Wednesday morning the Royal Clipper arrived in Venice, sailing in from the Adriatic Sea for an 8am docking at the San Basilio terminal. Before the trip I had learned about its arrival procedures from Star Clippers. I had decided the best place to take the picture was from San Giorgio Maggiore. I woke up 5:30am that morning and hot footed across the canal to the church. I waited there for over an hour - with no ship. At 7am I decided it must have come in early and dejectedly went back to the vaporetto stop. Moping in the stop, I looked up and there she was. I ran out and took over 40 pictures in 5 minutes. This is the best of those pictures. In this picture the Royal Clipper is directly in front of the Grand Canal. St Mark's Square and the Campanile are on the left of the picture, and Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute is on the right. Looking on the right of the picture you can see the back of tug that appears to be heading in the opposite direction. However increased the resolution shows a line connecting the two ships. The Royal Clipper is actually towing the tug backwards - an emergency brake should something go wrong in the narrow canal. Looking at the other side of the picture, at the front of the ship is a lower row of port holes. Our cabin was the second double port holes.

To many sailors a ship is regarded as an almost a human individual. In olden days this was personified in both her name and her figurehead. This figurehead on the Royal Clipper is of Marie Krafft, the daughter of owner Mikael Krafft. It was made by the Hartmann Design workshop. Marie had to go to the craftsmen’s workshop so that the Hartmann's could make a mold of her face. That mold became the basis for this larger than life Douglas Fir figurehead.

Star Clippers registers all of their ships in Valletta Malta. Presumably they use this port as a "flag of convenience" to reduce taxes or avoid the regulations of the Sweden (the owner's home country) or the United States or Monaco (their corporate office locations). Thus the Royal Clipper flies the Malta civil ensign (flag). This picture was taken while docked in Corfu, Greece.

Whenever the Royal Clipper set sail during the day, she had a ceremonial departure procedure. Even when leaving propelled by the "iron jenny" (the diesel engine), the ship would play the theme from "1942 - Conquest of Paradise” over loudspeakers. In addition to any engine room commands, the captain would order the raising of the staysails (the triangular sails between the individual - see the first picture in this sub-album). The ship would then proceed majestically out of the harbor to the stirring music. This picture is of the Chief Officer Dominique Rollin (left), Captain Brunon Boroinka (center), and the Helmsman (left) as the Royal Clipper was departing Hvar.

According to Wikipedia, The term "clipper ship" was most likely derived from the verb "clip", one definition being to run or fly swiftly. Long with narrow hulls, many masts and large sail area, the 19th century clipper ships were the fastest vessels afloat. While in olden days clipper ships would need a crew of 80 - 100 to work the sails, having powered controls, the Royal Clipper 56,000 square feet of sails on five masts can be handled with a crew as small as twenty. This picture shows two Royal Clipper crew members using a powered winch to raise sails as she left Rovinj Croatia

The Harbor Pilot is a navigational expert for the port. Normally an ex ship captain he possesses detailed knowledge of the particular waterway, e.g. actual depth, direction and strength of the wind, current and tide at any time of the day. The Royal Clipper would take aboard a pilot outside of the ports on the way in. A small boat would come alongside. The Royal Clipper would lower a rope ladder which the pilot would use to climb aboard. Upon departure from the port, this process would be reversed. This picture is of the Dubrovnik pilot coming aboard

While the Royal Clipper did dock once during our cruise, most of the time it anchored in the harbor and we were taken to the shore by a small boat known as a tender. This picture, taken when we visited Hvar, shows the Royal Clipper "in the rear view window" from the tender.

The first tender of the day would place a curved teardrop flag on the dock so that passengers could locate the place to board the tender. The tenders would run between shore and ship several times an hour. This picture was taken in Dubrovnik about 6pm. Passengers are waiting at the flag. while a crew member waits with a line to secure the boat. isit

While cruising, what goes ashore must come back. This is a picture of a tender returning to the Royal Clipper taken outside the harbor of Ponza

Once the day's shore excursions were complete the tenders needed to be brought back aboard the Royal Clipper and stowed. Here a tender is being hoisted out of the water while we were at Rovinj

This collage shows the Royal Clipper at anchor at several stops during the cruise. Clockwise from top left: Hvar with Otok Marinkovac island in the background; Kotor with the mountain east of Perast in the background; Sorrento with Mt Vesuvius ~ 12 miles away in the background; Anchored off of the south end of the island of Palmarola

While in Dubrovnik we tendered back to the Royal Clipper at night. With her lights she stood out. This picture was taken as we approached from the stern.

When under sail at night the Royal Clipper had a special air. Lights were strung all along the yard arms and from bow to stern over the top of all the masts. This picture was taken during the departure from Sorrento.

This picture shows two passengers out on the bowsprit safety net while the Royal Clipper made its way up the Bay of Kotor. The mountain above Perast is in the background.

One of the events for passengers was climbing the mainmast. Strapped into a safety harness attached to a line, we were allowed to climb up to a "crow's nest" 75 feet above the water. No more than 3 passengers at a time being allowed at a time. After I got up, it appeared that maybe they would have to cancel the remainder for the day — all three of us were photographers and none of us wanted to come down. Eventually we had sympathy for those still to climb and came down.

This is a picture of me starting my climb. You can see a rope wrapped around my arm and going down to an attachment to the red safety rope.

This panoramic picture is the view towards the bow from the crow's nest. The Royal Clipper is sailing out the Bay of Kotor. The yardarms visible are on the foremast. The white fabric are the hoisted staysails. The fur-like rolls on the lines at the end of the yardarms protect the edges of flapping mainsails when they are hoisted.

This panoramic picture is the view towards the stern from the crow's nest. Sailing out the Bay of Kotor, the town of Perast is in the background. Off to the left Our Lady of the Rocks is visible. Between Our Lady of the Rocks and the mast is Island of Saint George with its monastery

When anchored, a marina platform can be lowered from the stern. Passengers can engage in water sports from here. This picture was taken at Dubrovnik. While kayaks were available, those in the background are local and not associated with the Royal Clipper

While we were in Corfu a group of Greek Dancers came aboard and performed in the Tropical Bar for the passengers.

While we anchored in the Giardini Naxos harbor we had some more entertainment. According to the London Telegraph there were forest fires on Sicily which were believed to have been set by the mafia. Italian Bombardier 415 (Canadair CL-415) waterbombers used the harbor to "reload". This picture shows one taking on a load of water.

After raising anchor at Palmarola the Captain raised all 56,000 sq ft of sail and allowed passengers to board a tender circle the ship and see it under full sail. As we cruised down the starboard side the otherwise blinding sun went behind the topsail on the main mast allowing me to take this picture.

This is another view of the Royal Clipper under full sail. In this case we see the port side of the ship from the front.

After raising anchor at Palmarola the Captain raised all 56,000 sq ft of sail and allowed passengers to board a tender circle the ship and see it under full sail. As we cruised down the starboard side the otherwise blinding sun went behind the topsail on the main mast allowing me to take this picture.

After we had rounded the stern of the ship and were cruising up the port side, the captain ordered 15 of the crew up onto the bowsprit. As we came along side they were waving at us.

While most of the Royal Clipper sails were set and furled by motors which rolled them up, the mainsail on the foremast required manual furling. After the sails were 'lowered', six crew members scampered up the mast to furl the sail on the arm. This picture is of a cadet from a merchant marine academy in the Netherlands securing his portion of the sail.

The aftmost mast on the Royal Clipper is known as the Jiggermast. It is unique in that it sports a gaff rigged sail -two spars come out from the mask. The lower spar is longer and known as the boom; the upper spar is shorter and known as the Gaff. The four cornered sail is rigged between these spars. The sail provides better performance than the square rigged sails when dealing with adverse winds. As this picture shows, it also serves as an upper attachment point for the ship flag. (See the red lines in the photograph)

Since you really don't spend that much time in your cabin while cruising, and the cost differential can be quite large, We got one of the least expensive ones. This is cabin 104 on the port side in the front of the ship. The picture was taken one morning after breakfast. The steward has made it up while we ate. On this day he made a turtle sculpture out of our towels. (These towel sculptures seem to be quite common on cruises)

While we ate dinner the cabin steward turned down our bed and placed a couple of mints on the comforter. Most of our stuff, including suitcases, were stored under the bed.