Laundry, laundry, laundry and a little bit of rain

After midnight, Gunilla made a 180 degree turn resulting in me rolling from one side of my bunk to the other. I remember becoming disoriented and not understanding my position in the pitch black room. Once my eyes got used to the darkness I realized we had turned and that I needed to be careful not to fall out of my tilting bunk. When I woke up again it was 3:30 am, and time to get dressed for watch.

The four to eight o’clock watch started off calm where I did the first hourly round. I started in the incredibly warm engine room where I added temperatures and values to a chart. The first time walking around in the engine room was a bit confusing, but after a few times I got the hang of it again and was able to spend less time sweating under my several layers of clothes. Moving on, I grabbed dirty towels from the bathrooms and the galley, before heading to the laundry room where I threw in a first load of laundry. After emptying a few dryers I double checked the other spots on the boat included in the hourly round, and then headed to the big mess with all of the dry laundry to start folding.

In the middle of the watch we headed inside to eat sandwiches the two students working in the galley had prepared for us. The sandwiches really hit the spot and when I was finished, I made another trip to the laundry room to bring back more clean laundry to fold. It started raining outside, while we were eating, which made the folding of laundry inside a lot more enjoyable. On deck, the others were all laying and leaning on each other to stay warm while the rain drizzled down on their faces. I joined a pile, but as soon as I sat down I realized I had forgotten to put rain boots on. I tried to cover my exposed ankles as much as possible, but the water had already made its way into my shoes.

After a few more trips to the laundry room and even more rain, the watch was over and we all headed down to the student quarters to take off our sopping wet clothes. I ate some breakfast, put a few rags in my wet shoes, took a warm shower and then crawled in to my bed I had made with a pair of sheets fresh I just had folded the hour before.

Hanna Hallendorff, portside