13 December, Saint Lucia

Today it is Lucia, a day with songs, saffron buns and dressed-out crew.

The day started at twelve a.m. with watch, but the watch change had a twist. Usually at the watch change the watch that is going off says ”good watch” and the watch who are going on say ”good watch shall it be”, they preformed a ”luciatåg”. It is people going in a line, where everybody is dressed in white and sings traditional Lucia songs. So it was wery fun with something new. At 4 am the watch was over and we too had a ”Luciatåg” for the midship watch and then we went to bed.

At eleven o´clock we were awakened and then it was time for breakfast. At twelve p.m. we went on Watch and this day I was workforce and what we did almost the whole watch was to grind and oil the skylight. It was quite chill and a fun thing to do.

When the watch was over it was time for lessons. We had three lessons, but we got to go 20 minutes early because all students and crew were supposed to be on deck at eight p.m. to watch a surprise. After we had ”slagit glas”, seven people from the crew came out on deck as a ”Luciatåg.” They were dressed like Lucia, Santa Claus, a candle, a christmas tree, a ”Sjärngosse” which is a person with white clothes and a cone on its head and at last a christmas decoration. They sang ”Luciasånger” and all of us got a ”Lussekatt.” It is a bun with saffron in it. They were wery tasty. The ”Luciatåg” performed five songs and then they marched out. They were really good and they even sang in harmonies. Very beautiful. After the performance most of us went to bed to get some sleep before our next watch

Julia, Babord