We continue to make fair progress and are now some 50 miles south of Crete and heading east. We continue to see quite a lot of shipping. Life aboard Phoenicia is fairly routine at the moment. Rob Foote has settled in well as our latest but one crew member. The other arrival is called Burt and he or she has been making them selves comfortable ever since their arrival yesterday afternoon. Burt of course is a small bird and is quite unlike other bird visitors that we have had on board that usually stay a night and then fly on or indeed die on board due to lack of food and exhaustion.

Burt has found that around the galley is a good supply of cockroaches and other insects and has lost no time in hunting them down. This bodes well for his survival as we have never managed to persuade other bird visitors to eat, not that we had to try in the case of Burt. The other unusual thing about Burt is that he is completely unafraid of us humans and flies around the cabin with impunity. He lands on all manner of objects including the kettle handle, coffee cups and computer laptops as well as on members of the crew. Providing nothing untoward should come of him, it looks like he will be with us until we reach landfall.

Photos below: Rob Foote settled into life onboard and  Dirman tries to tempt Burt with a piece of bread!

 

Although the winds are not ideal we continue to make reasonable progress and are now about 50 miles off the south west coast of Crete with less than 700 miles to go to reach the Levant Coast.

Thoughts on Malta

Our visit to Malta was all too brief on account of us having to make the most of getting back to our Phoenician homeland before the winter gales and storms take hold. Nevertheless in spite of having to do some jobs for the ship we had 2-3 days to look around the main island of Malta. Malta of course is so full of history, from Neolithic times to the present, that there would never be enough time to gain a full understanding of the culture and history of the island in such a short time. If you haven't been and are interested in history, then Malta is highly recommended. That said the insights we gained enabled us to paint something of a picture of Malta in ancient times.

In chronological order, it is interesting to note that in the caves at Ghar Dhalam animal remains dating back to 250,000 years ago have been found, showing that in pre-historic times African animals were to be found this far north. And at Hagar Qim on the South East of Malta there is a pre-historic temple and adjacent to is a Neolithic temple known as Mnajdra. These temples have much in common with Stone Henge in the UK and certain features (platforms or altars) are aligned with the sun at certain points of the year such as the summer solstice and equinox. Visiting Hagar Qim is a journey back in time and a few kilometres away are the remains of a Bronze Age settlement where large grain stores of several cubic meters each have been carved out of the rock by hand. These are accessed only from a small round hole (sufficient for a small person to get in) above each of the half a dozen or so grain stores.

Phoenician settlement on the island is significant although nowhere near on the scale of Carthage. In fact it is generally considered that Malta was politically under the influence of Carthage although much of the cultural influences such a pottery items stem from further west, from Phoenician settlements at Gadir, Mogador, Oran and Lixus. The main Phoenician maritime remains have been found at Marsaxlokk Harbour, to the south east of the island, an unusually shaped harbour that would have afforded good protection. Not far from the Harbour was a prominent temple to which mariners would have made offerings before proceeding on their journeys. That Phoenician influence on Malta dates the end of the 8th century BC at least and that it was significant can be deduced from a number of factors. There are a significant number of tombs scattered across Malta and Gozo, with more being found in western Malta than in other areas. Another factor is that even today a high percentage of Maltese words can be traced to Phoenician words. But the absence so far of the discovery of more developed urban institutions like tophets (cemeteries) has led some to conclude that Malta was a transitory Phoenician settlement, there to assist mariners rather than a self sustaining Phoenician settlement in its own right. That would certainly fit with its strategic location in the central Mediterranean and why indeed we visited Malta last week.

 

Winds remain very light and conditions are what one perceives as typically Mediterranean, that is that we have bright sunshine, hot decks and bright blue seas. We expect these conditions to continue for a day or two until the winds become more varied once again.

Some reflections on Carthage.

Our all too brief visit to Carthage gave us a chance to learn of some of the basics of this bastions of Punic power. As mentioned previously, what impresses upon one most about Carthage is its pure scale. No wonder the Romans could eventually stand the power of Carthage no longer and sadly levelled it to the ground in 146 BC, only to later rebuild it in to a more splendid and prosperous capital.

Arguably the most amazing of the Punic ruins at Carthage and ones which are of most interest to us are the two ports which were adjacent to each other, one a commercial port on the seaward part of the harbour and the second, a military port placed in an inner harbour and accessed only through the basin of the commercial port. Today the outlines of the two ports can still be observed, one oblong lagoon (the commercial port) and the other circular.
The ancient writings of Polybius who was based at Carthage when it was destroyed and Appian, the 2nd Century author of Roman History (who has handed down Polybius's account) described the ports like this:

"The ports of Carthage were laid out in such a way that the ships passed from one to the other; they were entered from the sea through an opening 70 feet (about 21 meters) wide, which was closed with iron chains. The first port for traders had many different moorings. In the middle of the inner port there was an island. Here stood in Punic times a raised structure, from where the admiral of the port could control all the traffic".

According to Appian, compartments (around the island) opened up in the military port to house 220 Punic war triremes and above them were warehouses for equipment. Facing each compartment there rose two columns, which gave the circumference of the port and the island the appearance of a colonnade.

The two large basins had been dug out by hand. The inner basin had a radius of 160 meters and a circumference of 1,020 meters whilst the inner island had a radius of 120 meters and a circumference of 332 meters. The inner basin therefore covered some 6 hectares. Similar acreage was covered by the commercial port which measured about 150 meters wide and 400 meters long.

The depth was according to the descriptions of the time, just 2.5meters, more than sufficient for the shallow hulled war triremes and the merchant galleys like Phoenicia, which has a draft of less than 1.5 meters.

Archaeologists have found the remains of dry docks where the ships were pulled up by ropes and dragged across wooden rollers for repairs and caulking.

In Roman times the ports were repaired and used again for the vital purpose of supplying Rome with grain and olive oil. In fact North Africa was the granary of the Roman empire and Carthage was the collection point for all the African produce. Indeed emperor Commodus set up a "fleet of provisions" specifically to ship foods and wild circus animals to Rome and which was based at Carthage. In return for the privilege of feeding Rome, Carthage obtained special status as a superior city and constructed grandiose monuments and numerous large buildings. By about 900 AD Carthage had been subjugated by Arab control and gradually fell into disrepair.
 

Having spent 5 days in Carthage at anchor just outside the small but full harbour of Sidi Bou Said, we left at 10.30 yesterday morning. Due to strong winds earlier in the week, we had put out two anchors to hold our position.

However on weighing anchor we came up with three! The third was a fisherman's anchor with nets attached and two terracotta pots, one with an octopus inside which made for a rather chewy supper. It all made for an interesting start to the leg towards Malta. Our stay in Carthage provided an opportunity to come to terms with the scale of the Phoenicians achievements in building and maintaining Carthage until its fall to the Romans in 140 BC. The size and scale of the city and the numbers involved leaves one in no doubt as to the incredible abilities and ambitions of the Punic empire in the Western Mediterranean.

With reasonably strong north westerly winds blowing, our exit was slightly difficult, as we had two small islands and a headland to clear before we were free of dangers. And about 12 hours after our departure we were free of dangers and able to hoist the main sail. Since leaving we have covered over 80 miles and are now just passing the island of Pantelleria to the south of us - famous for the building of Punic warships in the third and fourth centuries BC. From here it is a relatively small hop of a 130 miles towards Malta.
 

We have had another fair day of progress covering some 65 miles during the period. We now have less than 250 miles to go to reach Carthage and Tunisia.

Winds remain varied but should pick up on Monday and Tuesday. In the meantime we are looking forward to our visit to Carthage - a Phoenician colony with unparallel history and scale, as illustrate in the piece below.

The Origins of Carthage

The origins of Carthage are steeped in many legends, myths and historical accounts as to how the Phoenicians greatest colony was founded. Fortunately the historical accounts by writers such as Diodorus writing in the 1st century BC and the myths and legends have a common theme running through them and as such there is a general consensus as to the Carthage's early history which is as follows.

The colony was started by Elissa (also known as Dido to the local Libyan population of the time) who was from Tyre and sister to Pygmalion who had inherited the throne of Tyre at a very early age. She quarrelled with him and set off with some Tyrian noble men and some of lower ranks to find a distant country.

History records that in 820 BC Mattan 1 left the throne in the hands of his son Pygmalion aged 11 at the time and in the 7th year of his reign in 814 BC, Elissa fled from Tyre to found Carthage. Elissa had been married to her uncle Acherbas, high priest of Heracles (Melcart) and as such was second in rank only to the King of Tyre. Therefore Acherbas was therefore rich and powerful and a direct threat to Pygmalion who ordered his assassination which duly happened. Elissa with a group loyal to her husband fled to Cyprus. Bitias, the Commander of the Tyrian fleet, sided with Elissa and accompanied her on her expedition.

In Cyprus they were joined by the high priest Juno, who insisted that the Temple would be hereditary amongst his family in the new land they were going to. Thus Tyrian aristocracy and the Temple were both instrumental in the founding of Carthage, something which does not appear to have happened in most of the Phoenician settlements through out the Mediterranean. Before setting out the Tyrians collected 80 young girls for sacred prostitution to ensure the continuation of their religion in the West. The expedition headed straight for Carthage where the adjacent Phoenician settlement of Utica supported them and gave them presents.

There they were well received by the indigenous people, whose king Hiarbas gave them free entry to the territory and permitted them to buy as much land as could be covered by an ox hide. Legend has it that the clever Elissa decided to cut an ox hide into this strips and so was able to mark out a hillside for the founding of Carthage. The ancient name for the hill or acropolis at Cathage is "Byrsa" which in Greek means "oxhide".

The native king demanded to marry Elissa (who they called Dido - the wandering one) but in honour of her late husband she refused and committed suicide by throwing herself on a fire. After her sacrifice by fire, her subjects deified her and preserved her cult until the last days of Carthage.

Carthage's important strategic position in the centre of the Mediterranean, its management by Tyrian noblemen and the priesthood meant that unlike other Phoenician settlements, the exercise of political power became an object in its own right as well as the trading, for which Phoenicians are revered.

Ultimately the exercise of political and military power would lead to the Punic wars with the Romans but until then Carthage enjoyed several centuries of growth and prosperity. And culturally they pursued their cultural and religious beliefs with vigour as evidenced by the widespread occurrence of child sacrifices found in Carthage's ruins (tophets).
 

We have had a good 24 hours during which we have covered some 108 miles. The strong westerly winds which were forecast have duly arrived and we are now sailing in force 8, gale force conditions with winds of between 34-40 knots according to the local securite issued by the coast guard. The seas are quite large at between 5-6 meters with large foaming "horses heads" and bright sunshine.

The winds built gradually overnight and by breakfast time at 0730 hours we were doing close to 7 knots. As the winds were expected to (and indeed did) get stronger, we took the opportunity to get the main sail down before breakfast and hoist our trusted green storm sail which we had prepared yesterday evening. The operation to change sails took about 30 minutes and went smoothly. Even with the storm sail, which about a third of the size of the main sail, we are now making some 6-7 knots. This is testament to the strong winds as we are now out of the main current and heading across to the Algerian coast. Fortunately the winds are so strong that there are few large ships coming towards us and only one or two coming with us and overtaking.

This is just as well as we are relatively constrained, in terms of our course/direction, by the large waves. Fortunately there is plenty of sea room ahead and in any event the strong winds are forecast to drop somewhat later this evening.

                

Meanwhile we have two new crew members on board; Danielle Eubank (above left_ - our exhibition artist from the USA (www.danielleeubank.com) and John Horseman (above right), a keen supported of Phoenicia from the UK.
 

We had an exciting stay in Gibraltar thanks to the excellent hospitality of the Ocean Village Marina that sponsored our stay and for which we are most grateful. We would also like to thank the many other people who also helped us including Phil Taylor of M H Bland Group who provided an excellent tour of the Rock for Phoenicia's crew.

We are also indebted to the Director of the Gibraltar Museum, Professor Clive Finlayson and his staff for showing us the results of excavations at Goram's Cave, which is believed to have been a shrine where Phoenician ships would have visited before venturing beyond the Pillars of Hercules. All sorts of amazing offerings have been found at the site and the Museum kindly showed us the results of their excavations. There are some other very interesting Phoenician finds in the area which we hope to discuss at a later date. In the meantime there is more about our visit to the Gibraltar Museum at http://www.chronicle.gi/headlines_details.php?id=19900

We left Gibraltar yesterday afternoon having been presented on our departure with plaque from the Rotary Club of Gibraltar. Since then we have been following the easterly setting current that runs to the north east and which has been aiding our progress towards Tunis, enabling us to record some 90 miles over the first 24 hours. Strong westerly winds are forecast tomorrow and all being well our progress should be dramatic. It might be worth looking at the Yellowbrick Tracker as we may turn out to one of our fastest days on record as the winds are forecast to be around 30 knots. Thereafter the progress is likely to be rather more pedestrian!
 

Another long blog to cover the weekend.

Progress continues towards the Portuguese coast as we made another 75 miles over the last 24 hours. The wind continues to push us in a more easterly direction than is ideal but we expect to be able to make a better course towards the south east over the weekend – otherwise we might be on the Portuguese coast for real!


Ancient Atlantic Trade
In the meantime some followers of Phoenicia have asked how much trade was going on between the Phoenicians and settlements on the Atlantic coast during the period. Here is a short summary of the main facts as we currently understand them. Of course each new archaeological dig can change our perception of what was going on but there is already enough evidence to suggest an active and multi-faceted trade before the Common Era.

Historically most commentators believed that the Phoenicians’ Atlantic trade was really an extension of the trade from Carthage, such was the scale, success and proximity of Carthage to the Atlantic. Over recent years that view has been revised as it has become clear that the Phoenician merchants of Gadir (modern day Cadiz on the Iberian Peninsula), on the back of their huge wealth and power derived from the Andalusian silver trade (See last weekends’ blog), were responsible for much of the Atlantic trade.

This Atlantic trade can be divided into two parts, the African and non-African trade.
Classical sources mention that the Gaditanians sailed throughout the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coast and that beyond the Straits of Gibraltar were a host of Tyrian colonies that subsequently became uninhabited and ruined (Strabo). It was recorded that the Phoenicians of Gadir used to sail for 4 days beyond the Pillars of Hercules to a place (probably the Canary Islands) which abounded with tuna and that they fished off the coast of Mauritania in their small “hippoi”. Their trade in Atlantic tuna was a significant one.

On the Moroccan Atlantic coast their most important settlement (as evidenced by the acropolis) was at Lixus at the mouth of the river Loukkos, which provided a sheltered harbour and access to one of the larger navigable rivers to the interior. From here the Phoenicians has access to gold, copper and lead deposits from the Atlas Mountains as well as ivory and deposits of salt from the Sahara. The Phoenicians in turn traded their wares such as amphorae, red-glazed plates and bowls, bottles and large four-handled urns known as “pithoi”.
Most of these finds have been dated to the 7th and 8th century BC. Analysis of this pottery clearly shows its origin to be from the Gaditanian Bay, thus rendering these Atlantic colonies part of the cultural and trading province of Gadir.
Another small settlement of note was Mogador, some 1000km from Gadir. It was sporadically settled by the Phoenicians who exchanged their merchandise for hides and ivory. It may be that Mogador was the island off Africa referred to in the Periplus of the Pseudo –Scilax (P112) and known as Cerne.

“Beyond the island of Cerne it is impossible to sail because of the shallowness of the sea, the mud and the algae. The traders are Phoenician. When they arrive at the island of Cerne, they anchor their cargo ships [gauloi] and set up stalls in Cerne but after they have unloaded their cargo from their ships, they carry it in small boats to the mainland. The Africans are found on the mainland. It is with these same Africans that they trade. The Phoenicians sell their wares in exchange for the skins of gazelles, lions and leopards and also for the skins and tusks of elephants and domestic animals. The Phoenician traders bring them unguents, Egyptian stone, attic dishes, and “coes”, These Africans eat meat, drink milk and make wine in abundance from their own vines, although the Phoenicians bring it as well. The Africans also have a great city to which the Phoenicians also sail”.

Whether Mogador is Cerne or not (others place it in current day Libya), a key characteristic of the pottery of Mogador is that it is marked with a stamp of ownership that ties it back to Gadir. There are other small settlements on the Moroccan coast that also acted as suppliers to the Phoenician trading network. Some suggest that Phoenician contacts and settlements reached as far as Senegal to the south and possibly as far as the Cameroons but to date there is no hard evidence to support such a hypothesis.

On the Iberian Peninsula the scale of Atlantic trade activities was greatest as Gadir where there was metallurgy on an industrial scale primarily for the exploitation of silver (see the previous blog for 13th August 2010). A similar metallurgical trade was based at Huelva and Phoenician trade for ore was also undertaken with numerous towns along the Portuguese coast as far as Santa Olaia, some 350 kms north of Lisbon.

History also records that the Phoenicians traded in tin with the “Cassiterides” or tin islands. The late George Rawlinson in his book, Phoenicia, History of a Civilisation, put it like this:

“ Phoenician ships from Gadir braved the perils of the open ocean, and coasting along the western shores of Spain and Gaul and without (apparently) making settlements, crossed the mouth of the English Channel from Ushant to the Scilly Isles, and conveyed thither a body of colonists who established an emporium. The attraction which drew them was the mineral wealth of the islands and of the neighbouring Cornish coast, which may have become known to them through the Gauls of the opposite continent. It is reasonable to suppose that the Phoenicians both worked the mines and smelted the ores. They certainly drew from this quarter those copious supplies of tin and lead, which they imported into Greece and Asia and from which they derived so large a profit. They called the islands …the Cassiterides or Tin Islands and related of the inhabitants that they:

“were clad in black cloaks and tunics reaching to the feet, with girdles around their waists” and that they” walked with staves and were bearded like goats; that they subsisted by means of their cattle, and for the most part led a wandering life””.


As we know only too well, once you are sailing in the Atlantic and you understand the rotational nature of the winds and currents it would not have been too difficult for the Phoenicians to have traded with the Cornish (we are currently nearer to the UK than to the Mediterranean!). And whilst Phoenician coins have been found in the UK, to date there hasn’t been the quantity of Phoenician artefacts that have been found, say, by comparison, with settlements on the Iberian coast. Hopefully more evidence will be forth coming to enhance our understanding of this element of Phoenician trade.

 

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The winds have turned to the north east and east and as a result we made only 43 miles over the 24 hour period. Winds look set to continue in this fashion for the next 2-3 days, so we are taking the "opportunity" to head north. By Monday the prevailing north and north westerly winds are forecast to return and hopefully we will be able to make a big push towards the Portuguese coast and Gibraltar.

The Azores Question

Whilst we are bobbing up and down in the Atlantic and taking the weather in the spirit of true sailors, one or two people have been asking me why are you out in the middle of the Atlantic anyway? Surely the Phoenicians would have rowed around Africa in their small coastal boats and would never have found the Azores even if they had wanted to.

When I answer these questions some of the recipients are rather surprised by the depth of information available which at least makes them think again about the likelihood of the Phoenicians coming to the Azores. Here is a summary of some of the points I make. For the full version I'm afraid you will have to wait for my book: Phoenicia- Sailing close to the Wind, which
is planned for publication next year.

First of all let's talk about Phoenician boats and then about the early history of the Azores, which almost certainly didn't start with the Portuguese discovering the islands in the 1430's.

To think that the Phoenicians only had small coastal craft is to hugely underestimate the scale of their trading and colonialist activities. They did of course have small coastal craft such as vessels for rivers and harbours. These were known as "hippoi" because of the horses head carved on
the prow of the vessels. They were typically rowed although some of these vessels had sails as well. But they need not concern us too much as they were just like the harbour and pilots boats we see today - a means of getting to the larger ships and taking relatively small amounts of freight too and fro.

However we know from texts from Ugarit in Syria that even in Canaanite times (before 1200 BC), that some merchant ships had a cargo capacity of up to 400 tons and that during the 1st century BC the normal capacity of freighters was between 100 and 500 tons. The Egyptian envoy to Tyre,
Wen-Amon, noted that the Phoenician merchant fleets could number up to 50 ships and that the King of Byblos and ship owner Urkatel possessed such a fleet.

Doubtless they needed such fleets to export their wares to amongst other places the Iberian peninsula and return with ships loaded to the gunnels with silver and gold.

Diordorus writing in the 1st century BC notes, as do other authors like Strabo and Atenaios, that:

"Of Iberia, it seems appropriate to mention its silver mines since this is the richest country in that metal. Which brings large incomes to the exploiters. As in the Pyrenees, there were many leafy woods; the shepherds had set fire to them, it is said, a long time before, so that the woodlands
had been burning throughout the sierra. After burning for many days, the fire also scorched the surface of the ground, which gave rise to the name of the Pyrenees, used to designate these mountains. Much silver trickled away from the fiery ground and as they melted, the silver bearing ores formed countless rivulets of pure silver. The natives did not know how to exploit it but once the Phoenicians heard of the affair, they bought the silver in exchange for objects of negligible value. The Phoenicians took the silver to Greece, to Asia and to all other countries then known, thus obtaining great riches. It is said that such was the cupidity of the traders that they
replaced their lead anchors of their ships with silver ones after there was no more room for silver in the vessels and there was still a great quantity of the metal left over. This commercial traffic was long the source of a great increase in the power of the Phoenicians, who founded many colonies, some in Sicily and neighbouring islands and some in Libya (Africa), Sardinia and Iberia".

As Maria Eugenia Aubet a leading authority on the Phoenicians, says in her book Phoenicians and the West;

"the traffic in silver ore.implies a high degree of co-ordination between mine and wharf and the existence of an authority to centralise and coordinate those services. Given the chief beneficiary was Tyre, we are bound to think as the classical sources (Diorodurus 5.35.5) insinuate, that
Gadir (Cadiz) was acting under the orders from Tyre by way of powerful commercial agents installed in the west. Only so does Posidonius' observation that there were in Gadir great transport ships, commissioned by rich traders of the place (Strabo 2:3,4) and operating in safety under the protection of Melqart, make sense. Thanks to them, Tyre was able to supply the great centres of the Aegean and Assyria with silver"

The Phoenician settlement and explosion of trade in Iberia to which the above is just a part, commenced in haste during the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Thus by the time of the Phoenician's circumnavigation of Africa a century or so later, it should be obvious that the Phoenicians would have undertaken such an exercise in well prepared merchants galleys, albeit with the ability to be rowed for manoeuvrability, rather than coastal craft.

Given the choice of rowing up the West coast of Africa or sailing by way of the mid Atlantic, surely it is human nature to opt for the one with the least physical activity? Sailing by the way of the Azores would surely have been their preferred option. They were not afraid to venture out of the sight of land. They had pioneered the art of astro-navigation, discovered the pole star and were happy to voyage for weeks or months at a time.

But did they know the Azores existed? Although popular history relates to the fact that the islands were uninhabited when one of Prince Henry the Navigator's sea captains discovered them by accident in the 1430's. However the truth may be a little less straight forward than that they were uninhabited as the earliest Portuguese account of their arrival had this to say:

"on the summit of a mountain they call The Raven [Corvo] is a statute of a man seated upon a horse; his head is uncovered and he is bald, his left hand rests upon his horse, his right hand points towards the West. The statute is set firmly on a stone base carved out of rock. At the bottom are inscriptions in a writing which we could not understand".

There could be other claimants for the erection of this statute but as the Phoencians had settled on the Canary Islands and had other colonies down the West African coast, like the Portuguese 1500 years later, they surely have a strong claim to have erected the statute. But the Phoenician Azores story doesn't start and end here.

The following is part of an article the original of which is in Portuguese and has been kindly translated for me by Ms Carla Cook.

"Although this matter has not been much talked about in the Azores, at least in recent years, it is still a subject that raises the experts' attention worldwide, considering the implications of such a finding to the history of navigations in the Atlantic. Besides the coins, it is said that a mysterious equestrian statue was found in Corvo. Its track was lost when the king ordered that it would be broken and taken to Lisbon.


Johann Frans Podolyn's article

The first scientific review about these coins was written by Johann Frans Podolyn, a Swedish numismatic who published the news in the "Göteborgske Wetenskap og Witterhets Samlingar (1778, vol. I, p. 106). It was entitled "Some Annotations to the Voyages of the Ancient, Derived from Several Carthaginian coins which were found on one of the Azores' Islands". In this article, the author states that in 1749, after several days of stormy seas from the West, uncovering part of the foundations of a ruined stoned building near a beach in Corvo, a broken black clay vase was discovered, containing a great number of unknown coins. These coins were taken to a convent (most likely the Franciscan convent of São Boaventura in Santa Cruz das Flores) and there distributed among some of the interested personalities living on the island.

Some of those coins were then sent to Lisbon and later forwarded to Father Enrique Flórez de Setién y Huidobro (*1701 - ?1773), of Santo Agostinho's Order, in Madrid. Father Flórez was a well known Spanish historian and numismatist, at the time he was actually the most well known Iberian numismatist.The exact number of coins that were in the vase as well as the number that
was sent to Lisbon is not known. However, Father Flórez received 9 coins, which he described and studied: two Punic gold coins, five Punic copper coins and two Cyrenaic? copper coins. Father Flórez gave the coins to Podolyn when the latter visited Madrid in 1761, telling him that the coins  "represented all the types that had been found in Corvo" and that they were the best preserved in the collection.

In his article, joined by some pictures of the coins, Podolyn says that they are not rare - except for the ones made of gold - but the place where they were found is indeed remarkable, for History does not recall any Phoenician presence in the Azores, though it is possible to link this presence to the famous equestrian statue and to the inscription that would have been found
in Corvo at the time of the early settlement.

Studies made afterwards

After the publication of Podolyn's article and drawings, several scholars talked about the discovery and its consequences on the History of the Navigation on the Atlantic. Stechow-Münich, Richard Hennig, Jenkins and Lewis (Numisma, 1962)'s were the most celebrated studies. They concluded that the findings of the coins was truthful, for at the time there was not enough knowledge to select a group of coins arising from such a short period (aprox. 340 to 320 B.C)".


That any such coins should be found at all is quite remarkable. After all most ships that have visited the islands like Cook's Santa Maria voyaging to the new world, to name just one explorer to visit the islands, left no evidence of their visit at all. Does it prove that the Phoenicians came to
the Azores? Not yet. Does it make it more likely that the islands were known in ancient times and before the Portuguese arrived? Yes, certainly.

 

We have made reasonable progress over our first full 24 hours at sea and have covered some 68 miles to 1200 hrs local time today. The winds have varied from 12 to 20 knots and have been from the north east and are now veering to the south east. The waves are about 1-2 meters high. Therefore our plan to head north to pick up the westerly wind on the northern side of the Azores High remains in tact.

With lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs and meat, there has been some excellent meals produced in the galley with Daniel leading the proceedings. The fishing lines have yet to go out (sorry Peter - missing your expertise already) but will do shortly.

One of the Indonesian crew members Abdul Aziz doubles up as the ships photographer and has taken some shots of recent crew members who have sailed, or are sailing, onboard Phoenicia. Randy Getty helped us sail from Flores to Horta in the Azores and Edward Sadler (who at 19 is our youngest crew member to date) joined us in Horta to continue the rest of the voyage. It is great to have them onboard!

      
Randy Getty (crew Azores)                               Edward Sadler (crew Azores-Syria)
 

We departed Horta late yesterday afternoon and headed north to take up where we left off from before arriving in the Azores. We had a very pleasant stay in Horta and would like to thank the many people who assisted us. In particular we would like to thank Mr Luis Prieto Ferreira and Horta Marina for generously sponsoring our visit. We would also like to thank Chris Beer and Carla Cooke for their assistance with our visit.

We have three additional crew members on board. Two who have rejoined (Yuri and Niklas) and one who is new to the expedition- Edward Sadler from the UK. Peter Hickman has returned to South Africa and Randy Getty has returned to the United States. So our total complement is now 10. Our plan for getting towards Gibraltar is to get to the northern side of the Azores High so that we can move more easily to the east before starting our passage down the Portuguese coast. It is going to take several days and it may look like we are heading towards the UK but it appears our plan is the only viable way to get to the Portuguese coast in a square rigged vessel, at least at this time of year.
 

Having a whale of a time!

We have had an interesting day or two even if we didn't manage to see the football world cup final. We have made good progress towards the Azores and are now just 40 miles from the Lajes, the entry port for the island of Flores.

Whilst we had intended to head direct for Horta, as we are so close to Flores it seems prudent to make landfall there before heading on to Horta which is some 130 miles to the east. God willing we will be in Flores by lunchtime tomorrow and from there we will make our way to Horta to pick up our new crew members.

Generally conditions have been overcast with a light drizzle from time to time and a northerly wind- not pleasant but not too bad either. Meanwhile our big event yesterday was a close encounter with a sperm whale-too close an encounter to be sure. One minute the boat rolled as we surfed over quite a large wave, the next we had a young 7 meter long sperm whale beside us and less than a boat length away. Then something strange happened. The whale started to violently thrash around in the water as if it was very agitated or shocked at seeing Phoenicia alongside it. Although its back looked fine there is a possibility that its tail was caught by the barnacles on our keel as we approached it although we never heard any knock against the ship as such. We then noticed a brown patch around the whale as if it had defecated- something they apparently do when in shock. This all happened very quickly but not before Aziz had time to get his camera and get some shots of it thrashing around and ultimately diving some 100-200 meters astern of us. And it was through the picture of its tail that we were able to identify that it was a sperm whale.

  
It certainly made for an exciting encounter. That and the prospect of a landfall in the not too distant future has meant that there has been a bit of a buzz on board.

P.S We have just sighted land, the small island of Corvo to the north of Flores.

Our position at 1200 hours was 39.47.80 north, 31.46.9 West.

As we make our way towards the Azores which appears to be getting closer by the day -it is time to do another profile on one of the crew members who is helping to sail Phoenicia on this historic voyage. It is the turn of Daniel Hallstrom to be profiled.

Daniel is 27 and was born in North Carolina, USA. He joined Phoenicia is November in Mayotte with his long-term girl friend Alice Palmer ( crew member on Phoenicia from Mayotte to St Helena and now back in the real world. Hello Alice-hope it is going well.). Daniel has more varied interests and passions than most people manage to pack into their lives. At school he got interested in maps and geography which led him to do a BA degree in municipal and regional planning leading to a job where he was the first town planner for a small town in North Carolina. After a couple of years the "small town" part of his work became a bit limiting and he decided to see part of the world (and a lot of the world's salt water) through participating in Phoenicia. He has a strong taste for the outdoors and the wilderness, regularly going hiking, kayaking and also has a wish to do some off the beaten track climbing. No wonder he fits into the Phoenicia culture on board ship.

He is also something of a literary specialist and on board Phoenicia writes page after page of often very profound poems about happenings in every day life. In his note book these are often illustrated with rather amusing sketches of cartoon type characters. For Daniel writing is an important part of his persona and he is part way though writing a book on a fictional character he has developed. Another dimension is his acting and theatrical ability. He can often be heard whilst he is at the helm singing along with some rock or pop tune or coming up with a theatrical way to wake the on coming watch. Today he impersonated a DJ giving a report and then invited the listeners to come up on deck and see for themselves and get some dinner too.

Another part of Daniel's character is his easy going nature and sense of fair play. When suggesting recently that it might be a good idea if we should each have our own 2 litre water bottles to share our daily rations, he was quick to say that if we didn't want to go down that route he wouldn't object even though the previous water system was causing him some discomfort, when it ran out before the allotted time for the new jerry can of water to be opened.

Finally Daniel spends some of his time thinking about what entrepreneurial activity he might pursue on his return to the US. Needless to say he has been given plenty of thinking time of late and has been able to read one or two business books as well.
 

We have made another good days progress with 95 miles under our belts over the 24 hour period. We are now experiencing wind from the north and north west which is pushing us towards the south east which we expect to last for about a day and will then hopefully give way to more westerly winds for the next period thereafter.

During the last 24 hours the wildlife scene has changed dramatically. Having been largely absent for the last 3 weeks, the greater shearwaters are back in large numbers. We have also witnessed vast numbers of sardines being hunted down by bonita and tuna with the greater shearwaters never far from the incredible scenes of splashing and fish of all kinds taking to the air.
The frenzied splashing activity alone creates a considerable noise as the hunting groups pass us by. And with luck we have managed to capture some of this on film too.

All of this and our approach towards the island of Flores does indeed make one wonder if the Phoenicians had discovered the Azores. There is an account of Carthaginian coins being discovered on Flores in the 1700's but the story cannot be authenticated although some believe it to be true. And indeed many introductions to the Azores start with the fact that "it was known in
Ancient times" and others state that the Phoenicians discovered them although it was uninhabited when Prince Henry the Navigator re-discovered them in 1435. How the connection between the Azores and the Phoenicians has been made in these accounts is unclear but perhaps the next quotation gives us a clue or is it referring to some other land mass to the West? America perhaps?

The quote below is from Diodorus Siculus, A Greek from Sicily (Siculus =
the Sicilian) living in the first century BC writes in his fifth book:

But now that we have discussed what relates to the islands which lie
within the Pillars of Heracles, we shall give an account of those which are
in the ocean. For there lies out in the deep off Libya [=Africa] an island
of considerable size, and situated as it is in the ocean it is distant from
Libya a voyage of a number of days to the west. Its land is fruitful, much
of it being mountainous and not a little being a level plain of surpassing
beauty. 2 Through it flow navigable rivers which are used for irrigation,
and the island contains many parks planted with trees of every variety and
gardens in great multitudes which are traversed by streams of sweet water;
on it also are private villas of costly construction, and throughout the
gardens banqueting houses have been constructed in a setting of flowers, and
in them the inhabitants pass their time during the summer season, since the
land supplies in abundance everything which contributes to enjoyment and
luxury. 3 The mountainous part of the island is covered with dense thickets
of great extent and with fruit-trees of every variety, and, inviting men to
life among the mountains, it has cozy glens and springs in great number. In
a word, this island is well supplied with springs of sweet water which not
only makes the use of it enjoyable for those who pass their life there but
also contribute to the health and vigour of their bodies. 4 There is also
excellent hunting of every manner of beast and wild animal, and the
inhabitants, being well supplied with this game at their feasts, lack of
nothing which pertains to luxury and extravagance; for in fact the sea which
washes the shore of the island contains a multitude of fish, since the
character of the ocean is such that it abounds throughout its extent with
fish of every variety. 5 And, speaking generally, the climate of the island
is so altogether mild that it produces in abundance the fruits of the trees
and the other seasonal fruits for the larger part of the year, so that it
would appear that the island, because of its exceptional felicity, were a
dwelling-place of a race of gods and not of men.
20 In ancient times this island remained undiscovered because of its
distance from the entire inhabited world, but it was discovered at a later
period for the following reason. The Phoenicians, who from ancient times on
made voyages continually for purposes of trade, planted many colonies
throughout Libya and not a few as well in the western parts of Europe. And
since their ventures turned out according to their expectations, they
amassed great wealth and essayed to voyage beyond the Pillars of Heracles
into the sea which men call the ocean. 2 And, first of all, upon the Strait
itself by the Pillars they founded a city on the shores of Europe, and since
the land formed a peninsula they called the city Gadeira [Cadiz]; . 3 The
Phoenicians, then, while exploring the coast outside the Pillars for the
reasons we have stated and while sailing along the shore of Libya, were
driven by strong winds a great distance out into the ocean. And after being
storm-tossed for many days they were carried ashore on the island we
mentioned above, and when they had observed its felicity and nature they
caused it to be known to all men. 4 Consequently the Tyrrhenians, at the
time when they were masters of the sea, purposed to dispatch a colony to it;
but the Carthaginians prevented their doing so, partly out of concern lest
many inhabitants of Carthage should remove there because of the excellence
of the island, and partly in order to have ready in it a place in which to
seek refuge against an incalculable turn of fortune, in case some total
disaster should overtake Carthage. For it was their thought that, since they
were masters of the sea, they would thus be able to move, households and
all, to an island which was unknown to their conquerors.



With grateful thanks to Franz Fuhrer for his assistance with the above quotation and discussions about the land in question.

Our position at 1200 hours was: 40.04.32 North, 35.25.90 West.
 

We have had a busy 24 hours on board Phoenicia. The wind has picked up nicely and we continue to make progress.

Over night we encountered two ships (one which came fairly close- at about 2 miles) and had one reasonably heavy down pour of rain that lasted about half an hour when Steff was on the helm. We then encountered a large super tanker this morning and a yacht called Sophia. The yacht came to check us out - you don't often see vessels like ours out on the ocean waves. Over the radio we then met Carl and Rachel who explained they are on their way to Norway ( we
suspect from their email address that we exchanged later that they have a website called www.sophiagoestonorway.blogspot.com They kindly asked us if we needed anything as they were not long out of Bermuda. Pride prevented us for asking for anything although we had recently run out of cooking oil and are low on a few other items.

A few minutes later they were alongside us and threw us a bag of goodies. Imagine our surprise when we found a bag of pop corn, a bottle of olive oil and some luxurious coconut cookies and sachets of Italian roast coffee. They could never have guessed that half the crew were desperate for oil to fry some tuna. It was a blessing in disguise and one can only think that sometimes the world works in mysterious ways. We returned the favour by attaching a bottle of Delheim's best rose wine to a heaving line which Rachel recovered moments later. We found out they are also heading for Horta in the Azores but of course they will be there long before we arrive. Hopefully we will have the pleasure of meeting them there. We waved each other goodbye and within an hour or two Sophia was out of sight. Phoenicia is alone again and we have the ocean around us all to ourselves.

Except that is for our shoal of a hundred or so tuna that have accompanied us from the equator. Before lunch we witnessed the largest individual tuna we have yet to see at about 5 foot long and at least a foot wide - quite an incredible size. Also yesterday evening we were visited by a shoal of dolphins that were hunting aggressively and making a lot of splashes! It was a joy to see them and traditionally a sign of good luck.

Their display only lasted some 10 or so minutes and then they too were soon out of sight.
 

We have had another slightly better 24 hours and made just over 50 miles over the 24 hour period, although the real improvement came late yesterday evening. We are now averaging between 2.5 to 3 knots and the Azores is now just over 930 miles away.

The water rationing by 2 litre containers seems to be working well- everyone seems to have plenty apart from Peter -who has nearly finished his but will have to wait until dinner for fresh supplies.

Now for our next crew member profile - that of Steff as she is known, although more correctly as Stephanie Edwards (pictured below)

Steff is our youngest crew member on board at 25. She is also the only female crew member currently on the ship and joined in November in Mayotte and plans to see the voyage through until Syria.

You could say that Steph is in some ways your English rose type of girl with dark wavy hair and hazel eyes. After school she took a gap year and worked for some of that time in a care home for the elderly. She then went to Nottingham University to read Ancient history focussing on the Greeks and Romans but the course didn't include much about the Phoenicians! After that she worked for a well known publisher in Cambridge for a couple of years before she decided to run away to sea and join Phoenicia.

On the recent leg since St Helena she has managed to put up with the other 7 male crew members without batting an eye lid. Suffice is to say she is very laid back and nothing seems to ruffle her feathers. She has also managed to put up with Peter's constant yachtmaster babble (as they are on the same watch with Dirman and he prepares for some exams) which would probably have driven anyone else insane. Undoubtedly she is the most able of the cooks on board and even keeps her own ingredients to make special dishes- such as cakes and cookies which she treats us to from time to time. Best not to get on her wrong side then! Hopefully when she sees the Roman ruins in Carthage, Alexandria and Syria she will judge the adventure to have been well worth making.
 

We have had another 24 hours of slow going progress but have at least managed to reduce our miles to the Azores down to about 1,000 miles. We continue to believe that better winds are just over the horizon!

Now for our next crew member profile, that of the other watch leader, Sulhan (pictured left). On official documents his name is spelt Julhan but is usually pronounced and spelt with an S.

Sulhan is in his late 40's according to his passport although some might say he looks a little older. He is married and has three children and one grandson. He lives on the island of Pagerunan Kecil (the same as Dirman) in the Kangean Islands north of Bali and has pretty much always lived there.

By trade he is a motor boat captain and has sailed literally hundreds of thousands of miles across Indonesia on various assignments. He has also sailed on traditional Indonesian ships including the Borobudur ship (see below). He is very agile and strong and always happy to go aloft to make repairs to the mast and sails, even if conditions would put off others from venturing forth. On board Phoenicia he looks after the rigging and advises on such matters as well as thoughts on the conditions, the best sailing strategy and leading the anchoring or berthing party. He has an uncanny knack with predicting the weather conditions and is undoubtedly our most experienced sailor.

He doesn't speak a lot of English but probably understands more than he lets on. He seems to laugh at our silly jokes- so must understand quite a bit. He has a mischievous look about him much of the time and although he is the smallest crew member he wears the longest shorts on the ship. He is a very devout Muslim and spends much of his time praying and chanting verses from the Koran. He also likes the odd smoke but in his case the cigarettes ran out a few weeks ago but so far no with-drawl symptoms and he remains happy and cheerful.

Apart from his family and grand son his proudest moment is probably the honour of the State Medal he received from President Megawati of Indonesia for Services to Culture for his role in the 12,000 mile Borobudur Ship Expedition in 2003-2004.(www.borobudurshipexpedition.com). In his spare time he likes to fish and to play chess at which he is arguably the best on the ship. On the island of Pagerunan Kecil, he is an expert in their traditional "kick boxing" type of martial art and often wins such competitions.
 

We have had another slow day in our office-some 40 miles made over the last
24 hours and have nearly reached 32 degrees North. Since midnight the winds have freshened slightly and over the next couple of days we expect that progress to continue as we Azrrrrrrrrrr !!! (as Dirman puts it ) our way towards the Azores.

The slightly fresher winds have raised spirits on board (not that they were ever down) and there is quite a bit of talk about the first things to do in Horta, Azores once we get there. Apart from mentions of watching some world cup football, the list revolves around eating and drinking -especially junk and fatty foods - like burgers, steaks, cheese and ice cream -all the unhealthy but nice things we don't have on board! Anyway our bodies are going to be saved for a while yet it would seem.
 

Position Report 21st June 2010- two months at sea and towards the Americas!

Conditions remain much the same (although we did have a rainy period that lasted a couple of hours during the early morning) and we achieved just under 50 miles over the last 24 hours.

Our position of a few weeks ago reminds us of the quote below claimed to be found on a stone around 1872 near João Pessoa in northern Brazil. We would have posted it earlier but some of those following the blog and who worry unnecessarily about our every move might have thought we were actually going to make landfall in Brazil, the Caribbean or America and may have worried themselves even more! Now we are heading where we always thought the winds would take us, it is interesting to speculate whether the Phoenicians got to the Americas. The quote below, although considered a forgery by some experts, and our Atlantic voyage certainly gives credibility to the possibility of the Phoenicians reaching the Americas.

"We are sons of Canaan from Sidon, the city of the king. Commerce has cast us on this distant shore, a land of mountains. We set [sacrificed] a youth for the exalted gods and goddesses in the nineteenth year of Hiram, our mighty king. We embarked from Ezion-geber into the Red Sea and voyaged with ten ships. We were at sea together for two years around the land belonging to Ham [Africa] but we were separated by a storm [lit., 'from the hand of Baal'] and we were no longer with our companions. So we have come here, twelve men and three women, on a . shore which I, The Admiral, control. But auspiciously may the exalted gods and goddesses favour us."

We have had a number of recent emails on the subject of the Phoenicians voyaging to the Americas as it seems our voyage is stirring up the debate that has raged for over a century as to whether the Phoenicians could have reached the Americas. With many thanks to those who have contacted us including Franz Führer.
 

Since yesterday winds have improved a little more and we now have a gentle breeze directly astern of us. Our main sail is centred and as high as we can get it up the yard which allows us maximum use of the sail area, rather than having the foot of the sail furled. So over the 24 period we made some 76 miles towards the North East.

Now for the second profile of a crew member - Peter Hickman, his background, skills and how he is coping with Phoenicia's longest leg at sea.

Peter, who is quite a character, is a member of Dirman's watch. See photograph of Peter below.

Peter is South African, in his mid 40's and married to Vanessa (Crew member from Cape Town to St Helena). They have three sons, the elder two of which are currently running Peter's metal recycling business near Richards Bay.

It is Peter's first time outside of Africa and so far all he has seen has been two small Atlantic Islands (St. Helena and Ascension Island) and tens of thousands of square miles of ocean- as we have travelled some 7000 miles since Cape Town. Hopefully he well get to see some of the more interesting things that Europe has to offer as we enter the Mediterranean and see its present and past splendours.

It seems that Peter tends to do things either quickly or in large quantities and this includes eating, drinking and talking. On the latter point, he is rarely quiet for long as he is never short of anything to say, and if he is not talking he is asking a question!

During the trip he has immersed himself in a number RYA books for the Yachtmaster's course which he hopes to complete in the not too distant. When he is not doing another job he is usually to be found intensely studying some element of navigation or yacht safety. He has two main passions in life, apart from his family. One is sailing where he a member of the Zululand Yacht Club at Richards Bay (where he met Phoenicia and talked his way on board!). He has also spent longer than can be remembered rebuilding a yacht for himself, which, now virtually complete will be launched on his return to South Africa. His other passion is fishing. In fact this activity for Peter borders on an obsession! Fortunately for Phoenicia he bought most of his fishing tackle with him including two rods, reels and endless supplies of lures and line. As a result our fishing successes have been transformed and rarely a day goes by when no fish are caught. Recently the supply of fish has been so plentiful that they are caught to order, depending on what the cook's of the day require.

During the trip he seems to have managed to give up smoking- something hopefully he can maintain once the temptations on shore are in front of him.

His favourite words seem to be "that's lekker" meaning "that's nice, sweet". He is undoubtedly enjoying the expedition.
 

Wind conditions have improved further over the last 24 hours and we have managed some 60 miles towards the North East over the period. Last evening we experienced a local depression with some large black rain clouds and associated winds. Fortunately they didn't last for too long and eventually gave way to a reasonably consistent south westerly wind that has given us just over 3 knots since then. So to sum up, progress remains fairly slow but we are making progress and have less than 1400 miles to the Azores.

Now for the first crew member profile, their background, skills and how they are coping with Phoenicia's longest leg at sea.

We will start with Dirman (pictured below) as he is one of the two watch leaders, the other being Sulhan. Dirman's proper name is Sudirman but he is always known as Dirman. He is in his mid thirties and is a ship's carpenter by trade. He is married with two children of school age. He is originally from the island of Madura in Indonesia but now lives on the island of Pagerunan Kecil where he met his wife through his work. Pagerunan Kecil is a small island (part of the Kangean Islands) some 60 miles north of Bali.

On board ship Dirman is the ship's carpenter and engineer/mechanic. In fact if any things need fixing, Dirman usually has the knowledge to fix it.
He is always smiling and positive, in spite of all the things which are forever breaking down that he has to fix. Fortunately he is blessed with a rare knack of being able to make things work that don't want to.

He is quite a devout Muslim and it seems the more so as the longer our voyage take. He smokes a bit and is the only crew member still to have cigarettes on board after our 50 + days at sea. He keeps the number of cigarettes he actually has left as a bit of secret - it has been about 5 or 6 for the last 10 days!

He doesn't speak a lot of English but enough to get by. His favourite saying is "May be yes, may be no". His proudest achievement apart from his family, is probably the honour of the State Medal he received from President Megawati of Indonesia for Services to Culture for his role in the 12,000 mile Borobudur Ship Expedition in 2003-2004.(www.borobudurshipexpedition.com). In his spare time he likes to fish and to play chess at which he annoyingly good at.

In short, he in an invaluable member of the team and we are lucky to have him on board.
 

Blog & photographs from Steph Edwards (Crew from UK)


Sunset at sea                              Clinton & Daniel exercising on deck with the help of Peter!

I always thought this leg would be an interesting part of the voyage, a different kind of challenge to, say, the Cape leg. It was hard for me to imagine such a long time at sea and how to deal with it. Fortunately we knew it was going to be a good 2 months or more and so were adequately mentally prepared. Fortunate too that our crew is genial and good-natured and relaxed, and everyone gets along well - I can imagine that if it wasn't so, then the boat would quickly turn to a floating prison! The most difficult point so far was probably 2-3 weeks in, the point in which we would be coming to the end of a normal leg, which also coincided with directionless bobbing in the Doldrums, and the beginning of the end of some of the foodstuffs. The excitement of passing the Equator had been and gone. It was difficult to contemplate another 60 or more days or at that point.

Thankfully it quickly passed and we all seemed to settle in for the long haul, and now watch rolls into watch until, before you know it, weeks have gone by. Occasionally there there is a flurry of activity and we do something to the sail or the bilge pump, but mostly the days are the same, with a slight variation in: conditions and course, topics of conversation, fish-and-rice recipes, reading material. I think most of us are enjoying having so much time just to think and plan and read and be, this is the kind of time to yourself that you just don't get in 'normal life'.

The merry-go-round of reading material is getting a bit thin on the ground; fresh books are often devoured by two at a time, one on each watch, reading whilst the other is asleep. The few magazines we have on board have picked through been cover to cover, several times. Sometimes when we're feeling a bit too relaxed we will attempt some exercise - ongoing plans to devise a skipping routine are constantly skuppered by the deck-sweeping mainsail rendered impotent by a lack of wind, or inconvenient lurching of the boat in lumpy swells.

After so long at sea I'm beginning to forget what land looks, smells and feels like underfoot, it's almost as if it never existed; it feels further away than the sea does when you're stuck in the office over Winter. Our memories and the books we have on board seem like the only links to land. We still have another good few weeks to go, and I'm taking the approach that if I ever see land again it will be a pleasant surprise, but for now I'm just enjoying bobbing along in our funny little wooden home on the sea, with the sealife and birds (and occasional shark) for our neighbours, our constant escort of fish that we pillage daily for lunch and dinner, and the crest of waves and the shifting shapes and colours of the sky for our landscape.

Philip has promised us a beer when we're finally pointing in the right direction. I'm hoping that we get to the Azores before England get knocked out of the World Cup (if I could have one luxury item it might well be a newspaper, it's strange to be away from the news during big events like the election and the run up to the World Cup). I'm also looking forward to how good freshly laundered clothes are going to smell - clothing and particularly bedding takes on a curious scent after a few weeks in the heat on Phoenicia, a unique blend of rancid sweat, grease, fish, diesel, salt and pine tar. On a bad day the result in my bunk is something resembling a damp mule!

To sum up we made just 30.2 miles over the last 24 hours.
 

 
Another image from yesterday - Peter swims out to observe the vistiting Whale Shark
 

 

Just as things were getting a little predictable and boring along comes a whale shark to brighten things up! It was a really incredible moment to see this massive blundering fish, which lives on plankton, approach Phoenicia,.

We estimate it was about 6 meters long and nearly two meters wide at its head. It looked rather ugly and just as one imagines a sea monster. It came alongside the ship very slowly and touched our starboard rudder and then circles the ship several times. Several of the crew got into the sea with goggles to get a better view of this amazing creature. The first photo shows it alongside our safety rope and the other, is a close up of its head with various pilot fish around it.

The visit lasted about 45 minutes, until it rubbed on our port rudder and then swam underneath the ship, at which point we thought better of encouraging it rub against us any more. Putting on the diesel generator seemed to cause the end of its interest in us which was something of a relief for the skipper.

In the evening we had quite a heavy rain squall but afterwards that gave way to a midnight rainbow reflecting off the moonlight, something quite rare and that few of us had seen before. We made slightly better progress over the last 24 hours and covered some 52.4 miles mainly toward the West. Our position at 1200 hrs GMT was 3°31.8 North, 25°40.5 West.
 

After five and a half months we are back in the northern hemisphere. Having crossed the equator going south on the 14th November 2009 we are delighted to have crossed back again at 0140 GMT this morning 28th April 2010 .The crossing the line ceremony took place for the first timers under sail to cross the equator which were Clinton, Daniel, Peter and Steph.

Following the ceremony where King Neptune was performed by Dirman we celebrated with a bottle of Delheim's Grand Reserve 2004 - which had been given to the expedition to celebrate the occasion. The significance of the 2004 date was the year expedition was conceived- so 6 years in the making and excellent wine too! Our position at 1800 hours GMT is 00.23.9 North, 021.23.2 West.

 

We have been keeping in touch with our friends at the Delheim wine estate in Stellenbosch and were delighted to hear that the Delheim team have been celebrating the crossing with us. See the photograph below which was sent to us from South Africa. We hope you will all raise your glasses to toast our arrival in the Northern Hemisphere!
 

Daniel, Peter, Philip, Clinton & Steph celebrate     The Delheim staff celebrate the crossing in
the crossing onboard Phoenicia                            Stellenbosch, South Africa              

 

     

Delheim 2004 Grand Reserve    The crew enjoy a glass of wine onboard Phoenicia
 

 

Ascension Island Report

Ascension Island is one of those remote volcanic islands that somehow ended up as British Territory, and lies some 700 miles to the north west of Saint Helena. For the last couple of hundred years it has been used by sailing ships heading north as an important port of call for water and provisions.

There is even a forest of fir tress planted to provide sailing ships with spare masts. Today Ascension is primarily a communications centre and military base for the Royal Air Force and the US Air Force as well as the communications centre for the BBC (who transmit all their African programmes from Ascension) and a base to the European Space Agency.

Up to 1000 people live on the island at any one time, many from Saint Helena. The majority of those on the island are contractors for the military bases and BBC with only a few serving military personnel on the island as such. It is said that the NASA moon landing in 1969 was controlled from Ascension and then relayed to Houston, USA.

We approached Ascension Island from the south west on the evening of Saturday 18th April. From around 30 miles we could make out the bright lights of the airfield which is large relative to the size of the island as if necessary it could land the space shuttle. We had brailed Phoenicia up so that we could anchor in the morning off George Town which we duly did. Several of the locals saw us come in under sail and word spread that "Vasco de Gama" must have been visiting the island as few ships under sail make it to Ascension Island these days.

We spend three days on the island and managed to visit most of the important sites, including the island's Green Mountain, the military bases and to generally explore the amazing volcanic scenery and pristine white sand beaches. We visited the old NASA Headquarters on the island- now a derelict building used by the local scout group!

The highlight for most of us was to visit Long Beach after dark to witness 4 large green turtles laying their eggs and at the same time seeing baby turtles emerging from sand covered nests to make their way into the sea. The adult turtles we saw were about 5 foot long and about 2 foot high, whilst the young were anything from just 2-6 inches. For most of us it was a surreal experience and one that we will treasure for years to come, as it remains a rare experience to find such an isolated spot where nature has been allowed to continue without interference from mankind. The turtles though, even on Ascension, are protected from hunting and everything is done to try to ensure they are not disturbed during the breeding season that lasts from December until June, thereafter the adults make their way back to Brazil.

During our stay the Island's Administrator and the Harbour Master visited Phoenicia as well as a number of others from the island. All too soon our visit to this enchanting island was over and it was time to weigh anchor and hoist our sail.

Since then we have sailed nearly 600 miles are now within 30 miles of the equator. Alas it will be nightfall before when reach the equator so it is doubtful we will actually see the line itself.
Our position is 00.20.0 South,20.37.9 West.
 

After an all too brief a visit to this unique island, we set sail shortly after 1600 hours GMT.

We are headed north west for our longest and potentially most challenging leg of the expedition that may take between 35 and 55 days to complete navigating around the West African coast- an area of the Atlantic that was known about in ancient times. More to follow over the next few weeks plus a report on our visit to Ascension. Our position at 1700 hours GMT was 7.57.9 south, 14.29.6 West
 

Temperature rising.

Although yesterday it rained quite a lot, today has been notable for the increase in temperature which is now nearly 30 degrees centigrade. It remains cloudy and humid and therefore crew members are doing all they can to avoid the muggy conditions. There is definitely an increase in showers being taken compared with a week or two ago!
 

With the moratorium on fishing as we have surplus supplies, we have been getting round to do some other jobs on board. We have just serviced the Whale hand bilge pump, which is now back in working order. The repairs to the generator tank were partially successful - but more needs to be done there to completely stop the leak.

Clinton is making a leather bag in the shape of a ship from a large piece of cow hide.
Apparently, for the lucky owner, it will last a life time. We will post a photo when it is ready.
Meanwhile we are less than 300 miles from Ascension Island having recorded another 100 mile run over the last 24 hours to 1200 hours GMT.

 

Whilst we were in St Helena I did a telephone interview with Sir Robin Knox Johnson for BBC Radio Solent in the UK. I have been informed this will be played on the H20 Show tomorrow evening (Friday 16th April) between 7-8pm UK summer time. For those interested in listening (whether you are in the UK or abroad) you can look up http://www.bbc.co.uk/hampshire/local_radio/h2o_show/index.shtml where I believe you will find a link to listen online.
 

Blog and photographs from Steph Edwards (Core crew from UK)

It was thoroughly British weather that greeted us as we sailed in to St Helena - cold, grey and drizzly. If you've never heard of St Helena - which I hadn't before I signed up this voyage - it's a tiny speck in the middle of the South Atlantic with the status of British Overseas Territory. It has no airport and a population of around 3500, spread out between Jamestown and small villages in the rest of the island.

 

    
1. Arriving to British Weather in St Helena       2. Phoenicia at Anchor in St Helena

It's the kind of place where everybody knows each other's name and stops for a chat walking down the street, we were very quickly marked out as the people from 'that crazy wooden boat'. There are no mobile phones on this island and if somebody wants to get hold of you they will ring around or send somebody to fetch you. On our first day there several of us were quickly despatched from the bar to do an interview with the local independent radio station. The locals are very friendly, hospitable and entertaining although it does take a while to get used to the accent.
 

3. Daniel, Peter, Philip radio interview     4&5. Scenes from the High Street, St Helena

Many thanks to the Director of Tourism Pam who very kindly organised tours of the island for all of the crew, and to our tour guide . We visited Napoleon's residences during his time on the island, and Jonathan, perhaps the oldest surviving tortoise of its kind, at Plantation House, as well as seeing some very beautiful views whilst driving around. There are 699 steps from the fort down to Jamestown, and luckily for me the tour stopped at the top saving my legs from walking up, although some of our more energetic crew members had been up the day before. Jamestown itself is small and distinctly laid back, except for the scrum at 9am on a Thursday morning when the farmers bring their produce down to sell. A combination of plentiful diseases and a strange tax situation means that relatively little agriculture is done on the island, and little of the produce brought to market, and there is much reliance on the Royal Mail Ship for supplies. The small island community seems to function around the arrival of the RMS St Helena every few weeks, which - apart from the odd yacht and cruise liner - is the island's only connection with the wider world as it plies its route between Cape Town, St Helena, Ascension Island and occasionally the UK.

 

6. Spectacular scenery in St Helena                 7. Black dot far out is Phoenicia at anchor
                                                                         (view from the fort above Jamestown)

Provisioning, gas, diesel and water refills were sorted out and left plenty of time for relaxing. We had our fill of bacon rolls, lamb chops, internet access and mosquito bites at Ann's Place, where we found a Borobudur postcard from Philip's last trip to the island (which he doesn't remember putting there!). Some of us sampled the local nightlife on Friday and Saturday, which was definitely an interesting experience and gave us a completely different insight into island life. We met a lot of both locals and expats, young and old, during our time there who acquainted us with the frustrations of living on St Helena as well as the highlights. The water was beautifully warms so lots of swimming and jumping and fishing was done at anchor, and the freezer is now packed full of mackerel. The Yacht Club very generously hosted us lunch on our last day, thanks to Sandy for arranging this and for the huge helpings of plo (and also for the recipe which will be tested out on mother watch in due course), and to Tony for the drinks.
 

 

Weighing anchor on Sunday sharply reminded us what hard work felt like, but we quickly turned around, got the sail up and were off, leaving St Helena behind us. Catch of the day definitely goes to Clinton who landed a monster dorado - over 30 kilos. See photo of Clinton to the left. Now that there are only 8 of us this should keep us going for a good few days!

Sailing has been reasonable over the last 24 hours and we have made 96 miles.

     

8. Clinton with a huge dorado                           9. Napoleon's tomb in St Helena