Logbooks & diaries

Dear Diary,

Well, we left Torquay on Thursday and sailed to Portsmouth. We passed by the Isle of Wight and the Needles and some very large tankers and arrived into Portsmouth quite early on Friday morning. Here, we moored in the Portsmouth Historic Dockland Area and again everyone was so friendly and welcoming. We've had lots of visitors to the ship and to my diary as well!

I met a lovely woman, Caroline Savage, who has been following my diary and we had a very interesting conversation about the journey and life on board the Sea Stallion.

Portsmouth is a very interesting town because of its naval history and since I had some time off there, I went to visit Lord Nelson's ship, the Victory, and King Henry VIII's favourite ship, the Mary Rose, which he named after his sister, Mary. I really enjoyed the visit - the Mary Rose is kept in very special conditions to preserve it. She sank in the sixteenth century and many people died.

The Victory is a huge ship and later than the Mary Rose. There are many very large cannon on board and some very scary looking surgical instruments! What I enjoyed most here was seeing the Trafalgar sail - I met a very nice naval officer who let me wear his hat and showed me around the exhibition.

On Monday we left Portsmouth and set sail for Ramsgate along the coast of England. I got to see the White Cliffs of Dover. The sailing was great though we had some strong winds. I am amazed at how much the ship moves when she sails. She is very flexible and moves with the wind and the swells as she surfs the waves.

In Ramsgate we stayed in tents in a lovely little campsite. The crew and I were so tired and the weather was so nice that we just walked around the town for the few days we were there and relaxed.

We set sail again last Thursday - this time heading for Lowestoft - the most easterly town in England. Here, we had a crew change over the weekend. We are changing five people in midships. Four are returning home and one is moving to the foreship. I'll really miss them all.

The Sea Stallion is a very special ship as are all the people on board. Everybody gets to know each other very well very easily and we really are great friends.

Must stop now but hope you are all well.

Miss you,

Erik