Day 1 - Funchal 500 Tall Ships Regatta - Falmouth to Portugal

As an intro, I will be brief. This is the story of my journey from Falmouth, Cornwall to Ilhavo, Portugal on the Far Barcelona, crossing the Bay of Biscay, as part of the Funchal 500 Tall Ships Race.

Thursday 11th September 2008: Falmouth

I arrive, kindly taxi'd by my parents, at the Far Barcelona at about 7pm. In the info sent from Consorci El Far (the owners of Far Barcelona), I was to meet with the 'ship' at the Port Pendennis Marina on the Queen's 'Whars' (sic). Only when we went to Queen's Wharf, we found that Port Pendennis Marina was actually the Marina by the Maritime Museum and not part of Queen's Wharf at all. I had tried to call the captain on a number given by email to confirm the date and time for meeting, but never got answered or a call return. Still I knew we'd be late so I had told my Dad that I needed to be there an hour earlier than the actual time arranged, so really I was on time. Also, it gave us a chance to see what the 'A-class' ships looked like up close. The longest in port, the Mir (M backwards N P) from Russia, was about 100m long, although the Sedov, at 130m was the longest in the regatta, but this was unable to dock in Falmouth for some reason.

By contrast, Far Barcelona is 30m long and is in the 'B class' and below race. Now I am sure the proper etiquette is to call FB (Far Barcelona) a ship in the context of a tall ships regatta, but in all honesty it is a boat. I don't mean in any way to demean it, but calling Falmouth a pleasant and busy town would be accurate. Calling it a vibrant city would not. Notionally, FB was built in 1874, but in reality only the keel and perhaps a few bits of the hull date from then. The rest of it is a recent restoration of what was once a cargo, er, boat. none of which is to say it is not a beautiful boat, both inside and outside, as I am sure you can see. This should be quite an adventure.

As I approached FB that first time, I was suprised to find that the first voices I heard were English. However, it turns out these were the liaison officers from Falmouth. The captain wasn't there. He was in Southampton seeing a 'friend'. I was introduced to the acting captain 'George' , who spoke in abrupt English, and showed me into the cabin to dump my things. Before I knew it, it was tata to Ma et Pere and off to the Crew Party at Falmouth Pavilions. This equated to lots of drink and dancing by people in strange uniforms.