Fri. 27th July....Letters from sunny Bergen.

A new leg and a new crew on board. Well actually we have a double crew on board for our stay in Bergen. Nobody wants to miss out on the spectacle of the Tall Ships in Bergen so the new crew have taken over the bunks and the cruise-in-company crew are camping out on deck using the mizzen drapped over the boom as a tent.

Our racing crew still has four of the originals on board. Robbie and myself together with Brian and Pauline. To make up the new voyage crew we are joined by five young sailors from Stornaway in the Western Isles. They are Elidh, Kirsteen, Sarah, Sean and Murdanie. Mervyn is Vice-Mayor of Den Helder in the Netherlands. Ben is a pupil at Sanday Junior High School in Orkney and Adam and Stanley are from Shetland. Coming to join the Swan crew are Willie who is a pilot in Scapa Flow and Bobby o da heights who did the Tall Ships with us in '99 and then went on to sail aboard Eye of the Wind as permanent crew in the Tall Ships last year.

Let's start with a message from Mervyn.

"Having left Den Helder (Holland) with beautiful weather I was not amazed that the sun was also shining here in Bergen. In fact it was hot which made sleeping a bit hard. I guess I was a bit tired because I slept through all the terrible things that happened during the night. At nine o'clock the liaison-officer came round to make sure we would catch the 9:30 bus to go out playing football. "Of course we would" However despite of the fact that only three of the team were up and the others were stil being our "dreaming" team we made in in time. Our first match was against the Russians. We thought ourselves lucky because we didn't have to play the Italians or the Mexicans. We had seen them handling the ball during their warming up..... They were terrific. Within one minute Stewart made a goal. This was going to be our tournement after all. But.... this was the only effort we could make. And we lost 4-1 and went back to the ship. This meant that we would be in time for the sailing contest. This was a greater succes. In fact we passed the finish way ahead of all the other ships. We learnt three things: first that tomorrow will be rain, second Monday the wind will change to south-west and this will mean another leg against the wind and third the people in Bergen are wonderful. During our stay here they so far have really looked after us. Organizing all kind of sports, providing plenty of hot showers and washing machines but most of all being kind and patient with us. Meanwhile Bobby and Andrew have been trying to fix the fuel pump. That is not an easy thing to do in a weekend in Norway. The oilrings have given up and it is impossible to get the proper-sized rings to the ship before we leave on Monday. But even there people are very helpful and trying to make the proper rings for us. The ship is a bit crowded, because the change of crew made it necessary to accomodate 20 persons. But, the weather being so good, the "old" crew members slept on deck under the sail. I hope the rain won't come too soon........"

Sun. 29th July........A good sailing forecast.

" Alas! It did start raining during the night. It didn't stop anybody from having a wonderful party though. It started with the crews' party which seemed to be very nice. Only the "younger" members of the crew went there but they seemed to have been enjoying themselves. We had some visitors on board and we had a little party with the fiddles and lots of singing. the space is rather limited for otherwise I am quite sure they would have been dancing as well. One of our guests was so grateful for having had such a pleasant time that about eleven o'clock this morning he came along with two dozen of sweet rolls. They were gladly accepted and tasted very well. We will be leaving tomorrow morning so we are preparing to get ready for the next leg. Willie and I made an inventory of the stores we have. I think the best thing to do is cook an onion and garlic soup. There is some much of them! while making the inventory we cleared up the storage space and found we suddenly had enough space for all the goods we would still have to get. Andrew went down for the instuctions for the race to Esbjerg. The forecast is surprisingly good. They are expecting a Westerly wind, force 5 to 6 to begin with. Both the direction and the force are ideal considering our course. It is still raining which makes it quite difficult to climb through the hatch into the main saloon. The cover has to be closed from stopping the rain coming in so you really have to aim to through your legs down. Andrew found a solution to that by hanging some of the sail over the entrance. That made it possible to open the cover a little more.

Murdanie has just come back from the shops with some fresh whale meat! Would anybody be so kind to fry it. We all suggested him to put it into the freezer and have it done when we arrive in Esbjerg. People are still coming and going, hoping to have found the right size of oilring. Sofar nobody has been very succesful. But they are all doing their utmost and keep on doing it. The main engine has just been started and in stead of stopping after 3 seconds like before, it seems to be going on now. Does this mean that the proper ring has been found? That would certainly take a burden off Andrew's shoulders. We just had a nice intermezzo. A ship with a group from Oman came by and played the drums and an instrument similar to a bagpipe. It was a very happy sight in spite of the rain! Meanwhile Sarah and Murdanie have already started preparing supper. Half of the crew will be participating in the crews' parade and the others are going to a concert. There won't be much time to prepare a meal later on. Andrew just came up. Still no success! The ticking of the rain has stopped so I think it will be dry enough do go out to get the shopping done. You'll read more about us when we arrive in Esbjerg!!"

Martha - "Well the crew parade was wet and wild, just as many water bombs and water pistols as Alesund, if not more! The Swan picked up a prize for the sailing at the presentation. All thanks to the crafty skippering of Reidar the Norwegian. The boat now has a very ornate (and probably expensive) fruit bowl. The new crew have settled in and it's time for the rest of us to head off. If they're lucky the wind will be in the right direction for a good reach down to Esbjerg with the 'Green Flash'. Splendid!"

We might not be able to update this site for the next few days while we are actually racing between Bergen and Esbjerg. If you want to check on the positions of any of the ships in the race try logging on to the ISTA website at www.tallshipsraces.com

Mon. 30th July..........Race Day!!

Leaving day. The camp site was dismantled on deck and we had a run round to get milk and bread etc. The first leggers packed up all their gear and, sadly, left us. They will be a real miss on board. But we have a keen new crew who are rarin' to go so lets hear from some of them....

" Well Monday started with everyone running ashore getting all the last minute things that were needed before the race got underway. We set off after eleven o'clock and motored out of Bergen. We watched all the boats raise their sails and start warming up for the coming race. As the start wasn't until later that evening, we stopped at a little port to have our dinner, unfortunatly we had to move again almost straight away as the local ferry was due to arrive and we had docked in its berth. We had a good meal of soup and bread rolls before we reached thae start line. At about eight o'clock we were all on deck listening to the radio when we heard a voice from race control saying "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GUN!!" and we heard a loud explosion from the nearby navy frigate. That was what we had been waiting for and now the race was underway. It was amazing seeing all these boats with full sails and no engines blasting past us, and we were overtaking a few of them too. We soon found ourselves up amongst the leaders of the race and we were amazed that we were keeping up with the huge square riggers. Many of had not realised that we were in with a chance of getting a prize. Soon after we really started sailing, the first victims fell to seasickness. Many people felt a bit queasy down below, however they were fine as soon as they came up on deck. People quickly got used to life aboard and the seasickness soon vanished as they got used to the routine of sleeping, eating and going on watch. As i write this we are in third place in our class as far as we know, and we are still up amongst the leaders. I never expected it to be as good as this and I wish we could carry on going forever. " Eilidh

Wed Aug 1st.......all at sea...

" The sight of those square riggers flying towards the line is one that will stay with me for a very long time!Alexander Von Humbolt with her green sails,sleek fast Mer and the huge Sedov to name a few. I could not stop taking photos.we didn't get too bad a start, maybe getting under way about a third of the way down the field.From then on we just didnt stop over taking!first the Irish ship Asgard 2(Asgard is in our class) fell away behind us and by morning we'd even caught up with the Shabab Oman.This square rigger of about 40metres (double our length) had passed us just after the start and we were all very happy to leave her behind! The Swan is the smallest boat in class B so to be placed 3rd is excellent.Andrew(our skipper) is very laid back about it but you can tell he is well chuffed!At this mornings position read out we were still 3rd in class and about 24th overall.At the moment we are about 72 miles from Esbjerg so lot could change in that time.You never no we might climb up the rankings but I think everyone onboard will be well happy with 3rd.I personally am having a fantstic time. Helming in fairly big seas on the first night was fantastic.The Swan always feels really steady and strong and her speed has surprised me.I get the feeling that most people would be happy just to stay at sea and not bother going to Esbjerg!" Sean

Pauline's bit!.. "Except for Bryan of course who was overheard to say yesterday morning that he," never wanted to see a boat again"!, this was after being woken for early watch to find the heavy seas of the night had reached his bunk. However time and sun and the enthusiastic crew plus icecream heal . But now he is as enthusiastic as the rest and will be on deck at 3 am to see us cross the finish line. The only thing that will be missing will be the magical sound of our fantastic fiddlers. We all miss them. Especialy me at 4 am!"

Thurs. 2nd Aug......maybe third..maybe not!...

We have had an excellent sail down from Bergen. A fair wind the whole way and good sailing speed to boot. Yarns and laughter coming up from the sidedeck on the night watches. The jib sheets on the big jib made matchwood of first the port navigation lights and then the starboard ones when they got caught underneath, so that was our phone and navtex! We have had to run the engine the whole way down to charge the batteries as the genny is still on the blink. The prop shaft is locked off though so its just noise and not drive that we get! As we neared the finish line the wind dropped and backed so we were dredding being hard on the wind and not being able to lie the turning mark. We were lying third and wanted to hold on to our position. As we were racing against boats in our class that were 140 feet long we felt we were doing pretty good! Atlantica was leading our class with Athene second. The wind held and we rounded the mark, the West Horns Rev Cardinal. 16 miles to go to the finish. Everyone was up on deck as we crossed the line, pitch black, as it was 4 in the morning. Loud cheers in the darkness, a champagne bottle was handed to Ben, our youngest crewman, to pop! Then to work to get sails down and motor into Esbjerg as the finish line was 22 miles from the port. The land is very low lying. We are only 10 miles from it but we could still be away out at sea. The next position report puts us down to 4th. There are still a lot of boats at sea and the final positions won't be known until everyone is in. A "Follow me" boat comes out to guide us in and show us where to berth. It is a rickity old pier at an iceplant with not much in the way of fendering. Pauline gets bacon sandwiches dished up and mugs of hot tea. Ahh,that woman! Brian is a lucky man! Because of the fair wind the fleet has arrived 2 days before expected and things ashore haven't been set up in full. Come Saturday it will all be different and the place will be alive and jumpin'! The weather is hot and sunny.

Fri.3rd Aug........Esbjerg

The crew all rise from a long nights sleep to breakfast and head off to check out the town. The swimming pool seems to be a real find, "theres everything there"! The latest position report puts us down now to 5th and it looks as though that is where we will stay. Provident has come up to take 4th place and Svanen is in 3rd.

Sat. 4th Aug......Esbjerg

Provident had been told yesterday that they had won the class and they had a big celebration on board last night. They woke today to huge hangovers and the news that someone at race HQ had made a computer error and they were still back in 4th place.....! Anna Rogde has almost broken their main mast on the final run in to the finish line. They were hit by a squall and the mast cracked at deck level. The owner has organized a local firm to make up a steel mast band to hold it all together. Martha, who came with us on the first leg, hitched a lift down to Esbjerg on "Ocean Spirit of Moray". She had had a great time and came on board today to tell us all about it. They had been reaching at speeds up to 16kts so they just managed to stay ahead of the Green Flash!

The final positions are in. We are in 5th place. Provident is 4th, Svanen 3rd, Atlantica, that fine old Swedish ketch who has been to Lerwick quite a few times in the past was 2nd, and the winner was another Swedish ship, the schooner Atene. Congratulations to them on a well deserved victory.

Old friendships are being renewed with crews we have known from other races and new ones being formed as we get to know more ships. There are always a round of invitations to partys on board other ships and our crew have been doing their best to be social.

Sun. 5th Aug.....The crew parade!

The crew parade was today. Here's a first hand account of it from Kirsteen.

"Well the crew parade was very good we got to see the prince who was handing out the prizes to the various ships. As per usual we all got very wet, as we march along most of the crew members from the various ships throw water bombs at each other and have water fights which is quite funny but very wet also. The atmosphere at the parade was fantastic occasionally we were all getting down to do one big mexican wave which looked pretty impressive.

Sarah says,"My horn was fantastic!!!"

ben says "The parade was a good laugh, i got a water balloon in the face which was cool".

eilidh says "we had one of the biggest flagpoles in the entire parade and I had to carry it all the way but it was fun."

sean says"alba ventura" didnt have any of their own waterbombs so they stole ours!then they threw them back at us !does that sound fair to you?!Shabab Oman totally deserved to win the Cutty Sark trophy they are the most fun crew of the lot,even although none of them will give me a hat!

We will be heading for home tomorrow via Aberdeen and Orkney so we will be out of internet contact for a while. We arrive back in Lerwick in the early hours of Sat.11th and leave again the next day for Norway with a group from the Scalloway Youth Club. It's all go! We'll get some more about the trip to Aberdeen written up on the way across and uploaded when we reach Shetland.