Austrian Voyage Crew Emil Gruber flew out to New Zealand to join Soren Larsen for the entire 5 month 2003 Pacific season.

Here are his first impressions after the first trip to Tonga:

Do you know the quintessence of sailing ? Getting on a tallship with almost 60 years of life in all the oceans all over the world and a Master with the same experience from Cape Horn to Antarctica.This is what you get once you have hired on the Soren Larsen. A beauty of a real ship, where every plank can tell you a exeptionally story, where every rope is its own legend and where every sail is the direction towards absolute freedom. And carved from the same material is Jim, our Master. Full of passion for the sea, young in his desire to ignite every passengers life for the only way to get ahead - set the sails !

The crew, a mixture of mostly young but quite experienced people, Kiwis, Aussies, Danes, A Fin, A Shetlander and guys from UK. This recipe works. First night we spent at anchor in the Hauraki gulf, so we could become aquainted with the ship and life on the water. As well educated men we know, without introduction, you cannot have a longer meeting with our Lady of the blue ocean. And so we listen. Then we brassed the sails and the magical twistery tour began. Heavy weather were our compagnions, huge wave fed our rains suits with salty water but together we stnand and together we smilde after two days of fighting with the elements. Perfect winds were the reward as of now, dolphins jumped around the bowsprit and a couple of tuna decided to get hung up to our floating hook. The moonlight kissed the boat all nights and an overwhelming milky way was spread out above the loft.

After six days we got in touch with land again. Sunday Island, now Raoul Island was waiting. A unique piece of volcanic landscape, with dense rainforest, mudpools, a darksanded shore with untamed waves. Entrance only by boat with the right jump on the right time on the right rock. A adventure at its own. A friendly welcome by the weeders (since the fifties the NZ government runs a programm with volunteers to restore the origin condition of this nature reserve), excellent sausages for dinner, a walk up and down - partly on ropes - to the active volcano and a golf tournament a la Roul in the pouring rain for the hard boys and girls will always keep in mind. Full of new energies, fresh and delicious fruits as a gift of the island in our storage we found the perfect breeze again.

The Soren Larsen run as hell towards Tonga, we had enormous fun on our watches, even in the night. And the lessions about celestial navigation by Sir Jim were always overbooked. Noreen and Thea, our cooks, compliment the pleasure of life on board with delicious meals, Marita, the purser, was a perfect nurse for some little seasickness attacks of the author.

Each of the other permanent creww members were like friends from the beginning. So there is only one thing left to say on a beautiful day in Tonga: Hail to the next five months!

Wish you all the best until next report.

Emil

++ See Noreen's Picture Page of this trip here

Read more of Emil's account's of a Voyage Crew's tall ship adventure.
Auckland Kermadecs Tonga voyage	here
Kingdom of Tonga	here
Tonga to Fiji	here
Fiji to Vanuatu	here
Vanuatu Northbound	here
Vanuatu Banks	here
Vanuatu South- New Caledonia	here

 

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