After a stunning evening passage under the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion the night before, it was difficult to believe the reports of a southwesterly gale on its way through the Cycladic Islands the following morning. But when we woke this morning, Aeolus the God of Winds was making a statement, and the winds were already fierce when Sea Cloud set the sails at 0800.
We were all amazed to see the roaring whitecaps on either side of the ship and the winds shrieking through the rigging, yet Sea Cloud was unbelievably stable and steady as Captain Pushkarev called for the lower and upper topsails and the courses to be set. In such a strong wind, only the strongest of the square sails were needed to harness the forces of nature. Sea Cloud was built by Marjorie Merriweather Post and E. F. Hutton in 1931, and as a sailor Hutton had seen to it that her hull design and construction were state of the art. Today, her stability amazed us, and we could now understand why the US Navy posted her in the turbulent North Atlantic during her service in WWII.
The sailors were all smiles and excitement as Sea Cloud roared up to 10 knots, finally peaking at 11.6 knots in the mid-morning. Captain Pushkarev had calculated for a mighty full-day sail of about 60 miles before we would shelter from the height of the gale in the afternoon at the island of Syros. But a square-rigger has no brakes, and we had to wear ship (jibe) a few times just to try to slow down and avoid overshooting our island harbor destination.
This was indeed first-rate sailing, and we were all filled with excitement as we tried to find our favorite places on this elegant vessel. We all knew we were sharing in something very special, that most people cannot imagine still exists in this day and age. And then, after photographic instructor David Cothran’s Introduction to Photography, the deck crew clewed up the square sails and went aloft in the ever-increasing winds to furl the sails. Now came the moment that Captain Pushkarev had been calculating all day: how to bring the ship into the tricky harbor of Ermoupolis in near-gale winds.
We were all on deck with the wind roaring at the harbor entrance, unsuspecting of the unforgettable action that would follow. It was a thing of beauty, and a masterpiece of seamanship. Captain Pushkarev had braced the yards to port tack and was planning to have the wind push the ship broadside into the dock on the starboard side. However, an unexpected construction barge occupied half the pier, and the winds were pushing forward faster than anticipated. With decisive and authoritative commands that dominated even the winds, Captain Pushkarev steered Sea Cloud to the middle of the harbor, dropped the port anchor so that the ship swung quickly around 180 degrees in front of the awestruck eyes of the entire city, then powered the ship forward up into the wind while raising the anchor again. As the bow neared the pier and the ship wrestled the winds, he then dropped the starboard anchor and the crew scrambled to heave the mooring lines and fenders on the opposite side of the ship than expected, as the winds set her gently into the pier. It was the equivalent of a high-speed skidding sports car parking job, in a classic and elegant square-rigged ship. When it was over, no one could quite believe what we had just seen, and we all shared the recounting of the events to piece it all together.
Captain Pushkarev calmly stepped off the bridge, thanked the sailors, and went to prepare for his Welcome Cocktail Party on the lido deck 30 minutes later. All in a day’s work, but what a start to this voyage…
