A Miracle Voyage
- clare961
- Jun 25
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 26
Stepping onto the beautiful dutch tall ship Oosterschelde, to sail into Norfolk Virginia for the 250th anniversary of American Independence Sailfest, was a miracle twice over.
First of all, it gave me the chance to enjoy something I missed 50 years ago. As part of the crew for the British Tall Ship, the Sir Winston Churchill, I had my parade uniform, including this delicious red t-shirt with the fashionable long pointy collar 😊, but I never made the parade. I nearly missed this one, too, when we discovered the Oosterschelde is not a signatory carrier for the Visa Waiver scheme for the US. I had just over a week to get a B1/B2 visa, which was a miracle, given that the first appointment the embassy could give me was in July!
As ever, it was a dream to be back on the Oosterschelde, with some folk I knew but mostly new.
We set off in fair weather, so calm that it was perfect for newbies to go out on the bowsprit and up the rigging. Here’s Jennifer and Dana with Sheila and Jamie and Bob with me.
Going up the mast for the first time were Alena (with Sheila and Tova) and Andre (with Cilia).
It was Andre’s job to untie the gaskets and let out the Upper Topsail to give us more sail area for light, and following, winds. The last but one photo shows you the four or five steps you need to take, leaning backwards, to get up onto the platform: tricky the first time! (Don’t you also love the picture of the Dutch flag flying forward, across the wheelhouse, and not backwards and out to sea!) The hugest of the sails, the Fore Course, takes a dozen people to haul up….
When things are calm, there’s lots to do. Mieke baked bread, Alina and Ray making baggy wrinkles (to stop the stays chafing), Sheila polishing the brass on the compass housing and Rosalie and Karen tidying up the ropes and steering. The nav map below shows East Coast America and Florida on the left and across the sea, the blue areas show low or little wind – and track our planned route – so we can expect a few quiet days ….
It’s a calm and quiet time for the crew too. Here’s the captain, Jan Willem, along with the first mate, Dan, who seems to have demo-ed his knots by tying up Tova, whilst Timo and Famke huddle around the navigation.
One of the more surprising things on this trip has been the colour of the water alongside the ship – iridescent blue through deep teal to steely grey as we approached Norfolk.
That last photo was taken as we approached the bridge across Chesapeake Bay and you can see how calm it was then. But we did have a couple of squally days too. Peeping through the porthole, I saw the rain and hope I’ve managed to catch a bit of the movement of the ship through the storm and into sunnier but still blustery weather ….
My dear friend, Kelsey, gave me a wonderful book titled “The Offing”, which is a word meaning the point at which the sea meets the sky – something that has blurred completely in this last picture!
The storm blew in a couple of unexpected visitors – a juvenile Bahama yellowthroat (thanks for the identification, Grant) and a bumble-bee which had lost its way. Along with dolphins, who always love the bow wave ….
As the weather picked up, there was still plenty of time to relax in the sun. Here’s Jamie, watching the waves; the ladies of white watch resting at the end of their duty; Dana and her hat; Rebecca and Alex looking for shade and Levy chilling and diaries being written.
And Levy leading the shanties and Rob blowing the conch to call us all in for supper, which is a caps-off affair!
And the sailing settling down for another great sunset and the following sunrise….
One of my favourite sounds on the ship is the clinking of the anchor chain, either going down or coming up. Here’s Dan, signalling to the wheelhouse as the anchor comes up …..
We pass a little lighthouse in the channel and the yellow quarantine flag flies until we have been cleared by Customs and Border Protection folk
Our berth was downtown, opposite the Virginia, a similar schooner, and right in front of the marine observation tower, which was a present from Taiwan and has a pagoda design …..
Sadly – this is where all the volunteer crew had to get off the ship! An ancient law, called the “Jones Act”, requires all vessels transporting goods or passengers between US ports to be built in the US flagged in the US and at least 75% owned by US citizens and crewed by Americans. ☹ So we could not stay on board to sail up to Richmond – or go to New York or Boston for the 250th celebrations there. So here’s our bags waiting on the deck and a farewell poem, spoken by Jennifer with love and gratitude.
😊😊😊
But Sheila and I were not going to miss the parade of sail on 19th June, so we decided to roam about in North Carolina, Virginia and Washington and to come back to Norfolk to see the Tall Ships into harbour for the festival. More in the next blog!
Comments