#puddlehopping

August 24, 2016, Brad writes:

With Dr. Seuss’s book Oh, The Places You’ll Go! ringing in our ears, we’ve accepted deckhand positions together aboard the tall ship Kajsamoor!  How could we say no to this beauty??

Kajsamoor means “mother of wind troll,” a character in ancient Norse mythology.  She is 108 feet long, 19 feet wide, and… tall.  I’m not sure how tall, but we’ll have a better idea when we start climbing those masts!  She was built in Norway in 1939 as a traditional cargo ship, and is currently in use for day-sailing trips on the Baltic Sea from Tallinn, the capitol city of Estonia.  It’s a bit farther north than Juneau, Alaska, and we certainly anticipate chilly weather.

Our new captain, “Cactus” Bryan, has owned and operated a charter tall ship in the US and British Virgin Islands until last year, when his vessel was struck while moored near Virgin Gorda.  In the aftermath, Cactus has restarted his dream of operating a green trading vessel.  While trading commodities between Guyana and the USVI, the business will also take paying students on as trainee sailers between many of the eastern Caribbean islands.  The company website, http://www.caribbeantallshiptrader.com, has all the details of the new business plan and more great photographs of the ship.  We’ll add more details as we learn them also.

We will be joining the Kajsamoor in Tallinn on September 10, and assisting the captain with boat preparations leading up to our embarkation date of October 1.  The website above lists our path, but we’ll make our way along the northern and western borders of Europe, with a final stop in the Canary Islands before making an Atlantic crossing in November (weather permitting!) to Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas, USVI, which will become the new home port for Kajsamoor. This introductory journey will take us approximately 6,500 miles.