Will this be the last time?
Adam reports on his Oosterschelde voyage July 2025
At 76, with more sea miles behind me than ahead, it’s only natural to ask the question—will this be the last time I cross an ocean under sail?
I joined Oosterschelde in Horta a day and a half later than planned, but fortunately, I’d given myself a buffer to explore the island before joining the ship. (Flight cancelled and put back a day and a half.)
So while waiting for my delayed flight I had an unexpected day in Lisbon where I visited the Oceanarium which was well worth a visit; I highly recommend it. Also spotted Santa Maria Manuela on her Lisbon berth close to the Oceanarium.
Horta’s a small town on Faial in the Azores, with a population of about 7,500 and a very relaxed feel. It’s not overrun by tourists. The buildings are still traditionally Portuguese, and I didn’t spot any modern monstrosities. It’s a friendly place, and the marina is surprisingly large but it serves yachts crossing the Atlantic in both directions. A French flotilla of around 60 yachts was in harbour while I was there. They were heading back to France. On the Sunday afternoon they had races in their traditional ‘whaleboats’ ‘that can be sailed and rowed. At just under 40foot long they are big boats to row and they are quite easy to capsize when sailing!
Darwin200
The voyage I was joining was the last of 32 Darwin200 legs that had taken Oosterschelde from Plymouth in July 2023 to Horta in July 2025.
This voyage formed part of the Darwin200 initiative, a global conservation programme that retraced, as closely as possible, Charles Darwin’s original route aboard HMS Beagle. The ship served as both a floating laboratory and media platform, using Darwin’s legacy to foster interest in natural history and draw attention to current environmental issues.
The project aimed to engage a worldwide audience while contributing to scientific research and conservation. The Darwin200 team worked with 106 young environmental leaders across 42 countries, building a student network that reached nearly 200,000 followers with active online exercises that could be demonstrated in the class rooms ashore around the world. The long-term educational impact on these young people will be significant, helping to shape future conservation efforts that affect us all.
Getting on board was easy. Just a walk through the harbour authority building and down the quay. I joined the ship in the afternoon, met the crew and fellow sailors, and got settled in. That evening we had a safety briefing and some demonstrations. I’ve even got a photo of me trying on a lifejacket.
Very Important people.
When you join a ship to sail as part of the voyage crew, as I was doing, the first people you want to get to know are the permeant crew, those that are paid to work onboard. They are real sailors in it for the long time. their skills an enthusiasm help you actually become part of the ship very quickly what ever your own experience.
In the photo at the top of the page, left to right:
Jenn the mate, Dan, Famke, Jan Williams the Captain, Jaan, Lucas and Vicky the cook from the Shetlands. Josh the photographer is lurking behind.
Your people
The people you are ging to get to know the best are in your watch, I was in the white watch. We ran a rotating three-watch system: six-hour daytime watches (with breaks for meals) and four-hour night watches. My favourite was the morning watch—4am to 8am. Watching the light spread into the day is always a pleasure and there is breakfast to look forward to at the end of the watch.
For me one of the greatest pleasure is meeting new people and getting to know them, working, eating and laughing together. In my watch we had Fritz from Germany, my cabin mate, we told a lot of jokes and made up amazing stories, some of them were true! Hopefully I got him started into yoga by running some chair yoga sessions. We had a couple form Spain, some Brits, a giant man from Inverness, a few Dutch and an amazing lady from Brazil.
Calm Seas and Close Encounters
We set off from Horta on the first day, heading in a north-easterly direction. There was no wind to speak of, so we motored through flat seas under a blazing sun. The main hazard wasn’t swell or sail handling, it was sunburn. I oiled up and kept cool in the shade part of the time.
As evening approached, the sea came alive. A group of three whales, two adults and a youngster, came close to the ship. I had my phone to hand and managed to capture that magical moment when a tail flips up into the air before sliding down beneath the surface. I’ll never forget that scene.
The day ended with a remarkable sunset. No filters, no exaggeration. Just the real thing after a long, warm day at sea.
Thursday 10 July – Yoga and DNA Sampling
I was up at six for fifty minutes of yoga, stretching and a leg massage. I felt much more relaxed afterwards. Warrior Two and other balance-based movements were not practical on a moving deck.
Before the wind set in later that morning I watched Mariana prepare and lower her DNA research equipment into the sea. I hope to include the exact technical details from her later, but here is how it looked from my perspective.
A 200-metre length of light rope was prepared with trucker’s knots at the 20 and 200-metre marks. It was weighted with six diver’s belt weights.
Two identical sampling canisters were fitted with sterilised filters. Great care was taken to avoid any contamination, both during deployment and recovery. The ship had to be stationary in the water to ensure the depth was not compromised by towing the samplers. So the Captain Jan William brought the ship under engine power, head to wind, and held stationary in the water..
The canisters were then lowered to the full length of the line and secured for ten minutes. During that time, fifty litres of seawater was pumped through a fibre membrane filter. The key was the volume, not the time, to ensure all samples were handled consistently.
Once retrieved, Marainana removed the filters from the canisters, you could see a faint brown stain on the filter indicating the presence of DNA materials, microscopic life. It was quickly sealed in a plastic sample bottle. A chemical was then injected to preserve the sample and prevent deterioration. It was not formaldehyde, but a more modern solution especially designed to preserve the DNA samples.
Since leaving Cape Town, Mariana has conducted the same procedure at ninety-seven sampling points in a continuous line up the Atlantic Ocean.
The results will be revealed publicly at the concluding award ceremony in London in 2026 during a special lecture event exploring the evolutionary origins of Life on Earth.
Downwind Sailing and the Evening Watch
After the completion of Mariana’s DNA Sampling we set the sails and began to sail north-east with the wind behind us. Now we were heading towards the shores of old England over 1000 nautical miles away.. In fact, the wind stayed behind us for almost the entire passage. Sometimes it was light, sometimes a little stronger. At times we had a broad reach, but always downwind. Because of the shifting wind directions, there was plenty of sail handling to do. Sometimes the square sails were set, sometimes they were taken down. Sometimes we had the gaff sails up, sometimes they were down. The gaff topsails came and went as well. It was up, down and all about. Even during the longer six-hour watches, there was always enough to do to keep us occupied.
One evening, during the eight to midnight watch, Lucas, one of the deckhands, joined us on deck. He had injured his hands earlier when a sheet line unexpectedly ran through his fingers too fast and burnt them badly. He could not take part in the normal duties, but he kept us company and told stories.
During the watch he asked each of us in turn to name our favourite animal. When we had all answered he asked for our second favourite animal. After that he asked for our third favourite animal. As you can imagine we were very perplexed as to what this was about, I think we were all waiting for some kind of joke or punchline.
These are my answers in order of preference; Storm Petrel, Swift and Albatross.
Lucas explained that your first choice is how you want people to see you. The second is how people actually see you. The third is what you truly are.
So I would like to be seen as a Storm Petrel. A small bird that crosses oceans, apparently fragile but in reality a survivor in big seas and strong winds.
The second was the Swift. Beautiful in flight, full of energy, and noisy. They are not very good once they land, unable to take off again easily. They need to stay in their element. That felt accurate enough. I am good when I am in my own zone, but not so great when taken out of it.
The third was the Albatross. To me, it is the most elegant and capable bird. They travel vast distances, circling the Southern Ocean, gliding for days, weeks or months at a time. They live nearly as long as I do. They start breeding at around three years of age and pair for life.
So that was one evening watch. Steady sailing, good conversation and something a little different to think about, thanks to Lucas.
A soldiers Wind
In all the following days we never had to tack. It was steady and enjoyable sailing, even a light drop of rain did not dampen our spirits. This is easy sailing and so deemed suitable for soldiers, a soldier’s wind.
In Soundings
As you approach the western end of the English Channel the depth of the Atlantic Ocean goes from over 4000 meters to about 150 or less in quite a short distance. You are now sailing over the continental shelf and two things I predicted would happen duly did. The first was the appearance of fishing boats trawling on their own or pair trawling or possibly purse seining.
Secondly as the fish were there we began to see many more seabirds, black back gulls, gannets and guilemotts.
The colour of the water changed from deep blue to a dark bottle green again. I think this indicates more life from living in the sea.
Bishops Rock Lighthouse was spotted briefly far away in the North West.
You go to sea to sail but as your voyage gets closer to the end you have the excitement of seeing land and going ashore to look forward to. Our first and only stop on the way was the Helford Estuary where we dropped anchor. We did have a problem in that the ship had no Cornish Flag (Flag of St Piran) to fly as a courtesy flag. A little bit of coordination had Tallulah anchoring nearby in the Helford and Debbie rowed across in No 8 to pass her spare St Piran flag. Thank you Debbie and Tallulah.
The next morning, with flags flying, we left the Helford setting all sail except the gaff topsails and headed towards Falmouth. We had to tack a couple of times to fill the time. Until then, we had not needed to tack at all. Captain Jan William wanted to make our arrival at exactly midday when a reception party would be waiting for us, TV cameras and all.. But before that we were honoured by eight members of the Roseland Gig Rowing Club who had rowed out in one of their gigs to welcome us home. As we passed close by they raised their oars in a salute, it was a wonderful sight, quite emotional, I’m very grateful for the ‘proper job’ homecoming.
Safely alongside in Falmouth there were lots of people to meet us, family and friends but still some work to do. I volunteered to go aloft and put the square sails in their gaskets. (Tie them closely to the yards.)
For me; that is my happy place aloft working on the yard arms.
By the time I came down nearly everyone had gone below or headed into Falmouth Town. The poor old BBC needed someone who had sailed from Horta to Falmouth to interview and I was the only person available.
I told them how working aloft with Daan aged 19 and me at 76 made a great team. They seemed to like that and it appeared on BBC Spotlight South West on Sunday evening July 20th 2025.
Darwin200 completed round one.
At 76, the answer to – will this be the last time I cross an ocean under sail?
Is I certainly hope not, I’d love to do it again as soon as possible.
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