Thoughts on the Tall Ships Races

"There are old ships and new ships and ships that sail the sea,
but the best ships are friendships and that will always be....."

The skipper writes: As I write, we are tacking up through the last of Russian waters and into Finnish ones. In the quieter moments I have been thinking more about what the Tall Ships Race is really about. Certainly retiring from the first race leg was a disappointment, but to enter this event in an over competetive manner would be inappropriate. The disparate nature of the fleet means that competition is friendly and more about camaraderie than about winning. Its the parties that do it for the lads its true, but when the fun is over and the boat is cleaned up again, you have a chance to reflect on some of the things you have seen.

To a cynic sometimes a Tall Ship Race Party looks like a lot of young people having too much fun but if you can see behind the outward face of it, an incredible thing is happening.

Young people from all over the world, speaking all the tongues of the world and from every social, cultural and economic background are brought together to meet each other as equals. Here they can share their respective cultural identities and learn more about the real nature of the worlds people.

The Russian lay over was most interesting as the differences in written text and phonetic sounds in Russian are so great. None of us had the faintest idea even how to buy milk, let alone recognise it when it comes in a plastic bag rather than a bottle or carton. It really is a great leveller.

In his speech at the prize giving, Prime Minister Putin used a Polish expression which I paraphrase but it went something like, "the sea is where you learn who it is that is your real friend, and who it is that is pretending".

The friendships the lads, and indeed all of us, have made so far have been deep and intense but short lived. Gone shipmates are gone forever but maybe some of our new friends will turn out to be closer for the intensity in which the friendship was forged. Certainly watching the lads say good bye to their new friends who are sadly not staying to do the full event, you couldn't fail to see the genuine emotions expressed and the sadness at having to part so soon after meeting. Maybe they will meet up again, maybe not but the memories will last forever. These friends I hasten to add are a multinational bunch of guys, not a common language between them other than the common tongue of common purpose.

It will do these guys so much good, would that we could all have this opportunity so early in life.

It seems almost anticlimactic to be heading west again after so much North and East but we still have Finland and Lithuania to go. Each host port presents us with a small commemorative plaque and I have just fixed these in the saloon. The lads are fishing, the sun is cracking the flags and there is little wind. Its a reflective sort of day and one to savour. There isn't much time to relax in the TSR!

We are cruising with John Laing and Black Diamond, the skippers and staff of which are old friends of Amy and I but as all three boats move through the fair, even old and established friendships are strengthened and bonds deepen.

IT'S ALL GOOD!

P.S. since writing my last note, we have yet another example of the strength of good friendship. Plunging in to thick fog as we arrived in Helsinki we three little ships huddled together for support and keeping each other in sight, we sat it out. This is the kind of mutual support that Tall Ships engender and the kind of thing legends are made of. Thank you Cal and Toddy for your support through that long night.

Diggory Rose,
Skipper