Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Sailing the Atlantic in a Tall Ship


Last year I crossed the Drake Passage from the tip of South America to Antarctica for the purpose of kayaking/camping on the islands off of the Antarctic Peninsula.  I sailed in a 60 ft vessel with 8 companions. This voyage reminded me that sailing had been my first nautical love (before kayaking).

One thing led to another, and over the intervening year, I worked hard on course material for the Royal Yachting Association's Yachtmaster certification and dreamed and schemed about how to get back onto a sailing yacht.   Last fall I learned that the Jubilee Sailing Trust was offering a large discount on a 31-day voyage of Lord Nelson from Bermuda to Southhampton.  I leapt at the opportunity.

The Lord Nelson
The Jubilee Sailing Trust (jst.org.uk) owns two tall ships, the Lord Nelson and the Tenacious.  Both vessels have been built to accommodate persons with disabilities so that they may participate as ordinary crew members.   The Lord Nelson has a crew of 50 - ten permanent crew (captain, first mate, bosun, etc.) and a volunteer crew of forty, up to twenty persons of which may be persons with disabilities. The Lord Nelson is, of course, named in honour of one of the most revered of sailors with disabilities - Lord Nelson had lost an eye and an arm before he was killed at the Battle of Trafalger.

The Lord Nelson  is a 160' barque with square sails on the fore and main masts, and trangular fore-and-aft sails on the mizzen mast, plus stay sails which are set between the masts and jibs.

Lord Nelson (from the Classic Sailing website classic-sailing.co.uk)

The volunteer crew included a  woman who is one of the world's most accomplished blind-sailing racers. She relies on balance and on the feel of the wind in skippering her boat with its all-blind crew. (The racing buoys are equipped with a sound identification system so that the sailors know where they are located.)

Others of the crew were unable to speak or had mobility issues.  They fitted in wherever they could, hauling on ropes, serving on mess duty and using the "speaking" compass when helming.  The ship is equipped with mechanical lifts to move people between decks.

A wide bowsprit accepts wheel chairs - Isle of Wight in the distance

Learning to Sail a Square Rigged Vessel
I wanted to learn as much as possible about sailing a square rigged vessel and how work on a ship with a large crew is organized and managed. Incidentally, I looked forward to visiting Bermuda and to seeing the Azores and Southampton! All goals were accomplished! And, yes, I went aloft but I don't particularly like clambering up the steeply backwards-angled futtock shrouds to reach the platforms (top and cross-trees) on the masts. As there were many people eager to scamper aloft, I was not pressed into service.

Lord Nelson, from the bridge - sails from bottom...main course, main top, main top gallant, main royal
Climbing aloft

The Sailing
The fun of sailing on a square rigged vessel is its novelty - and doing something one has always wanted to do.  It is not an efficient!  A square-rigged vessel can sail at only about 60 degrees to the wind and, therefore, sailing is more or less limited to downwind.  When faced with a headwind, the square sails must be furled and the engine used - or the ship hove-to to await more favourable winds. We sailed about 60% of the time and used the engine at other times.

The wind on the first part of the trip was favourable - up to 35 knots - and we sped along...

Up to 35 knots of wind
And the ship rolled...

The ship rolled!
And we sat in the sun and enjoyed the fine weather...

Enjoying in the sun


Group Effort
A square rigged ship is also inefficient in terms of labour.  Setting a sail requires 8-10 people to climb up to the yards to loose the gaskets (holding the body of the sail up to the yard) on each sail. Then a number of people on deck must haul on the sheets attached to the bottom corners of the sail and pull them down while the buntlines (used to haul the sail back up to the yard) are released. Then a large number of people haul on the halyard to raise the yard until the sail is pulled tight against the yard below it.  A large number of people (16) then brace the yards to the appropriate angle to the wind. Sail handling doesn't happen very often - perhaps two or three times per day and is usually scheduled to employ the labour of two watches (when one watch is retiring and a fresh watch is arriving).  In between bouts of labour there is little to do concerning the sails.

Preparing to set the Main Course (from the Classic Sailing website)
The 40 crew are divided into four watches. The members of the watch operate the ship under supervision of the ship's officers (Captain, Mate, etc.) One member of the watch is assigned to 24 hour mess duty.  The remaining nine watch members man the bridge.  One person steers the ship at the wheel, another person stands on the starboard side and and another on the port side to report anything interesting.  Those without a task spend their time in gossiping, or staring at the sea/stars or visiting the galley to keep warm. Once per hour the log is updated (distance travelled, heading, cloud cover, sea state, temperature). On night watches, one person is detailed to wake the members of the on-coming watch in time to dress, get a cup of tea, and make their way to the bridge.

Life on Board
Clearly square rigged were widely used in an era when labour was plentiful and cheap!  Idleness on the Lord Nelson was mitigated by daily cleaning the decks and heads (toilets), presentations by permanent and volunteer crew on topics of interest, and reading in one's bunk. Games were created to keep people occupied - including a contest in which an egg (suitably packaged) was dropped to the deck from the top of the Main Mast.  The object of the game was to keep the egg unbroken. Points were awarded for the quality of the presentation of the engineering concepts utilized in the egg's packaging - preferably expressed in poetry or song employing outrageous puns! Sleeping was done at all times of the day.  With a watch schedule of 4 hours on and 10-12 hours off, it was important to sleep whenever possible!

Egg Drop in oversized cardboard cup from the Main Top
The bar provided a venue for conviviality....

The Lord Nelson's Bar

One wonders how the general idleness was handled in past centuries - perhaps the crew of naval ships engaged in military drills.  I was lucky in having in my watch a former ship's master who, besides being a retired professor of things nautical, was a Yachtmaster examiner and an expert in celestial navigation and a maker of sundials/nocturnals (to determine the time during the day/night). He taught me about the principles of celestial navigation as we looked up at the stars on cloudless nights on the bridge.

At the helm - with gyrocompass

Bermuda
Before sailing, I poked about the Bermuda Dockyard (a former British naval base).  The remains include a Victualing Yard where provisions for the British Navy were assembled and packaged. Alas, it is in much disrepair.  I could see myriads of opportunities for development, museum exhibits, etc!

Bermuda Dockyard Victualing Yard
Derelict Victualing Yard building
I joined the Lord Nelson in Hamilton, Bermuda and the next morning we sailed across the Harbour to Dockside to pick up provisions.  (Not from the Victualling Yard! The provisions were delivered in a van.)

Lord Nelson at Front Street, Hamilton, Bermuda

After fourteen days sailing, we arrived in Horta, on the island of Faial in the Azores - the halfway point on our passage to Southampton.
Arriving in Horta, Azores
Our "linesman" going ashore to secure the mooring lines

Horta  is an important stopping point for sailing vessels crossing the Atlantic
More sailing vessels in Horta
The port is decorated with the logos of ships which have visited...

Ships logos in Hora

Several of us rented a car and poked about the lovely, green, gentle countryside of Faial...

Overlooking Horta
Stopping in Horta provided time for repairs...

Sail repairs
and provisioning....

Waiting for the provision van

Then we continued our journey towards Southampton, mostly motoring.

The south of England was swathed in mist - which cleared as we entered the Solent and passed the Needles at the western tip of the Isle of Wight.

The Needles, Isle of Wight
We landed at Southampton
Landing at Southampton
I immediately took the train to Portsmouth and had a wonderful day and a half prowling about the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard which is full of historical exhibits - including Lord Nelson's flag ship, the Victory...

The Victory - its top masts are being refurbished
Would I sail across the Atlantic again?  You bet! Next I want to learn how a large ship with fore-and-aft sails works on long passages!