 09 – Day 13 – St Petersburg


Navigating our way to port in the industrial shipping capital of Russia that is St Petersburg, we are reminded of the brutal reality of modern seafaring.

A far cry from the romance of our fairy-tale tallship, we are greated with giants of steel in the form of tugs, tankers, cruise-liners, cranes and submarines.

Sunrise at Sea

2009 07 09 – Day 13 – Baltic Sea

Since we weren't racing, my watch had very little to do this morning and were able to enjoy the magical beauty of the sunrise at sea.

The Result

2009 07 08 - Day 12 - Baltic Sea

But what about the race!? I hear you cry...
We came second. Booo!
By 6 minutes. ooOo!
Considering that the race took just under 55 hours, 6 minutes, after adjusted time, is tight.
Christian Radich had got the change in wind she needed and was able to utilise her speed to carry her home.
I later learned two facts that I think makes our achiement all the greater:
1. Christian Radich should have been racing with her two small 'hip' boats as we were (don't know the technical name for them). These boats create drag and slow the ship down. Apparently Christian Radich's were being repaired at the time of the race... like they didn't know the race was coming!
2. Christian Radich at times used professional helmsmen who'd come on board specially for the race, none of their trainees got anywhere near the helm during the race. Meanwhile on the good ship Sørlandet the trainees manned the helm 80-90% of the race. A good helmsman can maintain speed longer in tougher conditions and can get an extra knot of speed here or there
Despite these two significant, speed-influencing, factors, not taken into account in the handicaps (so far as I understand), the fact that we finished only 6 minutes behind makes our achievement all the more great!
Well done to Sørlandet's crew for guiding us so well!

Here's a screengrab of the route of the race

Calm After the Storm

2009 07 08 - Day 12 - Baltic Sea

As if the world knew the race was done. The sea was flat, the air a stroke, the sky a glorious blue. No more the battle with wind and wave and rope, just relax and bask and wonder at what we'd come through.

The engines were on and the helm lashed such that we were turning a slow 1 knot circle, waiting for instructions from race control.
What else to do but have fun at the extremeties of the ship?

The Finish

2009 07 07 - Day 11 - Baltic Sea

All the ships have modern (ish) radar and communication instruments and from this we knew the position, bearing and speed of Sørlandet and nearby ships. Trainees were allowed within eyesight of this info or opportunity to ask so long as we weren't in the way and so we knew, with less than a day to the finish, that we were second and our rivals Christian Radich first, but not by much... it was close. The day started slowly on our morning watch with a gentle wind and doing about 3 knots. The weather came in and we raced around trimming the sails ending our watch at a satisfactory 7.5 knots and knowing that Radich was going slower. There was still enough time.
Through the day the wind grew strong and we skipped along.

8-12 watch working hard.

Spirits were high and an impromptu sing-along broke out amongst those not on duty.
Back on our afternoon watch there seemed to be endless tweaking of the sails. CRACK! Everyone span to see a rope flapping in the breeze – a pin had snapped! All nearby hands dropped what they were doing and we raced to bring the rope under control, replace the pin and trim the sail again. Hard work heaving all the ropes, but it was working and at times we were doing 10 knots while Radich only 4! Our watch leader Jo Leif observed that if it continued like that we'd pass them in an hour and a half, but that it was unlikely to continue for so long. Other hopeful news was that they'd had to go downwind of a 'vessel of limited manoeverability', sending them on a broad arc to the finish while we, coming from behind, were able to stay higher up the wind and were heading straight for it.
As a generally slower vessel, our handicap relative to Christian Radich's meant that we didn't need to be ahead of them, only close enough behind that our adjusted time would be better. It was starting to look like we might just pip them at the post!
Estimates at that time were, if we continued as we were, that we'd finish about 02:10.
Some talked of staying up until then, but I was too tired and set my alarm for 01:00.
I awoke to the sound of brief cheering, followed by feet and rope noises coming through the deck – also the ceiling of the banjer and transmits sound freely so no jumping on deck!
The sails were being taken in. Clearly the race was over, we'd finished earlier than expected and to make the darkness deeper, the sad song of the engines swallowed the sound of the sea.
The only thing left to do was sleep.

More Wind is Good Right?

2009 07 Baltic Sea

When the wind is up we go faster. We're in a race. So more wind is good right?
It was certainly exciting with the sails bulging, a significant lean to the ship, and we were enjoying good speeds up to 11 knots (Sørlandet's top speed ever was 14 knots I believe)
But as far as the race was concerned, whether more wind was good or not depends on a variety of things.... as the wind grew stronger it was also pushing us over creating drag and some of the top sails had to be taken in. I suppose at some point too much lean is also dangerous for tipping over. The other 'problem' with more wind was that other ships often had the same wind and they could go faster too! Our rival Christian Radich is a longer hulled ship with more sail and so could use stronger winds better while Sørlandet could use smaller winds better. This is not necessarily a problem as the race is based on time, rather than physically first over the line, and there are handicaps given to each ship based on things like it's hull length, amount of sail, size of propeller (drag) etc.
Regardless, each watch we had to make the best of the weather and we regularly tweaked the sails to get the best out of each change of heading, current or wind.
Strong winds are not to be taken lightly and must be managed well by a ships crew... we later found out that some ships had suffered structural damage during the race, including one ship that had lost all three masts!!! From our perspective on Sørlandet, it's hard to imagine what it would take to cause such significant damage, but thankfully it didn't happen to us!

The Sky, the Sea, the evolution of light

2009 07 Baltic Sea

The sky and the sea are constantly changing and regularly provide beautiful vistas often with a restrained palette of blue-greys and grey-blues. I think my 4-to-8 watch was definitely the best watch for being awake at moments of greatest change in light, seeing sunrise and enjoying sunset after finishing in the evening. It wasn't such a good watch to photograph those moments though as there was work to be done! The most beautiful moment at sea for me was while on watch one morning, working high in the rigging, alone, as the wind picked up, the waves slowly rolling bigger, the weather closing in.
The sea was gentle when the watch began, the sky a light overcast grey. I'd volunteered for rigging work having grown to love it. From my lofty perch I'd seen the steely sheet of rain ahead and thrilled at the race to finish my work before its arrival. The wind picks up, the mast sways out with the growing swell. Spitting, the rain arrives. The metal yard and mast are slick. My fingers chill though not yet numb. And all the while the beautiful evolution of light shepherds us carefully from the old sea to the new. I'm done, I'm down, the sails fill out. We're carving now, the race is on!

How Close is Too Close?!

2009 07 06 - Day 10 - Baltic Sea

Stumbling bleary-eyed into our first morning watch, the 4-to-8-ers discovered that during the night the Christian Radich had passed us and was now small on the horizon ahead.
How so?
During the night we had tried to take a racing line round an oil rig... The rig radioed us that we would pass too close and requested that we change course to pass further away. The changing of course had taken time and slowed us down. Christian Radich had chosen a course following a bigger arc further away and so had not lost speed. Our crew were convinced we were far enough away. I don't know how close is too close but to my land-lubber's eyes we were literally miles away.
Booo to oil rigs!
Ah well, plenty of the race to go yet!

Wacky Races!

2009 07 Baltic Sea


The real secret to our turbo start!
Giant fans driven by this champion cyclist in training filled our sails that extra 10%... could there be a better argument for the adoption of wind power technology?
So surreal a sight to see a cyclist, cycling hard at sea!
A mixture between Wacky Races and Belleville Rendezvous!

A Good Start!

2009 07 05 - Day 9 - Baltic Sea

As the suns retires for the night we are closing on another ship.
We have passed many today and for the most part the sea is ours alone.
The captain makes a rare announcement:
“Well folks! That was a beautiful start and I love you all!”

The Rivalry

2009 07 05 - Day 9 - Baltic Sea

Here we are passing our closest rivals Christian Radich.

She is also a Norweigian ship and also based in Christiansands.
Naturally therefore there is great rivalry between the crew – good natured of course.
Christian Radich has an enviable record in the Tall Ships Races and regularly wins so it is a great moment to pass them, especially for the crew who pose for photos for facebook bragging rights in the future.
View from a porthole of them eating our wake.

Setting Sail

2009 07 05 - Day 9 - Baltic Sea


All hands on deck! Our race began during my watch, but as the watch system was only just starting, and to give us the best start possible, it was pretty much all hands on deck. Knowing that I would overcome the fear of going aloft if I persisted with it, I volunteered to be one of the people to go up and unfurl the sails. An 'English-speaking' group - 3 of us: English; French; Italian - were assigned the rear mast. Fortunately the French guy, Bruno, had some previous experience and handled the top sail and oversaw Francesco and I. It was a challenge as we'd learned only a couple of hours ago, but I think we did ok for speed considering we were just 3 and by the time we were done I was feeling more confident about the rigging and going out on the yards.

It's truly great to have the engines off, the sails filled and to feel the wind pulling us along.
As we pick up speed and lean a bit with the wind the portholes in the banjer are often under water. It's hypnotising watching the water rushing by...

The Watches

2009 07 05 - Day 9 - Baltic Sea

The ship sails 24 hours a day – the wind don't stop and neither the sea, so why should we!? The crew and trainees are split into 3 watches who work 4 hours on, 8 hours off. I was placed in the 4-8 watch which meant my day roughly took the following shape:
03:30 ish wake up and get ready to go on watch,
04:00-08:00 do whatever our watch leaders decide to get the ship sailing faster & better – sometimes lots of work, sometimes not so much.
08:00 breakfast then (usually) back to bed
11:00 get up so the banjer could be cleaned
12:00 lunch
12:00-16:00 free time
16:00-20:00 on watch again but take turns to scoff a quick dinner from 17:30
20:00-03:30 free time / bed (usually between 21:30-22:30)

Besides keeping the ship in the best form, the on-duty watch also manned the helm, kept lookout, checked for fires/other on-board dangers and kept the time with bell strikes every half hour.

Trainee Training

2009 07 05 - Day 9 – Gdynia


Here the really salty seaman Gunnar is letting us trainees know that, now there's no escape, if we don't give 1001% and do exactly as he and the crew say he'll break our legs with his bare hands like the poor sap behind him!
Having said that, it could just be that I misheard him and actually he was welcoming us aboad and introducing the crew... but lets not quibble over minor details.
The pic was shot from the hip at our first 'Munstering' at sea... 'Munstering' is where everyone gathers on deck for some reason or other and should not be confused with becoming more like, or generally immitating, The Munsters!

Thankfully, no one made that mistake while I was on board... no more broken legs!
The most exciting and challenging part of our early training was definitely going aloft – climbing the rigging that is.

I was initially surprised, some may say alarmed, that we wouldn't be using our harness, other than wearing it, when climbing the ladder-like bits (I realise my professional sailing terminology probably falls short here). But, due to their gentle slope, I found them surprisingly comfortable to climb. The scary bit was negotiating the overhang onto the first platform as you have to lean backwards... thankfully we did use our harnesses for this bit.
Going out on the yards to furl/unfurl the sails was also a bit intimidating, but once you were out there, I found it surprisingly comfortable as your centre of gravity (your gut) is on the yard, your hands are fairly free and unless you do some stupid maneouvres or movements, you aren't going to be doing anything painful, like falling... we also used our harnesses here just in case.

Parade of Sails

2009 07 05 - Day 9 – Gdynia

Before heading out for the race proper, we gave the locals a bit of a show of all the ships at sea.
It was cool to be amongst such a flottilla.
Apparently this ship was used in Pirates of the Caribbean, but I don't know which one and in what capacity... But it's hull used to be white and they painted it black for the film.

The captain clearly enjoying the sun, the sea, the scent of the test to come.