A traditional sail

[Kirbstone]

Ever since leaving Germany I have kept up with a splendid group of people who are the Nordenhammer Shantychor, or Sea-shanty choir from Nordenham, a town on the North Sea coast where I worked for seven years, by going on sailing voyages with them to Shanty-festivals.

Covid put a big hole in such celebrations, but this year they resumed the fun after a pause of six years. I flew to Hamburg and joined the group at Keil-Holtenau where our ship and hostel for the coming week, 'Zuiderzee' was moored along with some six other similar ships. Having had a meal ashore we boarded at 8PM and settled in for the night.

At Dawn on the Monday morning we slipped our mooring and motored out to where we could set sail for Marstal in Denmark. With 24 of us on board we made short work of setting the six sails required for that passage, which took some six hours, after which the ships moored and rafted up together in the glorious early afternoon and the festival got underway. For the rest of Monday and all of Tuesday we sang our heads off, performing three times and drank a lot of beer.

On Wednesday we set sail again Eastwards to another Danish port, Rodbyhavn. Then on Thursday morning we sailed S. round to the East of Fehmarn Island to Burgstaaken, where another Shanty festival was organised. Large crowds lined the quaysides and each arriving ship had its compliment of shanty-singers singing their way into port. A great atmosphere. As at Marstal we performed three times and ate & drank a lot and many crews entertained each other on board their respective ships which were rafted up together. Our saloon had a compliment of singers/revellers until past 4AM on the second night there.

On the Saturday all ships processed out to sea with choirs on each singing shanties to cheering and waving crowds on the quaysides. A very successful event. We motored East into the teeth of a good blow until we cleared the East corner on the island, then out cracked every sail we had and we sped NW before that wind at up to 8.8 Knots, a cracking pace for a 115 year-old ship. Towards evening we arrived at Bagenkop in Denmark once again and we witnessed THE most stunning sunset after a perfect cloudless day.

The Sunday dawn saw us away again under sail all the way right into the bay at Keil-Holtenau, arriving there at 2PM as scheduled. The fair winds helped enormously and our engine was used only sparingly. That engine could pack 550 Hp and give her 9 knots, so the sails alone to drive her at 8.8 knots were generating about 500 horse power. Impressive! It's no wonder that the coastlines in this region are peppered with wind-turbine propellors.

To my surprise and delight, the choir feted me and presented me with a 'Knotentafel' or framed illustration of nautical knots in honour of my 80th birthday, two years late. They had a courier firm deliver it to my home as it was too bulky to bring home on the flight. That alone will hang in a prominent place and remind me of my German Shanty-friends for the rest of my days.

Tom

[Kirbstone]

More pics.

[Kirbstone]

last pics

[crfriend]

Tom, you are a blessed man in many, many ways. As always, my admiration. Well prosecuted, both sailing and in music!

[Faldaguy]

What a wonderful adventure, worth a lifetime in itself, and several over for you. Many will envy, though knowing the hard work that goes with it, few seem to follow. I hope you get a repeat 8 more years down the channel.

[Seb]

Sounds like a great time! I long for the sea too and would love to go on sails for a week.

[Mouse]

I love the fact that you are having such great adventures at your age. It shows us oldish folks the there could be plenty of skirting life left to us.

Thank you for all the pictures.