Newsletter May 2015

NEWSLETTER MAY 2015

Leaving Cape Town
(photo: Anne-Margaretha is leaving Cape Town, by Sigrid Burg)
As we celebrated Liberation Day in the Netherlands (May 5th), the Anne-Margaretha left South Africa, and for nearly 7 weeks she will not be attached to land…. The trip to the equator and beyond has begun. There are some thousands of miles to go before they arrive mid-June in the Azores!

The ship is again jam-packed with food and drink. This time logistics are more complicated, because the big refrigerator downstairs (in the bilge) has taken a vacation. The water is getting warmer, so our refrigerator and freezer have to keep it fresh! Our creative crew will cook up nice combinations of fresh and canned food for hearty meals. We have every confidence in them!

Stopovers: St. Helena and Ascension Island
With a globe on the table, you almost can see the Anne-Margaretha sailing! We also see that by passing the Tropic of Capricorn, the ship travels to the western part of the earth again. (The Western Hemisphere is the part of the world that lies west of the prime meridian elected and east of the 180-degree meridian . Between these two meridians is the east-west position on the globe marked in west longitude. On the rest of the world , the Eastern Hemisphere, is measured in numbers of degrees East.
While many European countries belong to the Western world , these are largely in the eastern hemisphere).
If the wind is not a game breaker, they will land on St. Helena and see where Napoleon spent his last days….
Just across the equator, finally in the northern hemisphere, is Ascension Island. This British island seems to be wonderful, so wait and see whether they will want to leave this place.
Yet they have to continue, because they will not yet have gone halfway of this trip!
Around June 19, the Anne-Margaretha will again moor in the well-known port of Horta (Faial Island) in the Azores. We wonder if our painting (made by us in 2008) that nearly every sailor leaves here on the quay is still there..!

Azores- Channel Islands-Spain-Netherlands

Sailing among the Azores Islands, we’ll have fun exploring during a 9-day tour!
We visit several islands (São Jorge, Terceira, Graciosa, Faial) and look for sperm whales, which are still widely seen south of Pico!
The next trip: Azores-La Coruña goes via the island of São Miguel, where we moor and take time to visit the island.
In La Coruña (Spain), we start our final leg of our 3rd World Tour!
This is another fantastic journey across the Bay of Biscay (dolphins and whales !!), France (including St.Malo), Channel Islands and Dieppe to Netherlands. It’s high summer, so we expect great weather!
All three tours still have some (limited) places available.

NEW PROGRAM 2016
The program for 2016 is available and is to be seen on the site! We travel to the north with a little adapted program.
The trips to Norway and along the Norwegian coast are a bit longer (1-2 days), to have more time for walking/climbing/enjoying the gorgeous countryside.

The always impressive and beautiful LOFOTEN journey ends this time in Harstad, instead of Tromsø. That means in terms of sailing: fewer miles, so here again, there will be more opportunity to take our time.
The trip from Harstad to Svalbard is already fully booked, but on Svalbard we will twice take a 13-day northbound trip, which will again be breathtakingly beautiful!
The trip from Spitsbergen-Norway, we sail via Bear Island (finally get that certificate “naked swimming in the Arctic”!) and then further to the Norwegian coast, where we know beautiful anchorages for swimming or fishing. This tour ends in Tromsø.

And after Tromsø?
Probably a group will hire the ship then for a private trip to Greenland …

In September, the Anne-Margaretha returns to the Netherlands.
We wish everybody a beautiful springtime!

Sailors Greetings,

Heinz and Greet