Saturday August 22nd
We woke up pretty early and got the signal flags up and the ship ready for tours since we plan on opening the ship just about as soon as we get there. We furled the sails that needed furled and the pilot came on board.
We set topsails and topgallants and fell in a very spaced out line as we motor/sailed our way through the channel to Delfzijl. As we got closer more and more boats of all kinds came buzzing around. The closer we got to the city the more people we saw on shore until we passed some grassy knolls covered with people.
Windmills and people riding their bikes on the canal walls made a very Holland scene along with a plethora of traditional flat bottomed gaff rigged Dutch sailing sloops. We fired a cannon at the end of our national anthem which they played as we entered the harbor.
The event was packed, we learned later they expected over a million people to visit the festival and I believe it. We came in and docked with a hue crowd not two feet from our docking bits. Which is a really bad idea since we throw our lines across on lead balls and if a dock line broke under strain it could kill someone. I was shocked the event coordinators would do something as dangerous as that, but the more I hung around the festival the less surprised I was.
Of our four heaving lines (it is extremely hard to throw these with any accuracy, the general method is just throw it as hard as you can to make sure it gets on shore), two went nicely across, one went into the crowd but thankfully didn’t hit anyone, and the fourth was plucked right out of the air by a Dutch shoreman there to take our lines. The crowd and ship gave him a big applause, seriously, he should be an outfielder.
We got our gangways down and began setting up for tours. I knew it was going to be interesting as a giant mob formed outside the 
ship with no interest in forming a line. Several of them stood on the 6 inches of space in front of the closed sign on our gangway. I had to physically push past them to get off the ship. As I was assembling the informational signs a Dutch woman was adamant that I was doing it incorrectly and for several minutes followed me around trying to convince me to do it a different way.
The mob in front of our ship became so thick it blocked all traffic around us and people (including the security guards who probably should have been doing something about it) began hopping up on a raised are behind tents and going around. The event people set up no line in barrier form and gave us no security to organize people. We got flooded and tried to make them form a line which we eventually did after moving around barriers we stole from another area and literally herding the Dutch. One man came up to us an said “I have an observation for you, we Dutch cannot form lines”. We agreed.
A festival coordinator, who would continue to be a thorn in our side, came after we got people to form a line and said we had to switch our exit and entrance ramps. We told him the ship doesn’t work that way, there is only one way to do it. He didn’t listen and angrily told us “It must be this way, it is only logical. Do you not understand?!”. So we had to close down the below decks part of the ship and do topside only tours. (I do like the Dutch, it just started poorly).
I stood on deck but only answered a couple questions, though many people asked me things in Dutch, but gave up when I asked them if they speak English; I didn’t think I looked very Dutch. Amelia and her parents came to the festival and they waded through the mob to come on board, quite a feat.
At 6pm I got off of work and Amelia and I wandered the festival and the city of Delfzijl. The festival is huge, the parade of sail lasted all afternoon, ships just kept coming in and coming in. There was a regular forest of masts in the harbor, an incredible sight. No one I talked to had ever seen so many tallships in one place. People were just wall to wall, and there were half a dozen stages set up throughout the festival.
Delfjizl is a small walled city with brick streets. It seems to be a pretty touristy town with many shops, but it was obviously way more packed than normal. We had Chinese food for dinner and enjoyed a wonderful fireworks show from the ship. At the end a huge freighter ship all lit up and with spotlights turning had two tugboats push it to do 360’s in the harbor. The ship was an incredible and ridiculous sight.
Sunday August 23rd
Amelia and I had tried to get on the bus list for the trip to Amsterdam, but our liason had only left it on the boat for an hour. So, we decided to just show up to the buses at 8am in the hope that many sailors had had too good of a night previously. We woke up early and headed out with a bunch of the crew who didn’t sign up either and went to the area we were told the buses would be coming.
We found several other ship’s sailors wandering around the area, as lost as us and no buses. We decided we had to be in the right area and waited until finally a bus did show up; which was immediately filled with Russians in their white shore uniforms before me made the short distance there. A couple of our crew got the last 3 seats on board and the rest of us debated whether there would be more buses.
Luck was on our side as more buses showed up and these buses even had lists of people who were supposed to be on the buses. We found the Bounty bus and when we explained we were not on the list they replied “oh that’s fine there is plenty of room”. We got on board and pretty soon our other bounty sailors who had gotten on the Russian bus showed up. Shortly thereafter the bus was rolling into the Dutch countryside and were on our way.
We saw some beautiful country, lakes, canals and of course traditional windmills. Nearly three hours later we rolled into Amsterdam next to the central train station. I was astounded by the juxtaposition of all the very good looking modern architecture and the obviously historic buildings. Our tour guides were going to do a short tour before they set us loose, but we decided to get moving to get the most of our 6 hours in Amsterdam.
They gave us sack lunches which were better for giving us a laugh than filling our stomachs. We got an apple, which was a very good apple, as well as three sandwiches consisting each consecutively of butter, a single slice of meat, and a single slice of cheese. To wash it all down a little container of lime yogurt in liquid form. I could never quite figure out if I liked the stuff, but it was decidedly not satisfying on a hot sunny day.
The Bounty crew left en masse, but Amelia and I quickly decided by the third shop the group stopped at that we should break off on our own. So off we wandered in the general direction of the history museum, purposefully leaving the map to rot in my backpack. We passed all sorts of grand old buildings and tiny alley ways. At one point I stopped off in a KFC to use the restroom and was met by a man with a table set up next to them who informed me it would be 50 cents to use these KFC bathrooms. I took a long pause before I gave the man his money. Can’t say I ever expected that.
I was very struck by the lack of cars in the city, how the vast majority of people rode bikes or walked. It made for a serenely quiet atmosphere. We lucked out to be there on an absolutely beautiful sunny, warm, Sunday afternoon. Everybody seemed to be out on the town on their bikes or walking or enjoying a drink at the cafe.
What I think I most enjoyed, however, was the immense numbers of people out in their boats on the canal for an afternoon cruise. All types of boats from expensive ski boats to tiny little home made beaters with sputtering outboards and everything in between. Amelia and I sat beside a canal for a while in the shade of an old tree and just watched the Sunday traffic.
We eventually made it to the history museum which was fantastic even if overpriced and required us to put my bag in a locker which I had to pay for as well. The museum is designed chronologically, but we somehow ended up touring it backwards, which I actually really enjoyed doing. I feel it gave us an interesting perspective. The history of Amsterdam is obviously fascinating and gave us better eyes with which to see the city we wandered the rest of the day.
After the museum we wandered a bit with the vague aim of finding a place to eat an afternoon meal. We eventually settled on a little Tapas restaurant which gave us quite a gourmet meal. We took the long way back to the bus stop area enjoying the canals and building. We found ourselves back sufficiently early that we decided to strike out again for the Red Light District.
We got sidetracked from our quest by the oldest church in Amsterdam, a beautiful old gothic building. Here met a lovely trifecta of oldest church, “coffee” shop and brothel at a single intersection. We wandered through a corner of the Red Light District, which was pretty much as sad and ridiculous as I expected. I was more amused by the throngs of tourists alongside us than anything. My favorite was a pair of old Asian ladies coming out of a tiny dirty alleyway, red light peaking out behind them, with big smiles on their faces.
We spent the last 25 minutes before the bus came basking in the warm sun and watching a particularly busy canal intersection. We got back to the bus, as did everyone else thankfully, and off we went back to Delfzijl. On the way back we passed many people fishing in the canals or having a weekend on their boats as well as a dozen hot air balloons drifting lazily above the picturesque farmland.
We got back late and just hung around the ship the rest of the night, listening to nearby concerts.
Monday August 24th
Woke up before 9am so we could climb the rig and get some photos of the festival before our events started. Yet again we lucked out to a bright sunny day and I really enjoyed the forest of masts and rigging around us.
Amelia and I went off and explored the festival, had a beer at 11am, and just enjoyed looking at ships all day. There were ships of all kinds and from all over the place. I think my favorite ship of the festival was the tiniest barque I have ever seen. It was only 40ft long and had yard about 8 feet wide on the foremast. It’s deadeyes were smaller than my fist and it had tiny wooden blocks rigged to everything. It was wonderfully ridiculous.
Amelia’s folks came and picked her up in the afternoon; she left to go traveling with a friend for a few weeks and then is going on to sail Pride of Baltimore II. Everyone was sad to see her go.
That evening I went off with Caleb and a backpack full of beer to go socializing at different ships. We walked around the festival and had some great conversations with a few Dutch ships. We also caught Pirates of the Caribbean II playing on a big screen and came along just in time for the scene when the Bounty gets destroyed by the Kraken. When we came back to the ship we found Dutch Jack Sparrow (who had been around all weekend) was still on the ship and hanging out with the crew. I went to sleep early since I had work the next day.
Tuesday August 25th
Woke up for work, got ready, came on deck, and stood around for 3 hours. Hurry up and wait we call it. The last three days in mornings a company I cannot pronounce has sponsored a kids events on board for ill and handicapped children. Today we had all terminally ill kids on board doing activities like sword fighting, face painting, and we showed them how to fire the cannon.
We were just there to deal with the cannon and make sure everything goes well. All the crew hired by the company were dressed in pirate garb and our Dutch Jack Sparrow was of course a huge hit. Amber did most of the cannon firing but I did one as well for the heck of it, it was pretty fun.
It rained on and off all day and the event went flawlessly. After it was done we cleaned up and got the ship ready for tours. After dinner everything was ready to go and I was relieved form duty at 6pm. I went into town and hit the grocery store. Then I went to the crew center, which was packed, and used the internet for a couple hours.
When I cam back to the ship I just relaxed in my bunk and went to sleep early. I need to spend more time just relaxing and resting, but that may just not be possible. I will be sad to leave Delfjizl. I had a great time here and wish we could have stayed a little longer, but they will be getting the port back into business as soon as our lines leave shore.
Wednesday August 26th
Woke up at 9:00am to find out our departure was pushed back until 4pm. So, instead we were all put to work party. I pulled down the dress signal flags, removed/serviced/returned a block to the rig, and a few other jobs. The whole while a crowd had been gathering and every time you went up in the rig hundreds of people had their eyes on you and took pictures.
We worked until about 3:00pm and then got the ship ready to leave. We worked the ship off the dock despite a wind pressing us against it. As we left we fired two cannons on each side and got a big cheer from the crowd. We threw up all of our fore and aft sails while we headed down the channel and out to sea.
My A watch got Mike added to it and Andrew is staying on for this leg as well as a couple of passengers. We are on the 4-8 for this transit and so we took the deck after working all day. I was on the helm as the pilot boat came and picked up their pilot and we motor/sailed out toward the sea. At the end of the watch we struck all the sails and had to go secure the headsails on the bow sprit. I was feeling very tired and grouchy that we waited until the last 5 minutes of our watch to start a big job like striking all those sails. So, we got off over a half an hour late and I went straight to my bunk to catch sleep until my next watch.
It seems this will be a watch without darkness as we will be near sunset in the evening and twilight to sunrise in the morning. I think it will be an interesting experience. The captain said this morning that there will be a gale blowing against us and he expects a very rough transit. The plan seems to be to get to the UK coast as quickly as we can and get some shelter from the land. I hope it works out that way. We have 8 days to make what could be a 3 day transit, this could be nice or painful, we will find out.
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