Cardiff to Plymouth

 May 15, and time to go sailing! Due to the tides we planned to leave in early evening; fortunately it stays light quite late this far north.

"Cardiff has been interesting," I posted. "Learned a little about Wales history, saw some cool old buildings, ate new-to-me foods, chatted with many locals. We were absolutely slammed over the weekend with a record number of visitors; no time to really talk with anyone because we were so crowded, and then quieter days and deeper conversations Monday and Tuesday. I’m always surprised at how many people ask if the ship is original. To their faces I feign delight: “Ooh, we did a good job building the replica if we fooled you! Cool!” But really? If the ship was really 350 years old? It would be in a museum; we wouldn’t let you touch it; and I wouldn’t feel safe putting to sea in it. Which latter is exactly our plan for today. We’ll be packing up and leaving on the high tide for Plymouth, where we’ll appear in a pirate festival over the weekend."

It was quite a tranquil passage, so plenty of time for work, fun, and scenery.

Maintenance day: crew members were hanging over the sides of the ship and up the yards, scraping and painting. And polishing the ships bell.

Dan stripping many layers of old paint from the columns in front of the entrance to the galley. I only half-melted a scraper with the heat gun…

Noemi and Mario were on cooking detail for dinner for this part of the passage. She poured an entire bottle of wine into this sauce! We ate well. 

As we passed the building that housed the Royal Navy we saw many people taking photos of us from the windows of their offices. These two fine folks may never know how much we appreciated their salute.

There were 3 locks and some tight turns to get from the city to the open sea. We shared this lock with a modern cargo ship as we dropped about 5 metres.

My cellphone couldn't really capture this, it was a moonlit night with spooky clouds.

Turns out that "Land's End" is an actual place as well as a U.S. outdoor clothing company.

Land's End

More of Land's End, a few hours further along the voyage.

We had this bird passenger for most of my 4-hour watch.

On many of the voyage segments, we take a few paying passengers. Officially they're called "trainees" and we give them a taste of the sailing life -- they have bunks down in the crew dorm, and stand watch and share meals with us. We teach them to steer the ship ... 

... and to climb in the rigging. They delight in these activities that are just ordinary work days to me. I think with gratitude of a former captain, Pablo, who reminded me that my everyday life is someone else's once-in-a-lifetime.