Leaving port
Neat rows of cumulus clouds signal steady trade winds, so named for their reliable hand in the age of sail. Stunsails out, lookout has ‘nothing to report’. The occasional flying fish skims the water, evading the cool steel of Europa’s hull. Our voyage across the Atlantic and south is well and truly underway.
Preparations were finalised in Santa Cruiz, Tenerife, as cleaning commenced, stores arrived, and Europa was handed over to a new crew.
Much was squeezed in to the first day aboard, from this point on, the fresh voyage crew would be entirely responsible for keeping Europa on course and ensuring no hazards lay in the deep blue ahead. Safety, helm, lookout, and climbing familiarizations took place. This was their chance to get to know the ship while still steady in harbour.
Once all was in place, mooring lines were cast off, fenders brought in, and Europa made way to her true home- the open ocean. Escorted by Santa Cruiz’s resident short-finned pilot whale Globicephala macrorhynchus pod, interspersed with smaller dolphins, we waved goodbye to the last land we would see for six weeks. Our cetacean accompaniment peeled off back to the productive coastal waters in which they enjoy easier hunting grounds while we held course, bound for Piriapolis, Uruguay.
With Tenerife fading to the horizon and darkness encroaching, I thought about the young naturalists who pioneered the European natural sciences, most notably Charles Darwin on the Beagle, enraptured by the geology of Tenerife but leaving it behind for a legendary voyage around the world. Others followed, Alaxander von Humboldt included, the man whose name is reflected- among many other things- in squid of the deep, California’s Redwoods National Park, and the current that brings vital nutrients to the western coast of South America. His insatiable appetite for learning led him in the footsteps of Darwin to the Canary Islands, then to South America where he drove European science forward through rugged determination and painstaking attention to detail. We, on our voyage, will not encounter the challenges of driving the discovery of the next frontier, but rather, in some small part, mimic the flavour of the apexes of the past.
Our first sail was set in darkness- a harsh introduction to navigating the spaghetti of lines that control Europa’s proudest drivers. When even terms like ‘port’, ‘starboard’, ‘haul away’ and ‘hold’ are new, the world of tall ship sailing can seem daunting. Mastery of this art takes a lifetime, but what we have on this voyage is time. Not the ten hours of artificial light, pressurised cabin, and inevitable back pain of a commercial flight on the same route, but fourty-four days to deepen our understanding of the colour blue. Wind, waves, ship, and sail will become familiar, combining to take us on a journey of connection between each sailor and the ocean, the mythical Europa, and our fellow crewmates.