Arrival to Cardiff

 Somehow in my mind Cardiff was an ancient city, with castle, forest, and fortress. Of course it's not, it's quite modern, as these drone photos of our arrival show.

Once docked, we set up the ship for visitors. We got a warm welcome; maybe just a bit too warm. Little did we know just how popular we would be! Though the income from selling many tickets is great, when we get that many visitors we don't really get a change to engage with people and answer their deeper questions or give them the context of the ship, we're mostly just "traffic control." Still, Cardiff was going to turn out to be one of my favourite cities. 

Morning chores: before opening for visitors we do various maintenance tasks. One of my favourite ones is getting the “zona noble” (VIP area, in the old days) ready for visitors. Here’s a few views of the elegant room where the captain would entertain his visitors. By contrast, the common sailor would be lucky to have a spot to sling his hammock below decks between the cannons or in a corner.

The pretty stained glass doors lead to a private balcony wrapped around the stern of the ship.

Seating area (that reminds me a lot of the sofas in my parents' house, right down to the pale green silk upholstery!)

St Augustine friends will recognize the location in this painting

Dining area. The table is bolted to the floor, and underway we tie the chairs to the table to keep them from being tossed about if we have a rough passage. The artifacts and decorative items all get carefully packed in a closet.

Sleeping accommodations for the common sailor.

Example food below decks. Dried beans, dried rice, salt pork, maybe whatever fish they could catch, and a dried biscuit that could be dunked in soup to soften it for eating (if it hadn't gone moldy or wormy).

Decks full of VIPs for the opening event.

Jersey to Cardiff: Our First Passage of the Season

 Our first passage with the ship promised to be an easy one -- benign weather and just a couple of days long. Good way to get back into the rhythm of the ship and the job, and to get to know our shipmates a bit better. And most of all, time at sea gives a chance for the contemplation away from the distractions of the internet.

The helm; we still steer the ship from here. The views are great but it means we're out in all weathers. 

A rubber duckie mascot leaving the Jersey festival with us. Rubber duckies became almost a theme on this trip.

Entrance to the harbour guarded by these old fortifications.

The very coolest job I could ever imagine having.

Lines and lines. Another anachronism as the lines of rigging contrast with the contrail of a jet.

"Land's End" is an actual place, not just a US-based clothing company. I'm not singing sea chanteys, I'm living them.

Everybody pulllllll! The mainsail weighs 2 tons and is raised entirely by hand.

View forward from the helm as the crew works the foresail ("trinqueta" in Spanish). The ship has 10 km/6 miles of rope rigging.

At sea, everything is blue ... blue sky and blue ocean, all day long. So those 15 minutes of orange at sunrise and sunset take on an outsize importance.

The edges of the day are magical and peaceful.

Again a huge tidal range, and three locks to pass through before we got to the basin we would be docked at, which had no tide at all thanks to said locks. But we had to time our arrival and departure pretty carefully.

Climbing into the rigging to hang the Welsh courtesy flag.

Crew briefing. Mostly logistics, any special events, and what to expect from our time in the city. 

Poole and Jersey: Back Aboard and Quickly Back in the Groove

 

Train from London to Poole was comfortable and took about 3 hours, after which we had some time to enjoy the hotel and walk around town before getting up early to take the ferry to Jersey in the morning. Gotta love public transportation in Europe; so well organized! (and clean and comfortable and safe). After a pleasant ferry ride we learned that the Galeon was docked just across from the ferry terminal. Meeting us were two smiling faces -- one I remembered fondly from a previous tour, and one I'd learn to respect and enjoy during the next 3 months. They grabbed our wheeled duffels, we shouldered our backpacks, and off we went. We came aboard, found our bunks and stowed our stuff, and immediately remembered why we enjoyed working on this ship so much. (My very first afternoon of my very first tour of duty aboard, the lid to my water bottle came off as I was putting my stuff away in my new bunk; I slept on a damp mattress for the first couple of nights until I got it dry. I'm happy to report that no such clumsiness marred this tour -- except for the broken toe that fortunately had minimal impact on my experience.)

The Waterloo train station was huge, but straightforward. I'm glad there was no language issue to contend with here. 

Enjoying views of the countryside after the hustle-bustle of London.

I kinda love seaside towns in the off-season.

Pedestrian shopping street ... and several American companies.

Put in a coin and get your weight ... in kilograms or stone, but not pounds!

The lovely hotel where we stayed the night before we met the ferry. I stubbed my toe on this chair as we were packing to leave ... and broke it! Facing 5 months of walking around Europe with a broken toe. Obviously I survived but the first few days were less pleasant than they could have been.

Before we left I was gifted this pretty journal to record my thoughts when out of internet range. 

The view from our hotel. Tomorrow we'll be sailing here.

An extremely restful and pleasant ferry ride ... and this wasn't even the first-class cabin.

Our first glimpse of the famous white cliffs. There would be more, and closer.

Crossing the English Channel by ferry, headed to the island of Jersey. As you can see, the island is much closer to France than to England. It's reputed to be the sunniest place in the UK. There's also a big tidal range here; the island increases in size by 20% (or more depending on which source you read) from high to low tide.

My phone's fitness tracker shows pretty clearly when we started traveling, based on the dramatic increase in number of steps per day.

Here for comparison with our ferry experience, is the "basic economy" class seating. Still not too bad.

Pulled into the dock in Jersey and saw the masts of our beloved Galeon.

Back aboard and the first thing Dan did was check the condition of this cap rail he replaced about seven years ago while the ship was in Florida. How many hands have touched this rail since he built it?

On Jersey, we were part of a boat festival that included a lot of local military, lifesaving, enforcement, and rescue agencies. I love the impossible anachronistic juxtaposition here ... rope rigging from the 17th century with a paratrooper from the 21st. 

We met some members of the Royal Navy Bomb Disposal Team at an after party. Gave them a tour of the ship and they invited us to see their demo of the remote control bomb removal robot. (Here, un-scary and accurate enough to offer a frisbee to young child)

During WWII, these channel islands were occupied by the Nazis when they occupied France, and England had to make the strategic decision to let that stand. The island celebrates Liberation Day just two days after we were there with great enthusiasm. Here's a statue in the main square celebrating the end of German occupation.

Watching the boats leave the harbour at the end of the festival, including this oddly-shaped (but super-fast) entry. 

Last view of the harbour; in the background is the ferry that brought us here.

Hauling everything aboard and getting ready to set sail for our next port.