The first day of our voyage started with sunshine on a beautifully blue sky, but also with very strong winds. Luckily last night we motored to be near St. Lucia – in a position with a little less wind that would allow us to set some sails and hope for a good sailing angle on the wind and seas. The deck crew was already standing by at 8:00 a.m. The ship was rolling, so imagine the amplitude of the swaying mast at 50 feet high! That was definitely a job for only the most courageous crew members to climb up these masts. We all were amazed by how easy it looked, but we knew how difficult and scary it is in reality. Surrounded by boobies plunge-diving to catch flying fish, we sailed with topsails set at an exciting speed of about 7 knots.
Shortly before lunch we passed the Diamond Rock that occupies a strategic position at the north end of the St. Lucia Straits. Possession of the Rock controls the navigation between Martinique and St Lucia: Because of that Diamond Rock played a big role in the British-French war in the early years of the nineteen century. Our historian Tom Heffernan explained to us why the HMS Diamond Rock is the only rock in the world being saluted today by British navy ships passing by.
In the afternoon during another very interesting talk given by Tom Heffernan, we learned about the history of the Caribbean sugar plantations and slave trade. As we all know, the time of the “White Gold” of the Antilles – as sugar was called - was without doubt tragic, but one of the results is the complexity and richness of the culture that we now see in the Caribbean Islands.
After the 45-minute process of taking in the sails in the late afternoon sun we were invited to the Captain’s Welcome Cocktail Party when some other officers of Sea Cloud were introduced. The elegant Welcome Dinner in the original Sea Cloud dining room finished the evening. Finally we got our sea legs and we were falling asleep ready for the visit of Dominica the next day.
