Note: The sail 11 (Course) in the Key is not marked with a number,  but is shaded in grey on the diagram.

Voyage Day 5 - Sunday 23 November 2025
🌦️💨🌊 Squally showers, brief sunny spells, strong winds and heavy seas. 
A long day and very busy. Breakfast at 0800h and we prepared to leave Muros by 1000h. We all helped get the ship off the mooring and headed out of the harbour into the bay and along the coast on a port tack. We motor sailed for a while heading  WNW, planning to tack later and head back to the coast to anchor near an island further south. As we headed in to the channel to the island the captain was told that vessels over 24 meters could not anchor without a licence. He had no licence and no shipping agent or the time to apply for one. We had to turn and come away, which involved a lot of sail handling. Because force 8 winds were coming in from the west later, and with no alternative plan for an anchorage we returned to Muros on the engine by 2200h and moored alongside again. As there were no watches tonight we were able to have another quiet, unbroken night alongside. 
          The only photos I took today were before dawn of the harbour in Muros. 
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          The availability or otherwise of a decent 4G phone signal makes posting this blog a bit sporadic. It is now Day 6 and we have left Muros and are heading straight for Porto in Portugal. Hopefully, once alongside in Nexus (the port area in Porto where we have a berth) I will be able to post all of these daily accounts for the first of our voyages, before the start the second to Tenerife.  

Departure Day - Monday 17 November 2025
🌤️ Dry but cold N wind
Journey to Plymouth
Taxi from Hindhead to Haslemere Station
Train from Haslemere to Woking
Train from Woking to Exeter David’s
Train From Exeter St. David’s to Plymouth
Taxi to Sutton Harbour
          The day didn’t start well, because of trouble with a level crossing in Bedhampton, our train was 15 minutes late, luckily we did connect with our Exeter train in Woking. It was really crowded and we spent the whole of the journey to Exeter in the bicycle section on very hard seats. Our problems didn’t end there however. When we got to Salisbury the train was delayed by stuck points near Tisbury and diverted via Westbury before rejoining the line at Yeovil Junction. At Exeter St David’s we did get the Plymouth Train but not the one we wanted. We eventually got to the ship via Taxi from the station at 1930h. Supper was finished but they had saved some for us. We missed the introductions but we did recognise Fernadi the cook and one other guest who sailed with us to Tenerife last time whose name escapes me for now. We got the en-suite cabin we asked for, and unpacked our holdalls ready for an early night. The confusion was added to by the ship’s time being synched with European time i.e. 1 hour ahead.    Voyage Day 1 - Tuesday 18 November 2025
🥶🌦️💨🌊Squally showers, cold strong winds, big seas later. Heading SW out of Plymouth.
​          Because Sutton Harbour is accessed through a lock gate, the Oosterschelde had to leave at high tide - so the crew took her out at 0500h while we slept. When we got up for breakfast there was frost on the deck! The ship was anchored in Jennycliff bay, just outside the harbour. With the safety briefing and sail handling instructions out of the way, we were soon heading SW along the Cornish Coast with the mainsail, schooner sail, fore staysail and inner jib at between 6 & 7 knots. We started watches at 1400h, in red watch so we were on until 2000h. The wind freshened and we headed SSW 210° then 205°. The inner jib gave us some problems causing us to drift constantly to Port, so it was taken down. When the wind dropped it went up again. The radar showed approaching squalls but most of them missed us. The wind freshened again so down came the jib once again.
         Around this time I got a whiff diesel fumes from the generator which made me nauseous. At end of a busy watch, I felt so sick I didn’t eat supper and went to bed. (This is the first time I have felt seasick after 12 years of sailing this ship - it must have been rough) The ship was pitching and rolling quite badly.

Today’s Activity

Our trip to Falmouth on the 16 July was by train from Surrey took most of the day but the Falmouth Town Station was conveniently close to Cotswold Hose B&B  (recommended)
​          The Oosterschelde arrived on the 19th and we embarked Oosterschelde at 5pm on 20th. We have sailed from  Falmouth quite a few times. My reason for arriving early was to get some photographs of Oosterschelde sailing into Falmouth on the morning of the 19th July. I had packed my Fujifilm X Pro-2 with the Fujinon XF100-400 zoom, plus the XF 1.4 teleconverter. We walked to Pendennis Point below the castle for the ideal viewpoint. I got some lovely photographs. (See Photography page). Later in the evening we joined the crew,  guests and local dignitaries for a celebration party for the Darwin200 conservation project volunteers and organisers at the Falmouth Maritime Museum.
          When we embarked on afternoon of the 20th July, the routine of joining the ship, settling into our cabin and meeting our fellow guests was familiar. However there was an understandable excitement about the visit to London. The four day sail along the coast and into  the River Thames, meant joining the watch system and  working the familiar routine of sailing the ship with the professional crew, with sail handling, rope work and helming. 
          What follows is a retrospective account, rather than a daily blog, I will summarise the trip briefly  and add photographs to illustrate the day's activities. This account is based on memory and extracts from my journal.       
Day 1 ​(21 July) 🌦️ cloudy with sunny spells, wind SW, some showers 20°c. The morning started a with the safety briefing, followed by the crew taking down the canopy (or tent) over the deck. Meanwhile, a BBC News film crew  conducted interviews and prepared to record our departure. We motored away from the pontoon at the Pendennis Marina around 1030h. Once clear of the harbour and into the bay, the crew hoisted square sails,  the Bree Foch (also know as the BMF ..don't ask) and both topsails, to run before the wind on an easterly heading of 70° then 80°. We added the mainsail later and gybed once during the day. Angie and I were in Red Watch, which started at 1400h until 2000h. Our next watch was 0400 - 0800h so we turned in to our cabin after supper. 

Day 2 ​(22 July) Onto our watch at 0400h. 🌤️ sunny spells, dry  with a SW wind. We were still sailing with topsails and the BMF. Today we headed past Weymouth, Portland Swanage and the Isle of Wight.  There were several emergency pan-pan broadcasts on the Coast Guard radio. (Pan-pan - an international radio distress signal, of less urgency than a mayday signal - from the French panne: breakdown) The 33m Gaff rigged ketch Queen Galadriel was apparently taking on water, another vessel was dismasted and a third had a jammed foresail furling mechanism and an overheating engine. We weren't requested to offer assistance as other vessels had already been tasked. After breakfast we had a bit of shut-eye but it was nice on deck watching the Sussex coast pass by all the way to Rye. By the time we got to our 2000-0000 watch, we were passing Dungeness. Off watch and back to our bunks at 0030h.

Day 3 (23 July) 🌤️sunny spells, SW wind 20°c. I was up at 0530 and on deck around 0630 (when the ship is full, it is sometimes better to get up early to get into the showers). We were still sailing but only at about 0.2 knots. The tide outside Dover Harbour almost bought us to a standstill. After breakfast,  our watch was cut short,  the sails had been taken down earlier so we helped fold the BMF and the watches were stood down because we were motoring. Folding the BMF is a major undertaking and takes a big team. The picture below is from an earlier voyage on the Saint Lawrence river in Canada, that shows how many people are required. By this time we had motored into the Thames Estuary and spent the afternoon reading, taking photographs and relaxing on deck. Around 1700h we dropped anchor off Southend on Sea. This was a safe place to anchor overnight as we had to wait and pick up a pilot at Gravesend in the morning.

Day 4 (24 July) 🌦️ Sunny first thing, showers later, 20°c. Stiff westerly breeze against us on the river. When I went on deck at 0630h we were still anchored at Southend, After breakfast at around 1000h we motored up to Gravesend to collect the pilot at 1100h. As we approached the city we put up a foresail and the mainsail for show. Showers started around the Thames Barrier and O2 arena. Manoeuvring into the Tower pier took some doing but Captain Jan Willem used his experience and bow thrusters to bring us alongside neatly and without drama.  We had lunch around 1400h and the afternoon was spent keeping out of the way of a host of visitors from the Darwin200 project. Charles Darwin's great, great Granddaughter  Sarah had sailed with us from Falmouth. She spoke to reporters live on BBC London and then opened wine to give us all a celebratory drink. Most of the voyage crew went ashore for dinner but Angie and I stayed on board with the Dutch family we met in Falmouth before we boarded, and ate with the crew. We spent the evening chatting and relating our voyage experiences.  Turned in around 2230h.​

Day 5 (25 July) Today promised to be chaotic on board. After breakfast the busyness started with Darwin200 personnel, leaders, co-ordinators, hangers-on etc, descended on the ship to celebrate the end of the circumnavigation and the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh from 1130 to 1300h. We walked to St Katherine's Dock for a leg stretch and I took photos from the quay (above). Back on board there was a royal visit briefing which took ages so Angie and I decided we would go ashore before the Prince's visit and keep out of the way. We needed to find the water bus to take us to Waterloo for our train home the following day. That done we crossed the river on Tower Bridge and went down to Butlers Wharf for coffee. We came back to the ship just before the Prince left and we got into the group photo on deck - that's us right at the back!

The rest of the afternoon was spent having lunch and chatting to various Oosterschelde foundation members including the MD of the shipping company. We also caught up with some long term crew and relived some memories. We returned to St Katherine's dock again for another walk, came back for supper. Packing ready for disembarkation at 0900h the following morning was done before turning in.
Day 6 (26 July) The disembarkation day is always chaotic for the crew (when we stay aboard for back to back voyages we often see how hard they work when we embark later the same day to rejoin the crew). We paid our bar bill, collected our log books, said farewell and headed off for Tower Millennium Pier for the Uber water bus to the London Eye Pier, just a 5 minute walk from Waterloo Station. Well that was the plan but that's another story....