Maiden Voyage of Understanding
SSN117
22nd July ~ 01st August
Waterford, Ireland to Portsmouth England
Nine months of planning became reality on 20th July when the Encompass Trustees and Director greeted nine smiling and excited Indonesian youths at Waterford Airport in Ireland with Heroe Soeprapto as the youth leader. The teenage boys representing Al Kausar and Gontor Islamic Boarding Schools were for the first time in their lives stepping out of their strict school environment and their country in order to team up with youths from the UK to sail a traditionally rigged 200ft brig.
In order to prepare the Indonesian voyagers for the 10 night adventure they spent two days enjoying the ‘acclimatisation zone’ which Encompass had organised. It involved trying to adjust to the chilly Irish winds (although the locals, dressed in T-shirts considered it warm much to the boys’ amazement ), visiting the beautiful Irish countryside and beaches, a tour of Waterford Crystal, partaking in outward bound activities, trying new foods such as strawberries (kindly bought by the bus driver as we whizzed by a strawberry stall) and introducing them to Public Houses lining the streets in search of traditional Irish music, although only lemonade was strictly the drink of the day!
We failed to find traditional Irish music, but the boys took matters into their own hands and sitting on the edge of the bay entertained ENCOMPASS and the local Irish by singing rhythmic Indonesian songs. The troop aroused a great deal of curiosity from the locals who wandered up to listen and inquire who they were. Jackie Maguire, a youth co-ordinator who joined ENCOMPASS on the first day discovered the boys were fond of Westlife songs. Indonesian songs soon gave way to Westlife!
It was obvious that excited anticipation was building up amongst the boys who were all itching to board the STAVROS S NIARCHOS and meet the 39 other voyagers who they would be spending the next ten days with. When the time came, the ENCOMPASS voyagers marched up the gangplank and immediately joined in the mass flurry of activity of signing on as crew, finding ones own berth, exploring the ship down to its very bowels, discovering who was in which Watch, introducing themselves and chatting to new faces and meeting the permanent and volunteer crew, getting kitted up in waterproofs and harnesses and conquering the technique of climbing up the mast and stepping out onto the yards which stretch high above the decks.
The crew was made up of the nine Encompass voyagers from Indonesia, a group of nine UK Muslims from Derby which provided the Indonesian crew a chance to ask about life in the UK as a Muslim and the other 30 crew members were all from different backgrounds in the UK.
To observe the dynamics of the maiden Voyage of Understanding Claire Braden (Trustee) and I had signed on as volunteer crew; Second Cook and Cook’s Assistant respectively, which involved preparing three square meals a day for all 67 crew. According to the permanent crew, as we looked out of the galley, the great din of chatter, laughter and if not sometimes shrieking voyagers in the Mess during the first meal was said to be a sure sign of bonding and indicative of a fun-packed jolly good voyage to come…..
The following day STAVRO S S NIARCHOS set sail from Waterford harbour amidst a media frenzy, with the crew lined up on all the yards chanting “Oggy Oggy” songs to the crowds gathered along the harbour side and the media boat moving around the Tall Ship to capture the spectacle. The adventure was truly beginning, and as the magnificent ship cut through the calm sparkling waters towards the Irish Sea the excitement of the crew was almost insatiable.
That seemed to be the case until the STAVROS S NIARCHOS started to roll and heave in the swells which grew the further away the Irish coast became. The crew quickly became uncharacteristically quiet and despondent, and sat in huddles looking terribly pale and miserable, the only movement coming from the odd person staggering across the deck to the side in order to ‘feed the fish’. Within a couple of hours, the majority of the 48 crew were leaning over the side, and quite simply being horrendously sea-sick. It was just our luck that the Irish Sea was experiencing unusual weather conditions which was more characteristic of March than July. For the following three days and nights most of the crew battled through stomach churning, nauseating swells whilst trying to work the boat. ‘All part of the experience!’ exclaimed the permanent crew who never failed to turn up at meal times. The chattering din which previously took Claire and me by surprise had turned into nothing more than the odd mumble from a crew member who had decided bravely that perhaps this meal might stay down.
But as Captain Bob had predicted, by the time we arrived in Dingle, most faces had returned to a healthy shade as people finally obtained their sea legs. Everyone had battled through tough times and the Indonesian crew decided it was time to rejoice by bringing out their drums and guitar and started to sing songs from their homeland. The British crew gathered around and after hilarious attempts to try and emulate the tunes they turned to dancing to the rhythm instead.
For most voyagers the misery of sea-sickness was long forgotten for the rest of the voyage. After we left Dingle each crew member was in action with their Watch whether it was clambering up to the yards, unfurling the sails, tidying up the sails, heaving on ropes, cleaning the heads, scrubbing decks, taking on mess duties and serving meals whilst rolling around, waking up for the dreaded 4:00am watch, taking the helm and getting involved with the buzz of activity when bringing the ship into a harbour. The mess room banter was back to its original level and crew members were even coming back for second helpings.
We managed to serve Indonesian fried rice alongside most meals (which finally received a thumbs-up from the boys after our fourth attempt!) as it turned out the boys could not stomach the smell of western food whilst sailing. One afternoon we prepared an Indonesian dinner in order to dish out a cross-cultural experience for the British crew – and for the first time we had to turn back requests for more helpings as the crew had devoured the whole lot.
The Sail Training adventure wasn’t all about working the ship. Throughout the voyage inter-Watch competitions were raging on providing a healthy competitive atmosphere and an impromptu crew bonding session involved everyone lining up to have a stripe shaved off their left eyebrow. Shore leave provided the crew a chance to explore Dingle in Ireland. The crew went Dolphin watching, staged boat races, whizzed around the funfair whilst in Fowey the STA committee in Cornwall welcomed the crew in style by organising a disco in the Yacht Club.
As the STAVROS S NIARCHOS entered the Solent, it signalled the approach of the voyage end. It was show time for the crew as they clambered up to the yards ready to take on the press boat who were filming the return of the Voyage of Understanding. The press were transferred onto the STAVROS S NIARCHOS where the crew were all naturals as they smiled, chatted and re-created great action shots for the press who had returned to hear about the successful voyage.
The farewell BBQ party on the last night in Portsmouth had everything from the Egg Tossing Championships to Karaoke. The Indonesian crew performed a traditional Reog Mask Dance from the Ponogoro region which amazed the rest of the crew with their incredible strength, agility and endurance. One of the performers went into a seizure which alarmed the ship’s nurse as she surged forward to attend to him, but it turned out to be part of the dramatics of the dance!
The day of good-byes was particularly emotional as the crew were going to go their own way having lived, worked, eaten, ‘fed the fish’, taken care of each other and played together intensely for 10 days. 
There had been deep discussions amongst voyagers during the sail about faiths, lifestyles, backgrounds, what dreams were held for the future and what new adventures were to be started after the sail. They had shared music, dances and jokes. They had formed true friendships. The Tall Ship had brought together young people from different areas of society, different cultures and nationalities, different backgrounds and in its unique environment of challenges, excitement and hardship the crew were able to not only learn about themselves, but about others too; to tolerate, to understand, to accept and value each other as equals.
In the final days, the ENCOMPASS voyagers embarked on a whirlwind tour of London organised by Polly and Tim Braden and the boys teamed together to cook a fabulous Indonesian feast on the last night. As farewells were said at the airport it was good to see the crew excited to head back to Indonesia where they could share their adventure and experiences with their friends and family back home.
Jun Hirst
Director
Posted Wednesday July 23, 2003
