Note: Unfortunately my travel photos and journal are currently in storage, so most of the photos I am including with this story are ones I have found online, except for one.
Every year there are Tall Ships Races and other Tall Ships events, which are organized by Sail Training International. They mostly take place in Europe, but there are events that take place worldwide every year. In 2005 the Tall Ships Race consisted of three segments (legs)
- Waterford, Ireland – Chebourg, France
- Cherbourg, France – Newcastle, Gateshead
- Newcastle, Gateshead – Fredrikstad, Norway
In 2005, I went on a “once-in-a-lifetime” trip, alone. I flew from Washington State (USA) to Ireland so that I could participate in the 2005 Tall Ship Races. I sailed on the Tall Ship “Europa” between Waterford, Ireland and Cherbourg, France. And, although I went on this trip by myself, I made many friends from different countries, while sailing on that ship.
The tall ship Europa is a 3-masted barque, and is owned by a company in the Netherlands. It sails (wanders – “Ocean Wanderer”) most of the year – every year. It is known for making several expeditions from South America to Antarctica every year, and then usually comes back to Europe to participate in the Tall Ship Races.
You can read more about the specifics of the ship here and here.
I found out about the Europa in 2002 when the ship participated in the Tall Ship Festival in Seattle. I waited in line for over an hour to take a tour of the ship. While onboard I noticed some brochures that said “Come Sail With Us.” It took a while for me to be able to afford it, but I eventually got my chance in 2005.
My Travel Story
In late June of 2005, I flew to Dublin, Ireland, and then took the train to Waterford, Ireland (after spending one night in a little town called Enniskerry which is about an hour away from Dublin). I arrived in Waterford the afternoon before the ships were scheduled to begin arriving.
I somehow lucked out with getting a hotel room which (I had been told was one of the last ones available months prior when I booked it) was on the top floor of the hotel and positioned on the far end of the building, overlooking the River Suir. The day after I arrived, I woke to find that a few ships had arrived overnight and were moored/docked along the sides of the river. I was somewhat jetlagged, but had the best view from my hotel room for watching the rest of the ships arrive over the next couple days. Each ship that arrived was greeted with a tugboat that helped position the ship in its proper place.
I watched most of the ships arrive. Some of them sort of snuck in while I was sleeping. The last ship to arrive was the Omani ship (from Oman). Apparently they purposely had that ship arrive after all the other ships arrived because they gave it the loudest, most joyous welcome. I guess there was a lot of worry that they wouldn’t be able to attend the races that year after having been dealt a pretty bad blow by the 2004 (or was it 2003?) Indonesian tsunami. Anyway, they made it! And when they arrived, every ship blew their horn or rang their bell and everyone cheered and made quite a ruckus! I was aboard another ship – I think it was the one from Ireland (with green sails – Humboldt?) when the Omani ship arrived – it got so loud. It really caught me off-guard – all the noise!
I spent the next few days (over the weekend) participating in the Waterford Tall Ship Festival which consisted of a parade, several small stages set up with free concerts, free tours of the tall ships, a carnival, and food/craft booths and fireworks on the last night. They had “passports” which you could take and get “stamped” by each ship you visited. (I still have my Tall Ship Festival Passport from Waterford.) I spent time wandering around the different tall ships and the interesting roads of the city, which had historical landmark signs (with stories and/or historical facts) all over the place. I discovered a great band called “Playtoh” that had a free concert at one the small stages that were set up along some of the side streets. I ended up buying their CD.
I was especially taken by the largest ship ‘ “Kruzenshtern” from Russia. I took a tour of that ship, which was a little bit creepy because they had an exhibit/gallery of photos from one of the wars in the early 1900’s. It wasn’t WWII, but perhaps earlier than that (can’t remember). The war photos along with the Russian navy walking around the ship was a little unnerving. However, I did get up the courage to ask some of the Russian sailors if they would sell me one of their “Kruzenshtern” hats. “No” – they said. (Shoot!) They were selling hats on the Russian ship “Mir”, and I bought one. But, that ship isn’t nearly as impressive or large as the “Kruzenshtern.”
On the morning after the festival I packed up my suitcase, left my hotel and walked down to the river and was welcomed aboard the Europa, where I was to stay for the next 6 days or so. I was shown where my cabin was. I was one of 5 women who shared a cabin on the ship, although there were 6 bunks in that cabin total. Each cabin had it’s own bathroom (at least ours did).
I became acquainted with the layout of the ship, and after less than an hour onboard, the permanent crew of the ship began training us- their newest recruits. It was also decided that since pretty much everyone onboard could speak English (I think everyone except for one older couple from France.) – everyone was instructed to speak in English (especially the regular crew – who were mainly from the Netherlands.
At the time (2004 – 2006) I was going back to school and earning a degree in land surveying. Being onboard the Europa that first day was just like being in class – complete with a chalkboard! And, I remember taking notes. They taught us the proper names of the different sails, and we learned which ropes went to which sails.
We learned how to raise & lower sails – by working together in a line – all pulling a rope at the same time (anywhere from 3-6 of us if I remember right). We learned how to tie off the ropes after raising /lowering the sails. We learned all sorts of things.
We were also broken into 3 crews: red crew, white crew & blue crew. I was on the blue crew. (You might think the red, white & blue have something to do with the United States, but actually it was referencing the Netherlands flag colors.) Each crew had a different rotating schedule of working for 4 hours, and being “off” for 8 hours. So, the times rotated – sometimes you were “working” in the morning, sometimes the afternoon, sometimes the evening, and sometimes the wee hours of the night. Each crew member was responsible for waking up their replacement crew member – if they were sleeping.
When we left Waterford the morning of the first day of the race, and the first morning I was on the ship, it was foggy. It took about and hour or two to get through the River Suir and out to open ocean. All along the way down the river there were people watching us sail down the river and waving & shouting out to us and all the ships. It was amazing to be a part of something that most people only dream about doing and watch from afar. I was right there – onboard! I was doing it!
When we got out to open water it was still foggy. There were huge crowds watching from up on a nearby cliff. All the ships just sort of congregated and “hung out” waiting for the race to start.
(photo of the Russian ship "Kruzenshtern", 2005 Tall Ships Race- starting off the coast of Waterford, Ireland - by Claire Packer)
(photo of the "Europa", 2005 Tall Ships Race- starting off the coast of Waterford, Ireland - by Claire Packer)
I eventually found out from some of the other people on the ship that it WOULDN’T start until there was some wind! There was absolutely no wind. It was still, calm & foggy. It was almost eery as we slowly moved around the other ships – passing each other as we sort of killed time by pacing back and forth or sort of moving around in circles. At first there was much celebration in the air with all the onlookers cheering and the occasional ship letting off a cannon sound.
(photo of the tall ship "Artemis", 2005 Tall Ship Races, taken while onboard the "Europa" - by Crystal Pyren)
You can see how calm & still the water was in the photo I took (above). This was taken probably an hour or two before the race started.
Eventually in the late afternoon/early evening – there was a little bit of wind. All the ships sort of lined up and the race started. Suddenly- there was excitement. The captain started giving out orders and everyone was taking it pretty seriously.
The next day I had my shift at night, and there were some moments when things were pretty energized – with the captain yelling for us to do this, or do that. I remember us being in a pretty good position in the race at that time – like maybe we were 2nd or 3rd (?) at the time. They had a scanner which showed where the ships all were, so they were able to keep tabs on who was in the lead. After my shift I went to bed and when I woke up the next morning I found out that the wind had died back down again and because of that they had called off the race. Bummer. All of the ships ended up motoring (rather than sailing) for the next few days - all the way to Cherbourg, France.
During those next few days, the sea was calm. Some people practiced putting up and down the “stay sails”, or doing different maintenance jobs around the ship. One day some sailors from a different tall ship came over to our ship in a little motor boat and visited with us for a while. Another day it was sunny. They stopped the ship and everyone went swimming. My friend, Dennis (who I had met), went snorkeling and ended up going under the ship and back up on the other side – that was interesting, and sort of funny.
Part of the cost of my stay on the ship paid for my food. There was a full-time cook and a couple assistant cooks who cooked every meal for us. We got amazing homemade lunches and dinners, a fairly large spread of breakfast items each day, and two coffee breaks with amazing coffee and usually some sort of pastry or cake along with the coffee.
On the day that they stopped so people could go swimming – I remember the afternoon coffee break included homemade apple pie! It was so good! I was in heaven.
Not only did we have a full-time cook, but we also had a bar onboard! I was able to get a Kahlua and cream, and they just put it on my tab.
One day we had a “Movie Night.” We all piled into one of the larger rooms on the ship and watched a video about a ship that had sailed around the Cape Horn back around the turn of the century (can’t remember exactly when). It made me appreciate not having to deal with choppy seas, large waves or sea-sickness!
Although there was no wind, and not much in the way of waves, the ship still rocked from side to side – slowly. In cabin some of the bunks were lengthwise with the boat, and some were crosswise with the boat. I had one that went lengthwise. So – when I was in my bunk, I was rocked to sleep side to side with the rocking of the ship – it was very peaceful and a memory that I love thinking about. Being rocked by the boat.
Another thing about being at sea – even though the route we were taking sort of “hugged” the coastline of the south-western tip of England and then through the English Channel over to Cherbourg (Normandy), France – we could NOT see land. I remember thinking it was so strange to not be able to see land, even though on the map, and in my head – we weren’t that far from land. Couldn’t see it. Nor could we see ANY of the other tall ships that we were sailing along with. There were a couple times when we could sort of see one or two of the other ships – but usually not. Strange, huh?
When we arrived in Cherbourg, the French authorities came aboard our ship and had to see all of our passports (which the captain of the Europa had hold of) – before we could continue on to the port. That took a couple hours – for some reason.
When we finally arrived in Cherbourg, our ship was “docked” next to (alongside) the tall ship from Oman. I stayed aboard the Europa for the next couple nights – during the next Tall Ship Festival. Every time I came or went to or from the ship– I had to first cross over the Omani ship. They were quite the festive crew, too! They were constantly playing loud, crazy music and dancing and inviting the public onboard to dance with them! It was awesome! They also brought over a couple very large round trays of Omani food over to us one day. It was lots of little mounds of colorful mashed up food and sauces. I don’t know what it all was, but it was so good! I will never forget how friendly and fun those people from Oman were!
During this Tall Ship Festival in Cherbourg there was another parade, and after the parade there was an award ceremony when they announced the winners of the race (the shortened race that started late and was ended early!). I was in that parade – as one of the sailors of the Europa. I took turns with one of the other Americans – carrying the American flag during the parade. Other people carried flags from other countries. I found it interesting that the Europa, a ship owned by the Netherlands, had flags from many different countries onboard.
It was at the award ceremony that we learned the Europa took 13th place in the race. (Not the best, but not the worst) We also received an award from the City of Cherbourg for being the “Most International Ship.” That was so amazing! We had people from more countries on board our ship than any other ship! There were 49 of us total, and we had people from 8 countries including: Netherlands, France, Ireland, England, United States, Italy. I can’t remember the rest of the countries (maybe Canada and Germany?) Here are the winners & awards for the 2005 race.
After I left the ship, I spent the last 2 nights of the Tall Ship Festival at a nearby hotel, and the Europa went on the rest of the race without me. A few other people also left that day, while a few new sailors got onboard.
After that, I took the train to Granville for a couple days and then on to Paris for the last 2 days of my trip. While in France I finally became quite homesick for my boyfriend (now my husband), my children and for the new friends I had made while on the Europa. I was able to keep in touch with a few of them for a couple years, but have since lost contact with all of them, although I did manage to contact one of them, Dennis, again after seeing his photo on the Europa website several years later. He told me still tries to get onboard the Europa on a regular basis. Other people I had become friends with while onboard was a doctor from the Netherlands and a woman from Italy who worked for Nutella as a taste-tester.
I’m hoping that my husband and I will be able to go on the Europa together sometime in the future. I would also love to send my older son, who is now 19, to go sail or work on the Europa. He used to want to "hunt for the giant squid" when he was a kid, so sailing on a tall ship might really bring him close to that old dream of his!
Here is a link to the Europa’s website, in case you or anyone you know might be interested in sailing on a 3-masted barque! Sail Training International holds the Tall Ships Races in order to pass on the love of sailing and the knowledge of how to sail these tall ships with the next generations. There are many ships that participate, which you could sail on. Often people who are 25 years old or under can get onboard these ships at a reduced rate, and/or apply to become one of permanent paid crew members. It’s an amazing experience. I hope you consider going or passing on the info to any/all young people who need an adventure!
Photos:
Photo of the Europa: 
Diagrams of the Europa, and it's sails from their website: https://www.barkeuropa.com
Photos by Claire Packer from her blog: https://clairepackerphotography.com/tag/tall-ships-race/
Photo of the Artemis: By Crystal Pyren
