A Sweaty Sunny Storm

Knock, knock I heard on the door, ”Good Morning” someone said. I looked out through the slit in between the curtains of my bunk and saw two people dressed in full rainwear from top to bottom. Water dripping from them onto my cabin floor. ”It's raining cats and dogs outside, so wear all the clothes that you own for the watch in an hour. Lifevest's are a must!”.

The fact that nothing flew across the room should have hinted to me that there was not a storm but rather a soft breeze outside. My brain couldn't comprehend facts about a storm, heavy enough to demand all students to wear their lifevest's in the middle of the day, so early in the morning.

As I walked the short way to ”Lilla Mässen”, where our meals are served while Gunilla is out sailing, I was grumpy over the fact that my upcoming four hours would be spent shivering from the cold and rain. This watch, I was rotating between standing lookout, lifebuoy watch and helmwatch. This task has you standing still for so long that you have to do push ups against the rail just too keep warm, and that is without the rain. When I passed the first window on my way to breakfast I looked out and saw a dry deck, shining sun and calm sea. I kept walking towards my breakfast believing that my newly awoken brain was playing tricks on me until I heard the rest of my watch mates stating that they had been tricked.

At 11.55 a.m I stood ready for the watch, dressed for the warm weather that had earlier surpised me. The first two hours I was the perfect temperature, except for my feet that had been sweating non-stop since the watch started. During my four working hours we steered Gunilla toward where we would be ancoring outside of Bangor. On the way there, the Captain and the permanent crew enganged the students in a practice fire drill before the weekly meeting with Gunillas entire crew. It was during this drill, when we where getting ready to ”jump” into the life rafts, I realised that I had indeed dressed too warm. By the time the meeting was over, we had arrived outside of Bangor and were ready to anchor!

Astrid Bonde