Ratlines, ratlines, ratlines…

The first day of the leg to Funchal! The daywatch today was pretty monotonous, the tone being seizing on new ratlines to the foremast-shrouds. Nightwatch however was more eventful.

We took over the watch at 12 and pretty much instantly I was sent aloft up the foremast to seize on new ratlines (for those of you that don’t know; ratlines are the ropesteps on which we climb up the rigging). Although I don’t have anything against making new ratlines, the work is pretty monotonous, but it got time to pass seemingly faster.

At 4 o’clock P.M we were relieved of our duties and had lessons below, slept for a bit and then, at five minutes to midnight, rushed up on deck to take over the watch again. The nighwatch was more eventful, we started with dividing the watch into two teams and then began a slightly competitive drill in which we took down the topgallant while racing against the clock. When we had done this excercise about four times we felt that it was time for the Chief Mate and our watchleader to give it a try just the two of them and so they did. It was
great fun.

After the Great Topgallant Race we went below to enjoy our fika, pizza rolls. After 15 minutes in pizza heaven we went out on deck again, had a brief look at Windy as the Chief Mate explained the wind prognosis for the following week. There is currently a large storm raging around a few miles north of the Azores.

Leo Forshufvud