Calm before the Storm A voyage on a Square rigger can be a kind of a social experiment. The working crew might already be familiar with one another’s habits, as most of them know each other from previous trips, but as far as the voyage crew is concerned, it is a rather wildly tossed together bunch. The only thing in common is certainly the passion for sailing - we’re a pretty colourful bunch of different nationalities such as Dutchmen, Frenchies, Poms, Kanaks, Yankees, Aussies, Kiwis, a.s.o oh yea and one Swiss – one of the great sailing nations, which has – please forgive me for not being able to restrain myself from rubbing this in - won the Americas Cup several times! Then besides almost all ages, the most diverse professions can be found amongst us– the nuclear engineer slurps his soup sitting on the poopdeck next to the mailman, the former Diplomat shares his nightly lookout duty with a Florist and the Surgeon hauls the upper topsail sheet together with the Accountant and the special education teacher. Everything that is Status or other social line up mechanisms got left behind either all the way back home or it got thrown over board just after casting off in Auckland. We are finally back to just being ourselves – free of titles, labels and other drawers, disconnected from our “normal” social classes. As out here in the realms of the majestic Pacific not a single sperm whale is interested if you are driving a Merc SL ZYX AMG superfunky or a duck/Beatle, which God you might address with your offerings, if you’re in favour of gay marriage or not, or if Interpol issued an international warrant for you. I don’t think even the NSA is spying on us out here – although I admittedly have my doubts when it comes to that, as one looks beyond the skysail you realize the sheer number of satellites racing along the night sky and crossing the milky way at the southern cross roads. The ship, it’s rig and the deck make us all equal again and just as our little blue planet flies though the endless, black vacuum of space, our Tall Ship sails over the great deep ocean, proud, fragile and beautiful!... and only the wind, the waves and Klaas rule the world. We will certainly find out soon how it proves itself as we dare to progress further in a south easterly direction, where hopefully the first storms await our arrival to render our days and nights on and below deck more uncomfortable. But we are in good spirits as we look ahead to encounter more stormy waters. Roman Frischknecht Voyage crew
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 12:26:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015