Already the sixth week for the Tres Hombres - alias the chocolate boat - on the journey to deliver chocolate from the Caribbean to Europe. A short review of last week, taken from Mott's blog who is in direct contact with the crew, as they passed last days on the Azores and had the departure to Portsmouth UK:
'In the next two days, the Tres Hombres will continue the journey to Portsmouth, England., approximately 10 day sail, but completely dependednt on wind and weather as always. Then, on to Amsterdam.
I am working on landing evenst for both Portsmouth and Amsterdam, most likely May 19th...
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The end of last week the Tres Hombres crew set foot on land again, for the first time since three weeks of sea. They've arrived in the Azores and spent the week there on the Island Faial, preparing to continue their journey later this week.
So a short overview of the week, with some quotes of Mott's blog;
'On Monday, Charlie and I hitched a few rides to the other side of this Island, Faial, and walked up a mountain through some tine villages. It was incredibly beautiful. This island has an amazing mixed terrain of green grass and bits of thick forest with a kind of mixed foliage, sub-tropical...
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As the voyage over seas of the Grenada Chocolate on board the Tres Hombres continues, they have already been sailing for 4 weeks now. I've made a compilation of several highlights of their stories on board this last week before arriving to the Azores today. A selection of the blog that Mott is writing from the ship;
'This chocolate delivery vessel I have been crossing the ocean on for the past 22 days is very fast. The only vessel I have sailed that is faster is my little 4 meter Hobie Cat on which I deliver chocolate from Grenada to Carriacou, a 20 mile journey I make in as little...
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Because communication from the ship is limited - the crew can only send about one email per day - some messages arrive with a title delay... Like todays post, which was written by Mott on his birthday and it seems he had a very nice one on the boat, including a whale that came very nearby, jumping several times and spraying its water in the air, a magnificent site he writes...
I especially loved the post of Mott's blog today so I decided to make a short compilation of his experiences so far, to follow the highlights of the 23 days on the sea so far;
week 1:
'We are going 7.7 knots right...
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From growing the cocoa pods to wrapping the bar it takes about 8 months. I won't use 8 months to describe the process but I will write about every step of the process to show you what you actually unwrap and eat at home!
The following steps are passed before they can send a wrapped bar off to you:
1 - planting cocoa trees, harvesting cocoa pods
2 - fermenting of the cocoa beans and drying
3 - sorting by hand and roasting
4 - winnowing (taking the shells off the beans)
5 - grinding (crunching the beans and the magic of making them into a liquid)
6 - refining/conching (process to get acids...
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On the morning of their departure Mott and Charlie got their ‘tour of the mast’. Brigantine Tres Hombres has 315 m2 of sail to be managed by the crew. The 2 masts on deck are about 29 meters high and to open and close the sails crew needs to climb in the masts, on open sea and during sailing of course - rain or sunshine.
Usually new crew members climb up the mast for the first time in the harbor, to get used to the height and balancing themselves when the boat is not moving yet.
First they all put on the safetly straps with a hook they can click into the ropes of the mast...
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Ahoy!
On Saturday March 24 the first Fair Transport of chocolate - ever - has left from the Caribbean to Europe!
To wave the ship off, we left early in the morning for the harbor in St George, the last descent for us as well, sad to leave Belmont Estate and their people behind, I hope to be back very soon since it has become my home away from home in the three weeks I stayed there.
It was a beautiful sunny day and we arrived just in time to see Mott and Charlie do their first climb in the mast. With ease they got in there and will be doing this again when the ship is on the sea (!) it takes...
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Today we had our last full day on the boat to prepare it for sailing of tomorrow! Early in the morning we (Mott, Charlie, Claire and myself) went to the warehouse where the chocolate is stored to load the truck that will take us to the harbor in St . George. Quiet morning and they quickly loaded all the boxes, very nice view indeed and exactly before the rain started (tropical rain so only short).
In about an hour drive we got to the boat where the crew had already prepared the cargo space to load the boxes of chocolate - 2,5 tons...
The airco was turned on (running on wind and sun energy)...
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The team of the Grenada Chocolate Company has been preparing and wrapping 4 tons of chocolate to go on the boat (yes: that’s 24.000 bars…). Everything is ready to go on board and for the first time they will have to miss Mott for a period as long as 2 months that he will be on board with the chocolates. Enough reasons to come and inspect the boat themselves!
The staff of the factory and several cocoa farmers came down from Hermitage to St George (about an hour drive in beautiful curvy roads with tropical forest). The boat is lying in a secured area of the harbor so we all passed security...
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Just a short post to show you how happy chocolate can make people! the crew obviously is a bit deprived of a few things on the ship while sailing, and chocolate is one of the most important things they mention... Usually they take a piece when they leave a harbor but that finishes quickly and than it can be weeks without.
Four of the crew members were the first to taste the Grenada Chocolate and I think the look on their face says it all :)
For them its a dream come true sailing on a ' chocolate boat' and several times have asked if the storage room will be locked during sailing. But Mott...
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