Blog: Tallship sailing to Curaçao and Cartegena

Helen Richardson has updated us with the latest tales of her adventures sailing across the ocean in a tall ship owned by the Jubilee Sailing Trust.

She's taken a break from her job as a Physiotherapist to be part of the crew of the Tenacious.

Helen's second blog in full...

We arrived as planned in Curaçao, beautifully helmed into our birth, just in the shadow of a huge bridge by our watch under the guidance of of Captain Barbara - no help from the pilot as he refused to climb the ladder up onto the ship as he said it was too rough!

Curaçao is Dutch and the architecture reflects this, lots of brightly coloured buildings greeted us at the fortified entrance to the port, along with a floating walk way which opens for every boat passing through.

When alongside in a port, everyone gets the option of going off ship for lunch and evening meals, for me it was a great way to sample local delicacies and see what the place has to offer. I did a self guided walking tour which included a floating market.

The boats sail up from Venezuela to sell their goods, fresh fish, veg and fruit, I have never seen such large mangos and avocados. The following day I sampled their ice cream....huge scoops and truly scrumptious! Setting off was a tense affair, this due to the fact we had to turn before the bridge so not to hit the masts, due to timing, forward port (my watch) was again helming.

We were waved off by thousands of locals and cruise passengers as we set the sails - a splendid sight. Once out at sea we did a man overboard exercise, lots of rope handling to change the angles of the yards, this helps slow the boat and turn it. All went well, and Penelope (the dummie) was successfully retrieved.

Four days at sea followed, the wind quite consistent, but definitely strengthened as we neared Columbia and it was great to see the ship work keeled over....although all other tasks became harder and people often had food ending up on their laps, lee cloths at night were a must to keep us in our bunks.

We learnt how to splice ropes, how the charts worked and navigational techniques, those of us that wanted to climb, climbed. We all had to wear our full body harnesses but you are surprisingly only clipped in for very small parts of it. I climbed the main mast with three others, interestingly the States of Jersey helped fund this mast, two of us 'made it', touching the button right at the top. It was a great achievement, the view was spectacular, but also scary when you looked down!

Cartagena is a Colombian port with a narrow entrance, followed by a long passage around an island before finally coming into our birth with views of the new and old town, and the shipping port. Our luck star was with us again and our watch helming in once again. We picked names out of the hat for the order, and all of our watch took their turn. It was stifling hot and more humid but at times a welcomed breeze. I ate out both nights, sampling the food and entertainment within the old wall town.

Some of us opted for a day tour including the fort, wall old town and ending on a beach....their beaches unfortunately we're no competition for our jersey beaches, we are truly spoilt in Jersey. The day ended with salsa... all I can say is we were all better by the end than we were at the start.We motored off the birth to enable the tight turn, then somehow Captain Barbara had managed to convince the pilot to let us sail back down the passage and out to sea.... I think the bribing with food and cakes worked a treat!

The sea is much rougher and we were hitting 8knots, this is what sailing is about. Any down time between eating, watch duty and happy hour (cleaning) can be filled easily. We were allowed to a few items of laundry, hoping we'd all smell better, read, listen to music etc.....unfortunately for me a rogue wave soaked me and my phone...I dried, but it died. Due to be at sea for another four day period.....we are on our way to the Colon entrance of the Panama Canal - there excitement is rising!

That's all for now.Helen