Sailing the Trails of Herodotus and Odysseus
Apr 3rd, 2010 by Hansie
Yesterday we finished the Ruta de la Sal to finish around 13:30. Not everyone was completely happy with the result as we finished as second in our class and 10th overall.
Analysis of the results will follow. For now below our sailed route from Barcelona to Ibiza.
Apr 1st, 2010 by Hansie
Nov 15th, 2009 by Hansie
From April 1st to the 4th I will be participating in the Spanish sailing race “Ruta de la Sal“. A regata from Barcelona to Ibiza over a distance of circa 140 nautical Miles and about 300 yachts participating. We will be sailing the race with a Swan 441 R from 1979 and a crew of 10. For sure you will read more about the race in time but today I bought my airplane ticket to Barcelona and had a look at the site.
In 1989 the first race was held based on this historic event. The origins of this regata seem to go back to May 1846. At that time Barcelona was under siege by the Carlists armies which led to a disastrous shortage of salt. To end the peril a race was set up. The first ship to arrive with a good load of salt would be paid in gold. The winner was a 30 meter schooner called “Maltese Falcon” from Baltimore with a Greek skipper called Andreas Portus.
The Maltese Falcon? I heard that name before…
Every time I read something about a ship called “The Maltese Falcon“, I have to think of the 290 feet high-tech ship built by venture capitalist Tom Perkins for about US$ 130 million. A square rigged ship with 3 free standing carbon fiber masts and more then 75 motors to control the 15 sails. With its three 20-story masts fully rigged the yacht can cross the Atlantic in 10 days. The ship was sold recently (August 2009) by Tom Perkins for “only” US$ 100 million, after he had to reduce the ask price with more then US$ 40 million. Yep, it is a buying market these days.
For more about this ship you could read the the book “Mine’s Bigger: Tom Perkins and the Making of the Greatest Sailing Machine Ever Built” by David A. Kaplan (Amazon.com).
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But as as my research went further, this ship’s name can be referred back to the movie “The Maltese Falcon” with Humphrey Bogart. A movie from 1941 and one that many film historians consider as the first of the “film noir” genre in Hollywood. In the IMDB ranking it can be found as number 7 in the list of the best movies ever made. |
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The story, based on the book by Dashiell Hammett, tells about three adventurers who want to steal the Maltese Falcon and a detective (Humphrey Bogart) trying to prevent it.
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But my research didn’t end here. Because the “Maltese Falcon” itself is reportedly based on the “Kniphausen Hawk” a ceremonial pouring vessel made in 1697 for George William von Kniphausen, Count of the Holy Roman. It is modeled after a hawk perched on a rock and is encrusted with red garnets, amethysts, emeralds and blue sapphires. The vessel is currently owned by the Duke of Devonshire and is an integral piece of the Chatsworth House collection. |
| But it goes on, this is still not the ealiest mentioning of the “Maltese Falcon”. In 1539, the Knight Templars of Malta, paid tribute to Charles V of Spain, by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with the rarest jewels. But pirates seized the galley carrying the priceless token and the fate of the [original] Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day… |
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Final words about the Maltese Falcon I am glad to leave to Adam Savage, a longtime special effects artist and host of “MythBusters” on the Discovery Channel. His fascination for Dodo’s lead to… the Maltese Falcon.
Sep 2nd, 2009 by Hansie
Todays Daily Picture was taken when sailing from the tranquille Molat to Iz Veli in the fourth week of my trip in Croatia.
The sailing was wonderfull. We were heading south and had between 15 – 20 knots wind from the south. We were sailing between islands and could make nice tacks. Because we had no water in the tanks anymore, it was sailing with Speed with the capital S switched on.
We left Molat totally relaxed, however we had to expect bad compay in Iz Veli.
We got Austrian neighboors there, ai, about 2 boats with 8 people each. They kept us awake up to 03:30 hours by drinking, stupid jokes and loud laughing, despite being asked to silence up frequently. I never go to Austria again! But maybe that has more to do on some stupidity on my side when driving back to the Netherlands. I didn’t by a vignette (of ca. EUR 10,=) at the border for the Austrian highways and I was checked before buying one. They fined me with EUR 120,=, how inappropriate ; – )
Aug 29th, 2009 by Hansie
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Feel like the lions of Trieste today. Had a good party yesterday evening. Lot of friends I didn’t see for quite some time, excellent live band so all together a lot of fun.
So now I feel strong… although a little bit peeled on the outside.
Pictures above were taken in Trieste and part of my “Street Signatures”. What you see are the ornaments on the doors of an old church on Riva 3 Novembre.
Aug 27th, 2009 by Hansie
In the weekend of the third week of August traditionally the 24 hours sailing race is held in the Netherlands. This year for the 45th time.
We participated this race this year for the first time with a crew of 6 and a X-372. Four experienced with sailing races (steering, main sail, foresail and tactics) and 2 (including me) for their positive influence on the overall team efforts (sandwiches, enjoying the sun, the insights of a toursailor on racing and some tweets off course) and I think mainly responsible for the good results.
The rules of the race are quite simple. Just sail as much miles as possible within 24 hours. The winner is the one which has sailed most miles compared to his theoretical distance based on the length of his ship. For the race only a certain amount of tracks are allowed (see picture), which makes it a more strategic game as you have to think about the wind shifts of the next (up to 24) hours and where to go.
We raced the tour-classwith around 500 boats participating and we finished 11th. We sailed officially 149.67 nautical miles in total, which sums up to an average speed of 6.24 knots in 24 hours.
And off course the route has been deeply analyzed…
Aug 16th, 2009 by Hansie
First week in back in the Netherlands was not so hard as I would have expected.
Nothing has really changed. I have coffees and a sandwich at Café Thijssen (my Amsterdam office) instead of a lunch with fresh fish, I am reading the latest financial news in the FD instead of information about harbours and bays in sailing pilots. Work is like working in my Murter office as in the picture above. It is just all the same! Lucky me.
Next days / weeks / months will keep me busy with making a coherent and consistent story – the moments of truth – of my travelling.
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You will find the results here through a picture, map or a story published on this website periodically and I will be improving the website. Something I would like to start using is some cool extra functionality I found in the software I use for displaying the maps and pictures (XML Google Maps and NGG Galleries). It basically reads the GPS data from my geotagged pictures managed by NGG and displays it in Google Maps automatically, as you can see to the right. |
Jul 29th, 2009 by Hansie
Part of the trip Adriatica 2009 was sailing from Split to Dubrovnik.
The zipped KML file to be opened in Google Earth can be found here.
In between I visited the islands like Hvar, Vis, Korcula and Sipan before arriving in Dubrovnik. Later more on the different places and bays I have found during the trip. The places I liked most were the Island Vis and Sipan.
Jul 23rd, 2009 by Hansie
Scoop of the day is the visit of three generations of dolphins to our boat.
It was very close to the island Hvar on the line of the village Jagodni Bd and the islands Hridi Lukavei and they were with about 10-15 of them. I clearly recognized the grandparents and the youngers. The first because of their grace, the last because their playing with the boat, closely guarded by their parents.
Never saw so many dolphins together in the Adriatic Sea. Really hope this will only become more normal with the current efforts for the environment.
Jul 23rd, 2009 by Hansie
Just an easy sailing picture today, taken between Korcula and Sipan, one of the Elephati Islands.
