Excursions Into The Past

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Excursions Into The Past
Excursions Into The Past

Video: Excursions Into The Past

Video: Excursions Into The Past
Video: Excursions into the Past: Willoughby Run, July 1st, 1863 2024, March
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"As is well known, in Scotland you can experience the four seasons in one day. On the Orkneys we experience them within an hour," reports MichHölzen. He also writes: "In winter the island is stormy on 15 out of 30 days, in summer 'only' two days per month. That sounds a lot more cozy." Then there is the electricity. "Between the islands the tide moves at up to five knots, and between the Orkneys and the Scottish mainland lies the infamous Pentland Firth with currents of up to 16 knots."

During the shore leave, the sailing duo finds time to delve deeply into the history of the islands. Hölzen: "The islanders try to preserve their cultural heritage. Until the 1960s, sailing boats were in use to transport goods between the 24 inhabited islets. Then the ferries came. The old Yole boats were decaying so that the young people through the harbor to arouse their interest in the sleek Viking boats."

And further: "The sea is sometimes gentle and smooth, sometimes wild and unrestrained. Sometimes true natural spectacles take place. Because: The water here is at least as changeable as the weather."

For those who sail around England, excursions into the more recent and the distant past follow. Hölzen recounts: "In 1919, the entire German navy itself sunk into ScapFlow, a lagoon formed by several of the Orkney Islands, on the erroneous assumption that the Versailles Treaty would be rejected by the German negotiators the next day and valuable war material immediately British hands are falling. The sunken German ships are now a coveted raw material, because when the steel for the hulls was cast, the atomic bombs of Hiroshim and Nagasaki had not yet fallen and the steel was not yet contaminated with radiating nuclides. Today, one wants to build highly sensitive radiation measuring probes, one is absolutely dependent on the steel made before 1945."

All over the Orkneys there are also Stonehenge-like circular formations, consisting of huge boulders. In addition, the best preserved Stone Age settlements in Europe can be found here. Nowhere else can you learn as much about the Neolithic as in the far north of Scotland.

In the new podcast episode, among others, the archaeologist Mike Copper, who specializes in Stone Age societies, and the Yole sailboat owner Maurice Davison, who wants to keep the legacy of the Vikings alive.

Bootschaft logo
Bootschaft logo

Traces of the past - the 20th part of Michael Hölzen's Bootschaft-Segel-Podcast. Simply click on the play button with the arrow, and off you go. Or download the audio file using the selection menu on the right in the player so that you can listen to it later. The next part will follow in the coming week

And here it goes directly to Michael Hölzen's "Bootschaft" page with the option of subscribing to his podcast there or directly on iTunes

To the background:

The Berliner MichHölzen has been a passionate sailor for 15 years. It all started on the Wannsee, the first capsize, but also the first excursion on your own bow with a just acquired inland license - “priceless”, as he says. After that he never let go of sailing with all its facets, step by step he broadened his horizons.

Podcast wood booth
Podcast wood booth

Podcast author Michael Hölzen

This summer he and his friend Laurenz Schlueter would like to sail a very special trip that they have long dreamed of: around England. The two men are freelancers and can take a three-month break for the trip.

The problem: Hölzen and Schlüter do not have their own boat. And they don't want one either. Charter, borrow or sail somewhere is also out of the question for them. So what to do

Without further ado, Hölzen and Schlüter make a decision: You will become a temporary boat owner. In other words, only for the duration of the trip. In concrete terms, they buy a yacht shortly before the start of the trip, which they want to sell again immediately afterwards.

Will that work without ending up with a big hole in your wallet?

"Almost all sailing enthusiasts shook their heads when they heard about the plan," says Hölzen. And also various boat dealers to whom he presented waved them off. He did not let that confuse him.

In the meantime, Hölzen and Schlüter own a used First 30 from Beneteau. In just a few weeks they want to set off on the big trip.

As a full-time radio journalist, MichHölzen regularly reports on the trip in his own podcast called “Bootschaft”.

Podcasts can be listened to on the way to work, on the way to the ship or at home in the evening or at the weekend on the sofa. Or on a rainy port day in the boat cabin.

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