The first day on Sea Cloud is hard to describe. One boards in the busy port of Piraeus, Greece. Tired after long flights, terminals, delays, and baggage carousels, we walk up the gangway with the dust of airplanes on our clothes and tasteless airline food in our bellies. In so many ways, we are simply ready for a rest, a vacation from the first days of our vacation.
Stepping aboard, one can’t help but notice that this is different. Polished brass, teak underfoot, and gleaming varnish is everywhere. Someone hands you a cold washcloth and escorts you to your cabin. Briefing, drills, and dinner are soon over and you retire to bed with the warm breezes of the Aegean Sea over the decks.
In the morning, the plans are to sail. Sea Cloud is a four-masted barque, her massive square rig ready to grasp every zephyr of wind to move her through the water without engines. Sailing after all, is the lure of this voyage. At 9 a.m. sharp, the call from the Captain comes: “Hit the Rig!” and 18 sailors climb up ratlines in towards the sky. Topsails, topgallants, royals, and even the highest skysail are unfurled, and soon the massive yard arms are lifted, and Sea Cloud comes alive.
Miles of lines seem like a giant tangle to landlubbers, but to the crew each line has a purpose, and each is skillfully handled in a spectacular ship-borne ballet of hands and winches and pulleys, all choreographed under the watchful eye of the ship’s Bo’sun.
Soon, we are sailing at five, then six knots, sailing downwind under blue skies. The airport dust, the lost luggage, the hot bus rides fade quickly from our memory, rinsed away by the sheer pleasure of sailing on the most glorious sailing yacht ever conceived, the Sea Cloud.
