Leaving the Mother City.

The pet-name of Cape Town is the Mother City, that’s because she is the oldest city of South Africa and for many people it’s also their favourite town. The Europa and her crew are amongst these Cape Town groupies. We visit the town every year and crew and the synchro-lift people give her the face-lift that she needs after an Antarctica season. After this visit we are ready to sail again with fresh paint a fresh crew, we wave our Mother-city and the old crew, goodbye and are heading to the Northwest, for a busy festival season in the other hemisphere.

Last year it was Western Europe, this year it will be the United States and Canada. We will meet the European Tallship fleet somewhere between Bermuda and New England and arrive together in Boston, one of the oldest American sailing ports, on the 16th of June. Before this, we have to cover just between 7.000 and 7.500 Nautical miles depending on the positions of the High and Low pressure systems. For a sailing ship the wake is always longer then the shortest route between two points. On this long Ocean crossing we have only two mountainous Islands that we like to visit, being St Helena and Ascension.

The first days out of Cape Town we had a very strong Southeasterly breeze that gave us a kind of catapult start in the right direction. But this same beautiful breeze colored the life of our fresh trainee sailors kind of greenish. Now, “4 days out” the wind calmed down and everybody looks bright and happy again. Cape Town lies 600 Miles behind us and St Helena 1.100 Miles ahead of us.

Alles Wel

Klaas