Blue skies and enough wind to undertake some nifty sailing manoeuvres made up the basic September menu of the Belem's Mediterranean voyages, from Toulon to Sète then onwards to Marseille, Ajaccio and Nice. To Captain Morzadec's and the trainees' great satisfaction, the Belem was able to enter and exit under sail most of the harbours on her route. The best episode was undoubtedly the Belem sailing at 8 to 9 knots along the Straights of Bonifacio, between Corsica and Sardinia, carried along by force 8 to 9 winds! A brief night mooring along the Island of Elba wasn't bad either since the trainees got to go on land for a pleasant Italian drink and a toast to the memory of Napoleon's –brief – stay on the Island where he was supposed to be held prisoner.
Then back to the French mainland, necessitating some use of engine horsepower due to uncooperative winds (you can't win every time!) and a busy stay in Nice, with some 3000 visitors on board during the week-end.
The Sète stop-over, before the voyage towards Marseille and Ajaccio, was also a busy time. Not only were there many visitors but the Belem was also the scene of a particularly interesting reception : the official launching of a new company, “Compagnie de Transport Maritime à Voile” (CTMV), specializing in the transport of commercial freight, in particular wine, by sailing ships from France to Ireland and Great Britain. This project was actually conceived aboard the Belem in 2005 during a trip between Waterford and Cherbourg, when Captain Michel Péry, who was in charge of the ship, met Frédéric Albert, a young French wine trader from Languedoc who worked for a major Irish wine merchant. They got to talking about sea trading and, since then, the project has grown and grown, with some very practical help from the Belem Foundation, who made the ship an official patron of the operation, organising wine tastings aboard in Bordeaux, Dublin and Montréal. The environmentally friendly aspect of the project – since it implies using sailing ships instead of cargoes – played an important role in the Foundation's decision to help it along. The CTMV is now using some of the few remaining commercial sailing ships to carry wines but intends to have its own ships built by 2010.
Find out more about CTMV on
www.ctmv.eu 
Cet été, le Belem a fait faux bond à nos côtes et aux rassemblements nautiques de Brest et de Rouen. Mais pour la bonne cause : servir le pavillon national en représentant la France de l'autre côté de l'océan, après une exceptionnelle traversée de l'Atlantique nord, la première depuis 22 ans.
Grand témoin du commerce français du 19e, le Belem, loin d'être une relique du passé, est un véritable porteur d'avenir : qui mieux que lui pouvait apporter la caution d'un grand ancien au renouveau du commerce à la voile en ce 21e siècle ! La CTMV a donc été officiellement inaugurée à bord, à Sète...
