Tall Ship Adventure
Sail a traditional 1947 vessel across oceans, as crew, not as a passenger.
Tall ship adventure
Brigantine NEPTUN is a 1947 steel-hulled tall ship, re-rigged in 2025, sailing as crew not as guests. Square sails forward, fore-and-aft aft, 290 m² of canvas. The lineage runs through Yankee, Romance and Picton Castle. The crew runs the ship, you become part of it.
The phrase "tall ship adventure" gets used loosely. Some companies sell three-hour harbour cruises with that label. Others mean a week aboard a chartered yacht with a captain at the wheel. We mean something specific: an ocean voyage on a working brigantine, with you as crew. You stand watches twenty-four hours a day. You climb aloft to set and furl square sails. You haul on halyards, take a turn at the helm, and learn the traditional seamanship that has moved square-rigged ships across oceans for two centuries.
A brigantine is two-masted: square sails on the foremast, fore-and-aft sails on the main. NEPTUN was built in 1947 as a Danish fishing vessel, sold to Foreningen Neptun in 2022, and re-rigged from schooner to brigantine in 2024–2025. She carries 290 square metres of canvas across 16 sails. She has crossed the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and is now mid-voyage across three oceans from Bali to Kiel.
Tall ships in 2027 are an unusual thing. The handful that still cross oceans under sail run on a thread of living tradition passed down through specific captains and ships. The Yankee circumnavigated seven times under Irving Johnson in the mid-twentieth century. The Romance took the same tradition forward under Arthur Kimberly. The Picton Castle still sails today under Daniel Moreland, who learned from Kimberly. NEPTUN's captain, Anders Bischoff, sailed Picton Castle. The line is short and direct. When you sail with us, you're inside it.
Read more about the ship's history, the difference between a brigantine and a schooner, or the parts of a tall ship if you want the vocabulary before you join.
You stand a four-hour watch, eight hours off, around the clock. You steer to a compass course, then to the wind, then by the stars. You set and furl square sails from the yards, with safety harness clipped on. You haul, coil, and stow lines in the dark. You stand lookout and call traffic. You help with watch meals in the galley. You scrub heads, splice rope, paint the rail. You teach the next-leg arrivals what you learned the leg before. From the Sail Training Manifesto: "we have positions, not ranks". The captain washes dishes too.
A typical leg takes a complete beginner from "what's a halyard" to "competent watchkeeper" in three weeks. By the end you have ocean miles in a logbook and the unmistakable feeling of having been actually useful on a sailing ship.
Almost anyone in reasonable health and curious about the sea. Past trainees have been gap-year students, sabbatical-takers, retirees, and experienced small-boat sailors taking their first ocean miles on a traditional rig. No prior sailing experience required, see sailing without experience for the beginner's path.
Trainee berths run at €79 per day shared-cost, covering bunk, meals, and every nautical mile. Foreningen Neptun membership €67 per year separate. The reason it isn't priced like a charter is that it isn't one. Trainees pay to participate in operating the ship, not to be served by it. See how to sail with us for the full picture.
Pick a leg
Nine legs across three oceans on Brigantine NEPTUN's 2026–2027 world voyage. Pick where and when.
May 2026 — Aug 2026 · Bali, Indonesia → Réunion, France
The opening chapter of Neptun's 482-day world voyage, a 4,078-nm trade-wind passage from the temples of Bali to the volcanic cliffs of Réunion.
Read more about this leg → about Leg 1: from Bali to Réunion across the Indian Ocean
Aug 2026 — Sept 2026 · Réunion, France → Zanzibar, Tanzania
Forty days across the western Indian Ocean, volcanic Réunion, lemur-haunted Nosy Be, the Mozambique Channel, and the spice-scented stone alleys of Zanzibar.
Read more about this leg → about Leg 2: from Réunion to Zanzibar via Madagascar
Sept 2026 — Nov 2026 · Zanzibar, Tanzania → Durban, South Africa
Sixty-three days coasting the African shore, spice islands, mangrove anchorages, Portuguese praças and the long trade-wind run down the Mozambique Channel to Durban.
Read more about this leg → about Leg 3: from Zanzibar to Durban down the Mozambique Channel
Nov 2026 — Dec 2026 · Durban, South Africa → Cape Town, South Africa
Thirty-eight days of serious seamanship, the Agulhas current, the Cape of Good Hope and the Southern Ocean at the tip of Africa, finishing quietly in Cape Town for Christmas.
Read more about this leg → about Leg 4: from Durban around the Cape of Good Hope
Jan 2027 — Mar 2027 · Saldanha Bay, South Africa → Fortaleza, Brazil
Forty-four days before the southeast trades, Napoleon's exile at St. Helena, the equator crossing, and landfall in tropical Brazil. The ocean chapter of the voyage.
Read more about this leg → about Leg 5: across the South Atlantic from Saldanha to Fortaleza
Mar 2027 — Apr 2027 · Fortaleza, Brazil → Trinidad
A thousand miles of downwind trade running, the Amazon's brown water under the hull, the Guianas smudged on the horizon, and Trinidad's steelpan waiting at the end.
Read more about this leg → about Leg 6: from Fortaleza to Trinidad along South America
Apr 2027 — May 2027 · Trinidad → Antigua
Four weeks of short trade-wind daysails through the Lesser Antilles, turquoise anchorages, rum shops on the sand, French-Creole Martinique and the tall-ship scene in Antigua.
Read more about this leg → about Leg 7: through the Windward Islands from Trinidad to Antigua
May 2027 — Jul 2027 · Antigua → Ponta Delgada, Azores
Fifty-six days on the classic spring tall-ship route home, Antigua, a long reach to Bermuda's pink sand, then three weeks of open ocean to the volcanic Azores.
Read more about this leg → about Leg 8: across the North Atlantic from Antigua to the Azores
Jul 2027 — Aug 2027 · Ponta Delgada, Azores → Kiel, Germany
The final 1,878 nm, from volcanic São Miguel to the Baltic, up the English Channel through the Dover TSS, past Helgoland's red cliffs and home to Kiel.
Read more about this leg → about Leg 9: homecoming from the Azores to Kiel
A ship is no better than the sum of its crew.
A ship is no better than the sum of its crew, and by god do you get to meet some of the finest folk on NEPTUN.
The professional crew are kind and helpful, making sure everyone knows how to operate a working vessel, as well as instilling a pleasant environment full of camaraderie, which stands out even in the already extraordinary world of tall ships.
My time on NEPTUN was fantastic, and should the winds blow in my favour, I hope to find myself on her deck once again.
A tall ship is a large traditionally-rigged sailing vessel, typically square-rigged on at least one mast, steel or wooden-hulled, with the kind of mast height and sail area that let you see her from a mile away. Sail Training International classifies tall ships into four classes (A–D) by length and rig. Brigantine NEPTUN is a Class B vessel: a two-masted brigantine, square-rigged on the foremast and fore-and-aft rigged on the main.
Yes. Tall ships built for sail training are crewed by professional officers and engineers, carry modern navigation and safety equipment, and teach trainees the skills they need before the ship leaves the dock. NEPTUN sails with certified captains, a permanent professional crew, and a watch system designed so that beginners always work alongside experienced sailors. The ship is steel-hulled, purpose-refitted for offshore sailing, and meets Danish and international safety standards.
On a cruise ship you're a passenger. On a chartered yacht you're a guest. On a tall ship voyage with NEPTUN you're crew. You stand watches, handle sails, steer the ship, cook and clean alongside everyone else, and sleep in a shared cabin with the rest of your watch. The experience isn't curated around comfort, it's built around the actual working of a traditional sailing vessel. Most people who sign up come looking for exactly that distinction.
On NEPTUN, a leg runs from two weeks to around six weeks, depending on the route. Short coastal legs are rarer; the majority of our voyages are ocean passages that need a committed block of time. Most trainees join for a single leg, some combine two or three legs into a multi-month voyage, and a few sail the whole 2026 or 2027 season. You pick what fits your calendar.
Pay-to-sail trainee berths on NEPTUN are priced per leg and cover your berth, all meals, and every nautical mile of sailing. Membership in Foreningen Neptun, our nonprofit, is an additional €67 (75 USD) per year. Longer legs cost more in absolute terms but less per day, because the cost of running the ship is spread across more sea time. Current per-leg prices are on the /voyages page.
You need to be in reasonable health and mobile. You'll pull on lines, stand watches at all hours, climb rigging with a safety harness, and work a deck that moves. No elite fitness is required and no upper age limit applies, past NEPTUN trainees have ranged from eighteen to over seventy. If you're uncertain about a specific medical condition, write to us before applying and we'll talk it through honestly.
You'll learn. NEPTUN is a sail training ship, which means the teaching is the point. Your watch officer will show you how to steer, handle lines, set and reef sails, and read weather, and then expect you to do it yourself, repeatedly, until it becomes routine. Over a three-to-four-week leg a complete beginner typically reaches a level where they can stand a competent helm trick, work a watch under supervision, and have several hundred ocean miles in a logbook. It's real training on a real ship.
