20 March 2011

This is the end of silence, we are sorry for not updating English version for so long! A lot has happened…. 2 podcasts, 2 stories, 1 video, several concerts, one festival, many celebrations, many guests (Polish friends and some sailors). All the time Bob Marley's spirit and music were with us… :)
And you know what? That's not all!

http://projektwagner2012.glt.pl/

Let us first invite you for a special event – the solemn première of the sculpture to commemorate Wladyslaw Wagner [read: Vladyslav Vagner] – first Polish who sailed around the world.

• Where?  – Beef Island, British Virgin Island, Caribbean Sea
• When? – January/February 2012

Wladyslaw Wagner was just 20 years-old Scout, when he started circumnavigation. It took him 6 years and three boats - called Zjawa I, II and III - to finish the journey. He became Polish hero and symbol of freedom then. Unfortunately II World War stopped Wagner from returning to Poland. For following over 50 years of communism in Poland, the government consequently kept the memory of this great man and his escapade out of the “official” history. After the war, Wagner lived in the Caribbean for many years and passed away in 1992 in United States.

Year 2012 is very special for Wladyslaw Wagner as it is

• 100. anniversary of his birthday
•  80. anniversary of beginning circumnavigation
•  20. anniversary of his death

We would like to make everybody conscious about who Wladyslaw Wagner was so we took Project "Wagner 2012" (projektwagner2012.glt.pl) under our auspices and we will keep you posted about this event on www.aroundtheworld.pl! Although it is addressed mainly to Polish from around the world – everybody is invited and you can’t miss it either!

The event will happen still quite far in future, not all the details are known yet but… stay tuned so you will know for sure ;) We’ll keep you updated.

To celebrate it 100% you would start planning now as the best is to come for Wagner2012 event on a sailing boat! Don’t worry if you can’t – with us you won’t miss it anyway :)

  

projektwagner2012.glt.pl

Now it’s time for a little shortcut of what has been happening in our life during past weeks... First of all, have a look on the story “The Beginning of 2011” where Mick described an extraordinary for us end of 2010 and beginning of New Year (HERE).

We celebrated those days close to the family of Flames Productions – Queen Ifrica & Tony Rebel - that was an amazing experience for us! Just imagine…

We sailed into Port Royal – historical town on the peninsula in front of Jamaica's capital – Kingston (the biggest city we’ve ever visited by our little yacht YouYou…). The sun was setting down… It was 30^th of December, exactly the second anniversary of our  YouYou launch and – at the same time – Rebel Salute’s Launch – the press meeting before the biggest Jamaican music festival of positive vibrations. It was already 1900 hrs and the meeting has just been started at Hilton Hotel up-town Kingston when we set up the anchor…

We sailed to here from Bowden, just 35 Nm far away from Kingston. We still have clearly in memory these first days in Jamaica, with Bowden Coast Guards & Marine Police on their Christmas party… (greetings to you guys and thanks for an escort!), 

as well as with our amazing RASTA friends Zabulon and Ken,

Zabulon & Ken

who taught us many important things (Mick’s story about HERE).

Ken

It took us a lot of time to reach Rebel Salute Launch but we were lucky enough to finally hug Queen, enjoy a quick Tarrus Riley’s performance, as well as an excellent show of Tony Rebel and later, Queen Ifrica herself. Some of these recordings you can check on our Rebel Salute video below.

Next 2 days were completely crazy… The evening at Flames and a drive by Tony Rebel for Queen Ifrica’s performance (what perfect skills of Morase M Bradford in conducting crowds to free up the way for us!). Roads were so packed that in the end we decided to go by walk – as all 3 women had high hill shoes we choose to go barefoot. People were recognizing Queen every few second so she was making stops for a photo frequently. Unbelievable, but Queen never showed any slightest sign of impatience, while waiting for a flash or waiting for problems with cameras to be solved ;)

Finally, Queen Ifrica gave a breathtaking show – in front of crowds in the center of Kingston. 

Queen Ifrica - 1.01.2011, Kingston, Jamaica

That was just first of her 2 performances on the first day of 2011. The second was in the most rural end of Eastern Jamaica – Morant Bay, where we were in the beginning of our stay on that lovely island. We were driven here by Tony Rebel again… In between all other things, we respect him for the skills and wisdom on the road - thank you Tony for so safe taking care about us and Jah Bless u & Queen always, especially on the road!

For more – please check Mick’s story HERE. About an annual Jamaican fest of great music & positive vibrations – Rebel Salute 2011 please read in our previous news HERE. By the way, at Flames Productions we met many musicians and made some recordings, still hoping to meet again there and share some vibes… 

Seven Seal

All these days with Queen Ifrica and her Family were unforgettable experience! The amount of good vibes produced at Flames hit us significantly!!! 

Another story (HERE) is the trip we made to Nine Mile - home village of Bob Marley. We went there to celebrate his 66 birthday, but not only! - we had a special mission… Besides a tent and a stove there were an electric guitar and a little amplifier packed in our bag packs! The mission was to exchange them for… a real Jamaican drum! 

By the way, do you remember where we have that equipment from? Yes, Hop&Jaunt! Aly and John for sure will be happy to hear about all that :) (check their new website HERE - you will love it!!!).

The trip to Nine Mile was an extraordinary experience! On Bob’s birthday, Sunday 6th of February we welcomed the sun with original Rasta drum music Nyabinghi - HERE you can hear over 20 minutes of it! 

Listen on-line:

We also had a phone-in to Polish Radio 3, talking live about Nine Mile Marley’s celebrations!

We met here many interesting people - like a great musician Buffalo Bill, who passionately talked about Jamaica, RASTA culture and Bob Marley. In our podcast from Nine Mile you’ll also hear Gerard describing ritual Nyabinghi drumming, JahLeeJah,Love,Peace and Bob’s school friend Fozzy as our guide through most important places in Bob Marley’s life. You can listen to our podcast from that trip HERE or 

Listen to on-line:

The pics & more details of these celebrations - you’ll find in Mick’s story HERE. And if you’d like to see more pictures of Nine Mile – HERE you’ll have a whole gallery. In the end, if you wish - below you can listen to our Nine Mile broadcast on air of Polish Radio 3!

Listen to On-line:

We feel very fortunate choosing Port Royal for our place of stay in Jamaica and Morgan’s Harbour for anchorage. And this is mostly because of our good angel Callisha. She is succesful manager of very nice Hotel & Marina “Morgan’s Harbour”.

Having excellent facilities, Callisha is organizing very interesting events…

Imagine, one day there was Shaggy making a videoclip here, another time we enjoyed the number of stars on one stage - a special concert organized by Bob Marley’s granddaughter - Donisha Prendergast. 

Donisha Prendergast

She is well known personality in Jamaica, and we met her just in the early stage of her new project called Conversations. It’s based on the dialog of the musicians, audience and the host, Donisha. In lack of acoustic music nowadays in Jamaica - these series of concerts is always played with the smallest possible amount of electricity.

There were many musicians performing -  KY-Mani Marley, Protoje, 

Protoje

Jah9, Italee, Jabalance, Raging Fyah and a drum master Maroghini... 

Maroghini

Amazing concert, hope to share it with you soon! Donisha told us later, that was her first public singing performance in Jamaica EVER! (more pics & info HERE)

Now the list of our lovely guests! First we were visited  in Jamaica by Ola & Ziemo, 

Ola & Ziemo

What’s more they completely surprised us! Imagine, they flew from Poland in complete conspiracy, so it took us a while to understand what was going on when suddenly they appeared in front of us… They supplied us with some treasures 

and quickly run to explore their favorite Jamaica… We haven’t seen them since their first visit – which was much more planned then – do you remember? (Story from our virgin voyage with Ola & Ziemo HERE)

In contrary, we could not stand waiting for s/y Serendipity to appear on the horizon – as Hugo & Cecille decided to change plans (again :) and sail to Jamaica!

meantime our friend, great sailor, Jacek Rajch on s/y Osprey arrived with Canadian Barry onboard. We spent together amazing time – changing the surrounding and moving all three boats to paradise Lime Cay – uninhabited sandy bank just “around the corner” from our anchorage. What a place! Not surprising they call it one of the most beautiful beaches in Jamaica!

Lime Cay

Hugo & Cecillie had experienced a lot since we last saw them… Not only best things happened to them, unfortunately, but they are impressively strong & positive couple! Hope to share with you their thoughts in our podcast soon! Meantime - visit their website where they publish frequently about their adventurous voyages :) - HERE
That was lovely to meet up with them again and who knows when we meet again? Maybe in BVI next year on Wagner’s celebrations?! Hope so :)

We were very happy to see our great friends becoming lovely companion for themselves – Capt. Jacek Rajch is always happy between new generations of sailors :)

Barry, Hugo, Cecilie, Jacek Rajch, Mikolaj & Patrycja

Capt. Rajch is very important personality for us – we met hem 3 times in our life but all of these meetings had important impact in our lives.

Kapitanowie Rajch i Westrych :)

Jacek is a legend – he spent over 20 years sailing and did a circumnavigation twice on a boat which was once rescued from the bottom of the sea… 

More about that lovely meeting you will find HERE.
This is not the end of our visitors - recently also Krzysiek & Robert have visited us - they are crazy cousins from Poland who decided to do something interesting in their life - visit their website www.kuzyni.eu

www.kuzyni.eu