St Helena (the ship)

15.01.2021 - 25.02.2021
01.08.2020 - 23.10.2020
04.01.2020 - 24.06.2020
04.11.2019 - 27.12.2019

m/v St Helena (ex MNG Tahiti, RMS St Helena)

Captain

St Helena in Birkenhead, UK before the refit

Rescue of Wilhelmine

So on the 9th Nov we headed from Helsinki towards Kimito Island, more exactly to Pederså commune. It was a few hours drive and enroute we tried to find lodging and finally when all options on the Island were exhausted for one reason or another we settled for renting a house in Ekenäs, the drive from there was a mere 45mins.

Just arrived 

Rescue of Wilhelmine - prologue

My ex colleague Jan sent me in mid Oct some pictures of a small coaster that looked very quaint. At same breath he asked if I'd be interested in kicking her alive after 10 years of cold lay-up at a beach in Kimito Island and tentatively deliver her to shipbreakers in Denmark. Yes, I said, I'm always up to a challenge, especially one like this, one of a kind adventure.

Sahaniemi pier

Media postings

It seems the vessel I'm working on, St Helena, has quite the media coverage last few days from Northern as far as the Southern hemisphere ...

Extreme E press release

New livery

This Saturday m/v St Helena moved from Cammell Lairds Campbeltown facility into their Bidston repair facility for further outfitting afloat.

This move activated the local paparazzi into action and here are a few shots by local talents: 

St Helena on the Mersey (by Phil Owen)

Vacation time

After having done another 6mths onboard after the 2weeks off at New Year I was starting to get weary on the daily repair drudge & managed to get my ex colleague to relieve me for July. Our worked had not stopped at any point despite COVID, the yard abandoned us for lockdown but we carried on as usual.

River Severn

HMY Britannia

I was visiting my friend Wendy in Edinburgh for the New Years celebrations we did a lot of walking and one of my bucket list items was to visit the ex Royal yacht Britannia. She was these days decommissioned and repurposed as a museum down in Leith port (the yacht, not Wendy).

HMY Britannia stylized poster

S/y Eye of the Wind logbook

In the "Logbook" edition 3/2019 of the "Eye of the Wind" publication there is an article about "Anny" and her comparing both schooners on page 4 as they were at the same time in the same port. I have translated the German article, original written by Mr. Ronald Herkert, Managing Director of FORUM train & sail GmbH.

Life takes a turn...

As I was enjoying my rotational leave from Ventum Maris in South Africa I got a mail asking if I would be interested in joining a commercial venture with world wide itinerary. My interest was immediately peaked so I said "yes but that I was in a contract so needed some notice" in case we would come to an agreement. 

RMS St Helena watersalute

Photographer: unknown

Ventum Maris

14.06.2019 - 02.09.2019

Captain
m/y Ventum Maris

Ventum Maris anchored at Maddalena archipelago

New adventures

After I left Illusion + having been properly disillusioned by the Owners and zero progress in just about everything I resigned, handed over to my Chief Officer and went R&R to South Africa for a few weeks to clear my head. 

Ventum Maris in Valencia

Lühring sister ships meets

In 1998 Christian Eckardt writes the following in the Seereise magazine issue 3//2019:

Eye of the Wind (photo, courtesy of Christian Eckardt)

Illusion Plus

26.12.2018 - 08.03.2019

14.06.2018 - 17.12.2018

m/y Illusion Plus (today Eternal Tsingshan)
Captain

Illusion Plus

Joining again

Recently I was staying at my friends pad in Liguria, up in a medieval village of Montalto Ligure as I was doing rounds to the Riviera for various contacts looking for my next challenge. That aside my month was slowly coming to an end and one afternoon I was at the pad when I received an email out of the blue from China.

Yantai 200.000t mega crane and an oil-rig

Cap San Diego

Having been invited to Doehle offices for an event I also took the advantage to visit Cap San Diego that is a museum ship sitting in Hamburg most of the time. What is special about her is that she is still in Class and does short cruises along the German coast in summertime depending on how their funds last. She is mostly kept ship shape by enthusiasts and pensioned seafarers.

Cap San Diego

Lady S

02.11.2017 - 02.12.2017
04.11.2016 - 05.01.2017

Captain
m/y Lady S

Lady S (courtesy by Burgess)

Moonlight II

29.08.2017-01.11.2017

02.03.2017-01.06.2017
p/v Moonlight II (ex. Alysia)
Captain

Moonlight II (courtesy of Yachtcharterfleet)

Hellenic day

This Sunday I decided with a few crew go see some hellenistic sites handpicked from the guide book.

Becin castle

Bodrum

Having settled into the Yalikavak marina we finally had a chance to take a few hours off and I decided to go to Bodrum to see the sights as I had never been there before. According to the guidebook the only places that have any value historically is the Bodrum castle and the Mausollus mausoleum.

Yalikavak marina

Doing a Ferretti

I received a phonecall about 2 weeks ago asking of I was interested to step in as Capt on a 25m Ferretti as the permanent Captain unfortunately had had a heart attack so I thought it would be ok to help out for a few days and said I was available. 

Local boats

Lichadonisia islands

Having heard about the Greek Seychelles I decided to go visit. The group of Islands are located on the NW corner of Evia. You can either drive on the mainland to Kamena Vourla and take a ferry over or drive through Evia and boat over. I decided to do it the hard way and drove through Evia to enjoy the scenery instead of the heavily trafficked boring highway (and tollways) up towards Thessaloniki. 

Lichadonisia

Road trip

As I signed off Moonlight II in Nice after the open day event and handover to the other Captain, I decided that instead of flying I'd be going to Greece by land. So I disembarked on a calm day and saw classic yachts at the Beaulieu anchorage.

s/s Delphine

s/y A

As we had finished our refit in Greece overhauling all machinery on Moonlight II we were fit for fight for a summer of charters and we set our heading for the French riviera. Our next stop was the open day display in Nice. It's a small event organized by ECPY with ML2 as the largest participant where we went in 1st and then the port was filled up with all other participants coming in size wise, kept 3-4 pilots busy for an afternoon.

s/y A

Suez

After having departed Dubai in good order for European summer we had finally arrived Suez, the ditch of decay and depravity in form of bureaucrats descending on you like the proverbial plague in search of bribes and presents. I have had a few unpleasant transits where the rot was so bad I have no words for it.

Some of the old wrecks trafficking these waters