See Previous 2005 Voyage Logs

Barefoot Southern Ocean Sailing

Here's permanent crew Nick's account of the the passage to Easter Island.

Ola amigos! The Søren Larsen arrived at Easter Island with ship and crew in one piece, well almost. A fine voyage it was indeed. After finally leaving New Zealand (the voyage crew were beginning to think they had signed onto a “lets see how much of the ship we can take apart and put back together” trip) after delays caused by repairs and bad weather we finally hit the irascible southern ocean.

The first few days mainly involved getting to know each other and teaching the voyage crew how the ship and the watch systems work. The holding down of ones lunch was also a skill that was needed to be acquired by some. Our first moment of excitement was when the first fish was caught, a brilliant yellow fin tuna which was rapidly consumed by those who had acquired the aforementioned skill. Over the course of the voyage ten more fish would fall victim to our lures and find themselves on our plates (thanks fellas!). We saw a pod of whales too one day but they didn't find themselves on our plates though.

On the subject of plates let me just say that Luci and Nessy are the 2 best cooks in the world (next to my Mum and my Nana). All throughout the voyage the cooks were able to dish out more and more mouth watering delights. I'm talking stir frys, stews, roasts, cakes, custard, trifle, pudding, spaghetti bolognese and the best porridge ever (well worth waking up for at 8am after a 12-4 watch). The only complaint to be had about food was the one biscuit that got caught down the back of the oven, caught fire, set off the smoke alarm and got us all out of bed at 1am. At least it was good for the practice, funny that no officers got woken up in the aft cabins, mmmm.

A number of important ceremonies were held along the way. The first (and arguably the most important time honoured sea time tradition) was the fo'c'sle calender party in which the page is turned to reveal the next months picture. As is usual this didn't happen until about 10 days after the first of the month. The next ceremony was the halfway point which was celebrated by sea chanties and mulled wine under a magnificent full moon. Now deckhands being a superstitious lot felt compelled to heed the wish words of a previous first mate and got together one afternoon in the bow sprit netting to wax lyrically on the voyages progress and discuss the minutes of the previous meeting and to wonder “who's running this show!”.

Weather wise we felt ripped off as the clement weather made the challenge of crossing the southern ocean barefooted easily accomplished by those inclined. That was until about 2 days from the end of the voyage. The rain started falling and the sea started heaving. The 12-4 watch bore the initial brunt of what was later determined to be a “microburst”. A sudden gust of 80 knots of wind blew out our fore top mast stay sail. As the author was trying to control a wayward line the captain appeared on the fore deck to take control of the situation clad only in a towel, which was quite amusing despite the gravity of the situation. Luckily said towel remained in place throughout the proceedings. With that, after finally experiencing what the Southern Ocean had to offer our voyage was to conclude.

All that was left to do was judge the beard growing competition, put harbour stows in the sails, have one last fo'c'le party then paint the island of Rapa Nui red.

Fond farewells go out to the departing voyage crew and to Trev “Little T” and Kholi Budabushka two permanent crew who are already missed, but our tears must be dried for Pitcarin awaits!

Nick.

See Picture Gallery of the voyage here
Read V.crew Maggie's account of her trip here

Soren Larsen will be visiting these destinations again in 2007