The 12th day of Christmas and Wylde Swan

Well it was time to return the decorations

to their boxes and think back to the magnificent fireworks display we watched while at anchor in Rodney Bay St Lucia.

After a couple of days in St Annes we pulled anchor and headed for my favourite anchorage of Grand Anse d’Arlet. The trades are blowing hard so just the headsail gave us 7-8 knots running downwind past Diamond Rock and past the other bays on the SW corner into d’Arlet.

We tried to pickup a mooring ball but the grip came off the boathook leaving Patricia with the grip and the boathook hanging off the mooring ball. We slunk off and anchored and were luck enough to find the boathook still there when I dinked over to it.

I settled down to enjoy lunch but as the camera was handy I caught this oldtimer slipping past. It tacked in and anchored behind us.

On my way into the beach I detoured to find out it’s name which is Wylde Swan and Mr Google soon laid it’s secrets bare.

History
The hull of Wylde Swan started life as a 'herring hunter' in the 1920's, working off the Shetland Islands – a ship built for speed, ferrying the fresh catch from fishing grounds to the markets ashore. The Jemo, as she was originaly called, was originally built by HDW in Kiel. The ship was decommissioned sometime in the late 20th century and had changed ownership several times before Willem Slighting saw in her underwater ship the makings of a fast sailing ship. Her sleek underwater hull is now part of the world's largest two mast topsail schooner. The work was finished in 2010. Wylde Swan combines the majesty and tactics of the largest tall ships with the sailing characteristics and raw excitement normally only found on much smaller yachts. It's no wonder that it is a fierce competitor for the first prize in any Tall Ships Race.

Finally I included this as it tickled my fancy.

It might have been one of the smaller yachts in Rodney Bay but it had the biggest flag.