Auckland.
Bark Europa did her moorings alongside the Princess wharf in the city after her long voyage along the South Pacific.
A trip that started months ago when she sailed the Chilean Channels and the western South American coast before visiting Galapagos, Easter Island and the long stream of atolls, reefs and islands that pepper this vast ocean. Exotic destinations where she just arrived from sailing-by the area stretching from New Guinea to the Fiji Islands, the Melanesia. With a local population which origin dates back from the times of the first settlement of Australasia during the Initial Upper Palaeolithic, about 40.000 years ago. Polynesia came after on the Europa’s route. Colonised much later, three to four thousand years ago, its inhabitants have their origin in east Asia. A seafarer culture with exceptional navigation skills that quickly passed through the Melanesian area and looking ahead to the open ocean, they faced its waters establishing themselves along the many islands of south and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Captain James Cook, during his three voyages of exploration in this ocean, starting in 1768 and ending with his death in Hawaii in 1779, indeed recognised their domain as being certainly by far the most extensive nation upon earth.
It was on the 29th of January, the year 1616, when the Dutch Merchant Captains Schouten and LeMaire discovered this open sea route South of the known lands of South America. Hoorn they named it, after their hometown in the Netherlands.
An adventurous and treacherous sea by then, still holds its character nowadays. To face it, the ship needed re-supplying, preparation and care. For about three days the crew has been busy from up her masts and yards to below decks. Climbing aloft, mending the rig, bending-on sails. Down below, cleaning, crawling along corridors, tight corners, readying the cabins, stowing a countless stream of boxes containing provisions. On deck there has been welding, grinding, washing, scrubbing. And for a while, she accommodate the numerous visitors during an Open Ship afternoon.
Tomorrow the new complement of Voyage Crew will join, the day after we set sail.