A day as Backis

The day started in the same way as every other day at Gunilla. We woke
up at 07:00 am by a ”Good morning, today's weather will be sunny and
it’s breakfast in fifteen minutes”. It was time to get ready and do
(what we thought would be) the most difficult thing of the whole day,
put sunscreen on. Those who haven't had the energy to put it on, now looks like a red crayfish after five days in 30 degree sun.

After breakfast and the sticky sunscreen there is a line-up with
everyone on the ship. Today it was ”midskepps” turn to be on guard. In
port you have guard every three days. Then the group is divided into
three teams, ”fartygsvakt”, ”backisar” and workforce.”Fartygsvakten” are
guarding the ship and today me and two other were ”backisar”.

We started off by washing the dishes from breakfast. Then it was time
for preparing the lunch. Today's meal were chicken salad with dressing.
At the same time as the peppers and salad were chopped, were the
dishwasher in full swing and the sweat was dripping. In a break we ate
grapefruit, orange and sandwich and I can tell you that fruit never have
tasted that good before, absolute delicious. After lunch everyone had a
longer break. I took the opportunity to clean the cabin and the wardrobe
before sailing on Sunday.

An hour later came the food delivery. The food should feed 55 people’s
stomachs until the Azores. It was A LOT of food. For example does it
take 8kg of meat every meal, which we eat twice a day. With four rib
boats and plenty of cooperation we got the food on board. And it was
time for what was worse than the sticky sunscreen, fitting all the food
into the cabinets. I’m very thankful for all my kind friends in the hard
situations. It’s very important to be surrounded with people you can
collaborate and connect with. You really learn how to adapt here.

We helped with the dinner and took the dishes . After the final clean
up, we all took a cold shower. Now we will enjoy the evening in the
sunset together and then go to bed. Tomorrow me and the other ”backisar”
will make breakfast to everyone before going to the beach at our free
time.

Good night readers,
Alice Kapocs