Bark Europa

Bark Europa World wanderer and adventure seeker! Join us for a once in a lifetime experience. In a light breeze 30 sails billow from EUROPA, taking her towards the horizon.

Since 1994 the barque EUROPA has roamed the seas of the world and built up the reputation of a ship that really sails. A professional crew of 14 and a complement of 48 voyage crewmembers of all ages and nationalities sail her. Tall Ships enthusiasts, some with no sailing experience, take the wheel, hoist the yards, navigate, etc.

05/06/2026

In 1722, Roggeveen found Easter Island when he was looking for a continent🗿

Cook charted more of this ocean than any navigator before him, and never stopped sailing it⛵️

Polynesian navigators settled the entire Pacific using stars, swell, and the behaviour of birds🛶

Europa follows the same waters. Peru to the Galápagos, Easter Island, Pitcairn, Tahiti, the Cook Islands, and Auckland, with a Cape Horn rounding for those who want to sail the southern edge of the world.

Six voyages. One crossing. The first leg from Peru to the Galápagos is already sailing.

You join as crew. You stand watch. You help sail the ship.
Find all details here: https://barkeuropa-pacific-2026-brochure.netlify.app/

In loving memory of RensjeIt is with heavy hearts that we share the sad news that our beloved cook and friend Rensje pas...
02/06/2026

In loving memory of Rensje

It is with heavy hearts that we share the sad news that our beloved cook and friend Rensje passed away last night, surrounded by her family and friends.

For over 25 years, Rens was the heart of EUROPA. She was our little captain on board, whether in the galley or on deck. A powerful woman with an eye for everyone, she gave all her energy to the guests and crew alike. She lived for the wonders of the ocean and the deep connections created by life at sea.

Even after she stopped sailing, her home remained an open house for her EUROPA family. She was a pillar of our community, welcoming generations of new crewmembers with open arms.

She is loved through and through, and she will be dearly missed by all of us.

Rust zacht, lieve Rens

I miss my oat milk latte. I do. It is not the first time, though.It was December of the last year. We were aboard Bark E...
29/05/2026

I miss my oat milk latte. I do. It is not the first time, though.

It was December of the last year. We were aboard Bark Europa, sailing toward Ushuaia, El Fin del Mundo. There were 38 of us in the voyage crew, from fifteen different countries, guys and gals of various ages, with different backgrounds and walks of life. Many languages were spoken, however our love for the sea and adventure, and English with the beautiful sounds of various accents, united us.

With the 16 permanent crew on board, collaboration was constant: sail handling, helming, lookout duties, and the never ending maintenance that keeps a ship like Europa alive. Every task, role, and person mattered.

I learned so much, too. Did you know that albatrosses live almost entirely at sea, coming to land only to breed? That petrels have a built in desalination “machine” inside their beaks? That every whale’s tail is as unique as a fingerprint? And that in the Southern Hemisphere, the sun circles through the north? I did not...

We were sailing upwind into the south, guided by the Southern Cross and the ship’s compass. I was moving with the ship, and looking forward to my oat milk latte, being certain I would get one soon, and equally certain that I would miss my Europa experience: the camaraderie and the vastness of the never empty ocean...

Little did I know there would be no oat milk latte in Ushuaia. And little did I know I would not stay away from Europa for long.

Now it is April 2026 as I write this. We are on our way to Callao from Valparaíso. This voyage is different. There are only nine of us in the voyage crew, small but mighty, along with the 16 great permanent crew, some new to me and some who I met in December. We all, the 25 of us, came from twelve countries across five continents.

We are sailing downwind, heading north along the South Pacific coast of America de Sud. While the closest land is 4000 meters underneath, the closest dry land though is 260 nautical miles to the east of us. Europa rolls slowly and gracefully away from the Southern Cross. The air and water become warmer. However, some things remain unchanged: the collaboration, the camaraderie, and the ever present ocean.

While on land, a friend once asked me what it feels like to be on a tall ship in the open ocean. How do you describe the constant motion of water and the ship, working out every muscle of your body, the 'silence' of wind and waves, the occasional moan from Neptune deep below? The sun playing on the surface by day, the moon casting a silver river by night, the dancing stars overhead? The whales spouts, sometimes followed by joyful flips, showing their unique tails and bellies? The sea lion roars aft at night, and the schools of dolphins leaping southward, the flying fish running away from their chasers? The bioluminescence during dark nights? The astonishing views from the Royal yards, and the ship’s songs as she rocks and rolls? There is never silence, there is always motion. My words fell short. One must come aboard to feel in order to feel and understand.

We are running downwind now. Europa rocks gently and peacefully. I am smiling. I am happy. Is it my happy place? Maybe. I still miss my oat milk latte though. Would I get one soon? Would I be back on Europa soon? I do not know. I know for sure that I will miss Bark Europa again, the new friends, the shared work, the wonder of the ocean.

Come aboard!

- Dmitry, voyage crew member Chilean Channels 2026

20/05/2026

The Galápagos is not one place.

It changes from island to island — above and below the surface.

Black lava. Highlands. Sea lion colonies. Marine iguanas warming themselves on volcanic rock. Giant tortoises moving slowly through the interior. Underwater worlds shaped by current, coast and island.

During our 2026 Pacific voyages, Bark EUROPA will spend a week exploring the Galápagos with local naturalist guides and conservation-minded storytellers who help us see more than wildlife. They help us understand where we are.

Meet Bernie, Pedro, Franklin and Joshua — each bringing a different connection to the islands. Bernie, Pedro and Franklin join with deep local naturalist knowledge. Joshua brings the perspective of a Galápagos-born filmmaker and conservation storyteller, with a special eye for the world below the surface.

Before and after the Galápagos, the ocean is part of the journey. Guests join EUROPA as voyage crew: standing watch, taking the helm, learning the ropes and crossing the Pacific under sail.

No sailing experience required.

Our 2026 Galápagos voyages:
Callao, Peru → Galápagos
4–21 June 2026 · 18 days

Galápagos → Rapa Nui
23 June–20 July 2026 · 28 days

Explore all Pacific routes, dates and voyage details:
https://barkeuropa-pacific-2026-brochure.netlify.app/

📷 Galapagos by Zet Freiburghaus
📷 Ship by Isley Reust & Jordi Morales

06/05/2026

There are still places that feel different when reached by sea.

Galápagos. Rapa Nui. Pitcairn. Tahiti.

In 2026, Bark EUROPA connects these Pacific names by tall ship. through island exploration, open-ocean sailing, and life on board as part of the voyage crew.

The first voyage begins in the Galápagos, with time to explore the islands before setting sail across the Pacific to Rapa Nui.

Galápagos → Rapa Nui
23 Jun – 20 Jul 2026
28 days · 1,940 nautical miles

The second voyage continues west from Rapa Nui to Pitcairn and onward to French Polynesia.

Rapa Nui → Pitcairn → Tahiti
22 Jul – 22 Aug 2026
33 days · 2,560 nautical miles

This is not a cruise. You join as voyage crew: standing watch, helping sail the ship, learning tall ship sailing, and finding the rhythm of life at sea.

No sailing experience is needed — only the willingness to actively take part.

Comment RAPA NUI and we’ll send you both routes.

📷 .freiburghaus & Jordi Plana Morales

The Galápagos were never meant to be rushed.In June 2026, Bark EUROPA sails through the islands as part of her Pacific c...
04/05/2026

The Galápagos were never meant to be rushed.

In June 2026, Bark EUROPA sails through the islands as part of her Pacific crossing.

This is not a cruise. You join the ship as voyage crew: standing watch, learning the ropes, helping handle sail, and moving through the archipelago by sea.

San Cristóbal. Floreana. Isabela. Santa Cruz.
Sea lions, giant tortoises, marine iguanas, blue-footed bo***es, volcanic shores, local guides, and time to understand the distance between the islands.

Choose your passage:

🐢 Peru → Galápagos
June 4–21, 2026
www.barkeuropa.com/en/our-voyages/peru-galapagos

🗿 Galápagos → Rapa Nui
June 23–July 20, 2026
www.barkeuropa.com/en/our-voyages/galapagos-easter-island

Last berths available!

↘️ What it's really like to cross the Pacific on a sailing ship (not a cruise)
www.barkeuropa.com/en/logbook/what-its-really-cross-pacific-sailing-ship-not-cruise

Sailing northwards along the Chilean Coast.Studies, work and family matters kept Alexander von Humboldt from his passion...
01/05/2026

Sailing northwards along the Chilean Coast.

Studies, work and family matters kept Alexander von Humboldt from his passion for travelling and exploring until the age of 27. It was then, in 1799, when together with Aimé Bonpland he made a great team when they were granted a Spanish passport to the colonies in South America and the Philippines.

As Andrea Wulf mentions in her book The Invention of Nature, setting foot aboard the frigate Pizarro represented "the beginning of a new life, a period of 5 years in which Humboldt would change from a curious talented young man into the most extraordinary scientist of his age. It was here that Humboldt would see nature with both head and heart."

It was the travelling, the sailing. It was this expedition that sparked in him the idea of merging and integrating both his scientific and artistic capacities, describing the earth as 'a natural whole animated by inward forces', pre-dating Lovelock's Gaia Theory for more than 150 years.

In an attempt to explain his collection of a vast amount of data and samples and make sense of nature as a whole, he considered the dependence of currents and prevailing winds, atmospheric circulation and its effects on the oceans, the differences in seawater salinity, the configuration of the shoreline, the changes in sea depth, and the variations in the biota as he travelled both in a latitudinal and altitudinal range.

Like this, in 1802 when he sailed from Lima to Guayaquil he examined the cold current that runs along the western coast of South America. This long and narrow area that extends for most of the Pacific South American coast is a cold, nutrient-loaded flow that supports one of the most productive marine ecosystems. A current that bears his name and where sightings of marine wildlife are common. A shark follows the ship for a moment, several Northern Royal albatrosses are spotted for the first time in our trip. With them, Black-browed albatrosses soar around us too, together with a variety of petrels, from the large Giants to the small Wilson storm petrels.

And along the Humboldt Current is where we sail. Since we left the broken coast of southern Chile at the latitude north of Chiloé (42° S): southeasterly trade wind area and the northward-flowing surface oceanographic current. The interactions with the land, atmosphere, rapidly rising sea bottom and latitude determine the different climate area where we find ourselves now. Far to the south we left the temperate rainforests and glacial landscapes. Now the land systems are warm and dry, the water temperature higher, despite not being high enough if we just take into account the 30° S latitudes where we are sailing — due to the northbound sea circulation along the coast. Systems interrelated, connected. We have been witnesses to these changes during our voyage, travelling through the environmental and biological changes that Humboldt also experienced at the beginning of the 19th century, and who was the first to integrate them as part of a whole Nature network.

Sailing a good southerly and with such an important current with us, Europa has made good 155 nm today before the wind dies down.

Despite the rolling conditions, a good day that also gave us the chance to start checking and making preparations to add more possibilities of canvas. Studding sail booms are lowered on deck and inspected, Skysail looked over.

✍️ Jordi, 10th April 2026
🗺️ Explore the Pacific with us in 2026: www.barkeuropa.com/en/pacific-ocean-voyages
🇦🇶 Set sail with us: www.barkeuropa.com/en/our-voyages
📜 Find all our updates here: www.barkeuropa.com/en/logbook

Getting off to the Pacific waters through the Chacao Channel. Sailing North.… in the South Pacific, where a current prev...
30/04/2026

Getting off to the Pacific waters through the Chacao Channel. Sailing North.

… in the South Pacific, where a current prevails, the effect of whose low temperature on the climate of the adjacent shores I had an opportunity of observing in the autumn of 1802. It brings the cold waters of the high southern latitudes to the coast of Chili, follows the shores of this continent and of Peru, first from south to north, and then deflected from the Bay of Arica onward from south-southeast to north-northwest.

… On the part of the shore of South America south of Payta, which inclines further westward, the current is suddenly deflected in the same direction from shore, turning so sharply to the west that a ship sailing northward passes suddenly from cold into warm water.

Alexander von Humboldt. Cosmos: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe

The Humboldt Current.
After heaving anchor in the early hours of the day, Europa finds herself starting her journey off Canal Chacao and in the open waters of Golfo de Coronados. The pilot has been picked up and for the first time in this trip we sail without any of them. Her engines are on, the steering is to the northwest, out to the coastal Pacific waters in search of wind.

And under the sunny skies, some wind we found at mid-morning. Time to set sail to run downwind. All squares in the fore mast first, then all the way to Top Gallants in the main, until it picks up over 30 kn, making for dousing and furling Main Course and Top Gallant before dinner. Europa rolls through speeds between 7 and 9 kn.

Here, out at the ocean, today's good southerlies are paired with the northwards flow of the waters. The Humboldt Current. This relatively cold water current flows north along the western coast of South America, extending from southern Chile (starting at about 42° S) to northern Peru (4° S). It produces upwelling of rich deep waters which increase the biological productivity of the system along almost all the South American coast.

Alexander von Humboldt. It is 1846 when he published his book Cosmos. In it, he offers the first description of this major oceanographic feature. A historical character nowadays not very well known or remembered, his ideas still shape our thinking about the planet and its inhabitants.

Alexander von Humboldt expressed a broader idea of how Nature works than the classical Natural Sciences of the time, which were based on a strong structure of its different branches, which were treated separately; when geology focused just on rocks and not processes; when biology was based primarily on taxonomy, trying systematically to categorise, recognise and catalogue species.

A true voyager, naturalist, talented and of brilliant mind, instead he approached the natural world as one great interrelated whole.

… the observer who earnestly pursues the path of knowledge is led from one class of phenomena to another, by means of the mutual dependence and connection existing between them

Alexander von Humboldt. Cosmos: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe

A perception of how landmasses, oceans, geology and oceanography influence the climate, how this determines different environments, habitats, ecosystems. How the environment affects life and how life has an effect on the environment as well.

The heart of his research during his journeys and adventures was to grasp the reasons for the geographical distribution of plants and animals on the planet according to the specific location, the latitude, altitude above sea level, landscape characteristics, the oceanic circulation. Factors that at the same time determine climatic areas and different meteorological processes.

For us, this has been a journey into both: into the natural world of Chile and, without being aware of it, also into Humboldt's observations and works. A voyage in the Europa that began at a latitude of almost 55° S, finding ourselves today at the latitudes of the 40s. Southern Patagonia, Chilean Channels, Pacific South American coast. Different oceanographic characteristics, different ecosystems, different climatic areas. Sailing the fjords and channels, climbing hills, walking on glacier fronts. Changes of landscapes, habitats, wildlife. Different distribution of the biota with the latitudinal and altitudinal ranges, different systems but nevertheless interconnected.

We are shaped by the past. Nicolaus Copernicus showed us our place in the universe, Isaac Newton explained the laws of nature, Thomas Jefferson gave us some of our concepts of liberty and democracy, and Charles Darwin proved that all species descend from common ancestors. These ideas define our relationship to the world.

Humboldt gave us our concept of nature itself.

Andrea Wulf. The Invention of Nature

✍️ Jordi, 9th April 2026
🗺️ Explore the Pacific with us in 2026: www.barkeuropa.com/en/pacific-ocean-voyages
🇦🇶 Set sail with us: www.barkeuropa.com/en/our-voyages
📜 Find all our updates here: www.barkeuropa.com/en/logbook

Last afternoon's landing and cruise finished, canvas set as soon as the anchor comes home, and there the Europa sails no...
29/04/2026

Last afternoon's landing and cruise finished, canvas set as soon as the anchor comes home, and there the Europa sails north along the Interior Chiloé Sea, leaving behind the unique Nihuel island.

A night of smooth sailing continues into an overcast day.

Lookouts keep reporting fishing buoys close by; at her slow speed sailing downwind in a light breeze, she often manoeuvres slightly, changing her course to avoid them.

Only a few sail adjustments must be done during the journey to accommodate our arrival time at Puerto Montt in the afternoon. There, it will be necessary to embark a harbour pilot to drop anchor at a designated spot.

At the main deck, under Topsails and Course on the fore mast, after pulling down the Topsails on the main a bit earlier, bits of old line are spread all over. Crew engages many of us in a splicing lesson. Learning how to properly interweave the rope strands at their ends, we spend part of the morning.

It is also before lunch when Puerto Montt is in sight, still miles away.

Originally, the site was covered by thick forest and was called Melipulli (which means "four hills" in the native language). Now the city is home to about 270,000 inhabitants, and although the woods grow a bit further from their original extent, the area is still heavily forested. The city itself was founded on February 12, 1853, after government-sponsored immigration from Germany, and named after Manuel Montt, President of Chile between 1851 and 1861, who set in motion the German immigration.

That will be the place where we plan to spend the night. Some of us leave here and the pilots that have been with the ship for already a good couple of weeks are leaving too.

And a swift manoeuvre it was at our arrival, dropping anchor under sail without the aid of engines. Sails come down one by one at the captain's call, spanker is set to finish turning the ship and the call for letting go anchor comes.

Europa will leave the town tomorrow, timing her departure with the tidal currents in the Chacao Channel, which separates Chiloé from the mainland to the north, and joins Golfo de los Coronados with Golfo de Ancud. She has another appointment in just a few days: her arrival in Valparaiso.

✍️ Jordi Plana Morales, 7th April 2026
🗺️ Explore the Pacific with us in 2026: www.barkeuropa.com/en/pacific-ocean-voyages
🇦🇶 Set sail with us: www.barkeuropa.com/en/our-voyages
📜 Find all our updates here: www.barkeuropa.com/en/logbook

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