Tall Ship Wylde Swan is sailing the final stretch of the Atlantic Ocean crossing. On May 23, the secondary students of the Masterskip program, arrived in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores.
Welcome at the Azores
About 1 year ago, the Frisian training ship was also there, because she had fled headlong from the contamination level of the Caribbean. Then they were not allowed to land. Men in moonsuits brought fresh food on board with a small boat. Afterwards, they were kindly requested to sail on quickly.
Now the 14 to 17 year old students are allowed to go ashore after a PCR test. With less than 200 active cases on all islands combined, the Azores are a safe place to go on beautiful excursions and learn a lot. The Masterskip students have now been on board for more than a month; the need for solid ground therefore was more than welcome.
Lost at sea?
The Frisian sailing ship has been sailing at high speed from Sint Maarten to Europe for weeks. On board they don’t know whether they exactly sail in the right direction………Experienced captain Richard Slootweg has taped all digital systems that show the position and he is sailing the ocean with his team only on the sun and stars. On a cloudy day this is difficult; the trainees know that they are in a certain circle of 200 kilometres. Because there is no land anywhere and the depth is close to 6,000 meters, it does not matter. If it is clear again the next day, the navigation will be more precise again.
Safe enterprise
Continuing the trips in corona time is a success. For the trainees it is wonderful to be able to make this trip of a lifetime. The team of Wylde Swan and Masterskip have shown that it was a safe undertaking: in 7 months there have been no infections on board.
Arrival and departure
Mid-June the young world sailors will return home. After 7 weeks on board with peers, they will have to get used to life ashore with their family again. Wylde Swan itself is having not much time to recover. After two weeks of maintenance and repairs, she leaves for the far north, to carry out expeditions to Iceland.
Unfortunately, due to the current corona situation and the applicable rules, we had to cancel our Scottish trips for this summer season on June 3th. We will still carry out these trips in 2022. On Saturday June 26, we depart from Harlingen and sail directly to Reykjavik, where we expect to arrive on Tuesday July 6 late in the evening.