A day in the sky

Today it was our (starboards) turn to guard the boat. It has been very educational and interesting today because we learned so much new stuff (mostly about the boat and the sails). Most of the day we were in the rig learning how to climb and set all the sails.

I am very afraid of heights, so it was very scary as we climbed higher and higher… But I was not alone, there were others who were also scared or at least a little frightened of the height. So, we helped and supported each other on the way up. It’s been kind of hard the last couple of days with new routines, hard work and a lot of information from our leaders constantly. But today made me realise that we are all in the same boat (literally) and that we are not alone. While up there it was nice, it was sunny all day and warm in the sun, so after a while when you kind of got used to the height you could go one step further on the square sail, or one step further up. Just one step at a time carefully.

We also learnt a lot of new knots today, and to make it more fun we made a competition where you had to do all the knots we had learnt during the day as fast as you can. We competed in teams, and unfortunally mine did not win.

The food today has been very good too. For lunch we had some vegetable soup and then… pancakes!! Then we had ice cream in our afternoon break before we got back to work. Even dinner was very good. Pasta with tomato sauce and meatballs. After dinner we watched Mello and some of us studied, played cards or just watched the show. When Mello ended, I decided to go to bed early because of my night watch at 23.30-01.30. The night watch itself went well and much faster than I thought. After the watch I was very exhausted and fell asleep right away.

Tomorrow I am free most of the day and I am going to meet my family that lives here in Lisbon for lunch, and I am very excited.

Klara Leandersson Antunes, starboard