Change of guard!

Today was a very interesting day with both tears and bitter faces. Change of guard! We in midships go from the lovely 4-8 guard to 8-12, which feels very nice when we have time to turn back the day until we arrive in port to Öckerö.

The day started as usual at with a reminder 03.30 and up on the half deck we went. The guard rolled on, for the most part we sat under deck and compressed garbage. Which is surprisingly nice.

During the last two evenings, Midships has written a farewell song to our helmsman and guard. We performed the song on the shift and the performance was much better than expected, with the cell phone in hand and strong voices.

Sundays mean a full breakfast with scrambled eggs and bacon, so right after the shift there was rush hour traffic to the small mess. Well after breakfast, Klara and I went against the flow and sat down in the big mess, wrote a little diary. For the past week, we have been preparing for this Sunday because it is a change of guard day, we did not know how they would go but only that it would happen.

The hours passed and the clock struck 11.50 and it was lunchtime, and in just an hour after that we would be up on deck. To our surprise, the officers had put together a competition between the watches with a focus on sailing. In the student corridor, all the guards run around each other to find the best costume for style points. From idea to finish went in 10 minutes and it sucked that we in midships dressed up in different music genres and called ourselves Spotify.

The pentathlon included, among other things, coiling on the main deck, putting the cover on in a short time and putting on the harness the fastest. In conclusion, there were statements about the officers who were to be placed on the right officer, the position was tight between all the guards and the profit was a coffee in the officers mess with officers as waitresses. The officers mess is like a holy place. During the cleaning hours in the officers corridor, the eye hardly dares to touch the thin gray veil that separates the eyes from looking in, even rounds you sneak past so as not to disturb or look in.

For 3 hours, the officers took over the guard so that we would not work 8 hours in a row and came up with the idea of ​​pentathlon. Not so long ago, it was time for a big meeting and the result was also released. Third place came Starboard, second Midships and the winner was port watch.

After a fantastic day, it was back to watch duty with the new hours. I stood post with Bea who is our new Norwegian guard officer, unfortunate as the first watch resembles a flock of small ducks that follow their mother in every track. The watch time rolled on quickly and all of a sudden it was 00.00 and it was shift change and bedtime.

Alice, midships