Bark Europa lays moored next to the entrance of the large Montevideo commercial harbor, amongst cargo vessels, cruise ships, and all sorts of boats. Looking smart and elegant between them, she waits ready for her...
Getting on our way to the Falkland Islands / Islas Malvinas. Familiarisations, training, and setting sail. We wake up to a calm and sunny morning on our departure day after a last quiet night alongside the...
There’s not much time to prepare the ship and do a large changeover of permanent crew after the arrival of the ship to Montevideo. She has been through hard times at Cape Town where she lay dry at the shipyard getting...
We weathered the storm, and are now on the other side of it. It is a beautiful day with whales and albatrosses galore! Even albatrosses that decide to land on the water. This, Abi tells me, is a sign of no wind coming. The...
The breakfast porridge was thick yesterday morning. Anyone who has sailed onboard with Europa before will know what that means. The galley team makes no mistakes. For those who don’t know, thick porridge means big...
When was the last time you truly felt alive? For me it was yesterday. While standing on the deck and watching the waves this overwhelming feeling of being alive swelled through me. It was the same feeling I had once before,...
Well, now we are in the thick of it. Over the night the wind has increased to 40 knots True. In the morning we took down the T'Gallants down, and now we are here doing up to 14 knots in up to 50 knots...
Continuing with our Halloween celebrations, we disrobed back into sailing-appropriate gear, and a queue started forming in the deckhouse. The formality of the atmosphere reminded me of awaiting passport stamps at immigration...
I currently sulk in the corner of the deckhouse, avoiding all fellow sailors and refusing to assist in any small tasks they require. But the atmosphere onboard has been nothing but friendly banter and...
Space for creation And as I am writing this, I am sitting in the atmospheric library, watching a magical moment be born. Hans and James are playing music, Abi and me just finished some work. Abi played violin when she...