The Wind Spirit

Saturday, Feb 8th

Today we were at sea for the whole day and we will be all of tomorrow, arriving into Rarotonga, Cook Islands on Monday morning at 6 a.m.

There is no where I have to be today so I was able to kick back and relax and enjoy the beautiful Wind Spirit. Well, except I didn’t want to miss the napkin folding demonstration. No, actually, I took a pass on that. We were fortunate to have a picture perfect day, having left the grey skies behind, replaced with blue.

I did attend a lecture that I described in yesterday’s blog after an hour or so in the sun at the pool deck. It was quite interesting and good to put my brain to work at least a little. Then it was lunch, and a free afternoon when I worked on yesterday’s blog and picked up a book and got started on it. A nap in the shade was the highlight of the afternoon.

This evening was the Captain’s reception and the introduction of the officers of the ship. The Bulgarian Captain struggles a little with English but his enthusiasm more than makes up for it. He spoke for a little bit and then introduced the rest of the officers, all in their white uniforms they all looked quite dashing. There are 15 different nationalities among the staff, so it’s quite the international crew.

Since there wasn’t a lot going on to write about today, I thought I’d give you a run down on some info on the Wind Spirit.

Nothing like being on the ocean and in the fresh air to work up an appetite. So, let’s start with our food options. First of all, let me say that all the food has been excellent. 1000% better than other cruises I’ve been on. (Except Galapagos which was just 14 people). And the services has been exemplary. Attentive without being invasive. At breakfast and lunch they have both buffet and menu items and we can eat either inside or on the outside deck. There is also a little coffee shop on Deck 3 that has fancy coffees, tea, juice and some basic breakfast items that opens up earlier than the full breakfast on the top deck. And dinner is held in the lovely dining room complete with Murano Glass chandeliers, as well as at “Candles” on the pool deck with candles and all. The dining room has open seating and you can chose to sit with a group or by yourself, and you can show up any time between 7 – 9 to be seated. The Candles restaurant is all grilled food and you have to make reservations there, because of it’s small number of tables, but there is no additional cost.

And I’ve finally come across the perfect teapot! It doesn’t drip and having the handle where it is makes it much easier to pour.

The Wind Spirit was built in Le Havre France in 1988 and is the oldest ship of the Wind Star fleet. Although it’s been refit fairly recently and is not that tired, someone was telling me that it’s headed for dry dock soon to be completely done over. She is a four masted schooner (the masts are 62 metres high) and has 6 jib-stay sails. There are also 3 diesel motors. She is 134 metres long and a beam width of 15.8 metres, and has a draft of only 4 metres because of its flat bottom. I was surprised with all the sail on top to find out that it doesn’t have a keel. She is 5,736 gross tons, but that stat really means nothing to me.

The captain said today in his rambling announcements that the sails can add up to 25% to the overall speed when the wind is right, and today it was right. The sails were full all day. The ships speed is 11 knots with engines only and can get as high as 15.8 knots with engines and wind. The sails also have the added benefit of providing shade to some of the decks below so it’s not hard to get out of the sun when you want to.

The ship will accommodate 148 guests but on this leg of the voyage, there are only 139, with 99 crew members to look after us all.

My cabin is on Deck 1, and is right at the water line. The cabin has 2 portholes and at times the waves hit and cover the window. It sloshes as it does.

It has been fairly calm so far and the seas relatively flat. But there is always a bit of rocking so we’re still staggering and lurching from time to time.

As I said, tomorrow will be another relaxing day at sea, so I anticipate getting some reading done. There is another lecture tomorrow, so I’ll go to that as well.