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

Photos from the first leg

A collection of photos from the first leg of the trip, the voyage from Portsmouth to Gdynia, can be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25342584@N02/collections/72157621326866955/

Leaving St Petersburg

The skipper writes: Sorry to have been out of touch but this is our first opportunity to use the internet in a while.

We are about to leave St Petersburg for Helsinki and the cruise in company. Nervously waiting for the officials to clear us out while Phil gently plays for the ship next door.

The gaff is fixed and the lads have made the most of St petersburg and lots of new friends. They did rather well in a dancing competition I understand!

We are off for a bit of break from heavy partying with our cruising leg to Turku for race leg 2.

On that subject, Phil and Amy and I caused a bit of a stir at a party on another ship by singing ourselves hoarse and the whisper of news that Phil Beer is in the race meant that Race Director Peter Newell gate crashed in order to meet him! He even picked up the guitar for a song or two, happy days.

St Petersburg has been amazing and special thanks must go to our liaison officer Dmitry who has worked so hard for us. He is trying to get a project off the ground to build a Pilot Schooner replica of the type once used locally. We wish them well and Amy and I have said we will send him Classic Boat Magazine monthly, something not easily available in Russia.

So the calm before the next bit and we sit slightly nervously in anticipation.

We are now cleared by customs and are about to start the parade of sail out of this beautiful city. Our next stop is Helsinki were we will re enter the Schengen agreement area and hopefully feel a little less watched!

Race report - Gdynia to St Petersburg

The skipper writes: We were not having a bad race at all and were very happy at the start as we ate up class B and kept pace with some of the C and D vessels. The breeze veered to the southeast and picked up giving us an exhilerating ride up the Baltic. As we closed the Estonian coast, we realised the gaff was showing signs of becoming detatched from its jaws so we lowered the main and lashed it all together whilst continuing to race with our headsails. The whole thing took about two hours and the breeze died right away so that when we did rehoist the whole shooting match, we weren't going any faster than when we dropped it.

By now we were close to Black Diamond of Durham, skippered by my old mate Cal. The two boats largely stayed in contact for the rest of our race.

We found a patch of light airs and thick fog as we turned the corner in to the Gulf of Finland and headed east. This was where the wind turned against us and began to blow harder. The forecasts were confused and there were reports suggesting gale and storm force winds. With the damage aloft we agreed together that it might be better to retire and ensure we reached St Petersburg in one piece which is what we did.

The fleet got hit quite hard and I understand two vessels were dismasted. Certainly we were very glad to make it here motoring gently across the oily flat sea outside the city in glorious sunshine.

From Russia with love....