TALL SHIP IN TENERIFE

Bong, bong, bong… In different circumstances this gently ascending three-note alarm might have led to a serious announcement such as “the train now arriving…”. Instead, however, we heard a jovial French accent: “Mesdames et messieurs, ladies and gentlemen,” said François. “Coffee, tea and the four o’clock snack are now being served on the aft deck.” Along with 13 other guests and seven crewmembers, I was on a sailing vessel in the Canary Islands.

We had all met on board for the first time in Santa Cruz de la Tenerife on a Saturday afternoon in January, when captain Jakob Fremgen and his crew immediately made us feel at home. Jakob, a Dutch-domiciled German, came on as a deckhand in 2013 and has been captain for the past four years, sharing the role with Harry but now doing the lion’s share. The rest of the crew is a mix of professionals and volunteers, the latter including Maaike, who normally works as a coastguard in the Netherlands’ oldest lighthouse, on the island of Terschelling, and François, whose time on board is an internship and part of an electrical engineering course. All