Orcas and hard work

Hello again! Last time I wrote a blog it was in the middle of a monstrous storm, but I believe I ended it with "I know we'll make it, we always do". I think we can consider this a confirmation that I'm always right. To be honest, these few days have exceeded all my expectations. Even though we've had quite a lot of wind and enough fog to hinder us from seeing more than one meter ahead from time to time, we've also experienced big soft waves that rocked the boat slowly towards our destination, and incredible sunsets that motivated me to keep waking up at 3.30 every morning. I've also seen an orca, but I was the only one who saw it so sadly no one can confirm that statement. Some people in my watch still believe I saw a bird and mistook it for an orca, but I think they are just jealous. It is hard to persuade people to trust your eyes when , but I think they are just jealous. It is however hard to persuade people to trust your eyes when you wear glasses.

Now let's talk about the last 24 hours. Last night, I asked our first mate about his favourite song. He told me to follow him to the navigation cabin to listen, and little did I know that there was an entire speaker system installed in there. We listened to some Kate Bush, and then he opened the door and shouted to the rest of the watch to join us. We ended up having a full blown party for about ten minutes and then went back to work like nothing ever happened. However, this needs to stay a secret because our first mate is scared that it might ruin his reputation of being a cold hearted leader.

A few hours later after some sleep and dinner, we woke up again to impliment our day watch. I was supposed to be behind the steering wheel, but only five minutes later our watch leader Alex told me to leave my post and climb up the mast to furl the Bram. She told us we were going to turn through the wind, and we weren't able to do this as long as the sails were set since they hindered us to sail too close to the wind. The Bram is the second highest sail, but also one of the biggest. Let's just conclude it is a pain in the ass to furl, but I was quite excited. That was until I realised that we were four people on the main-Bram, and it took us the same time to furl half of it as it took for Alex to furl the entire head-Bram. My respect for Alex is sky high, but sometimes I wonder if she is hiding some tricks from us because furling the bram that quick should have been impossible.

When we were finally done with the Bram, we climed back down, and our first mate told us we had five minutes to fika. Hence, we ran inside to drink some water and throw a sandwith down our throats. As soon as we were back out, we once again climed up the shaking ladder to keep furling sails. We continued doing so for another three hours, until the starboard watch finally showed their presence on deck.

Now I am looking forward to a long nights sleep, and my hope is that we'll see the coast of Iceland when I wake up. You never know though, maybe we'll see it in five hours, maybe in five days. Speaking of days, I have no idea what day it is today, I'm not even entirely sure if it's day or night. I think I've found a derative of Einstein's relative theory, time does not only change when you travel at the speed of light, but also at sea.

Caroline Jendeby, NAS 2023, Midship