A day with starboard

First full day at sea on T/S Gunilla was mostly spent with starboard on deck. Hard work was carried out on the open space, further and further away from the nearest land in sight.

After leaving the wonderful harbor at El Hierro, our long journey towards Cape Verde finally began. Like any other day of sailing, my watch team were woken up just before twelve o’clock to get on guard at midnight. Once we were all up on deck and the previous guard group had handed over their guard, work slowly began with curiosity. The work on the boat was mostly about sailing exercises, stocktaking and cleaning. We pulled in a few tamps to adjust the sails, counted all the remaining groceries in the boat’s hatches and cupboards, sorted garbage and made sure everything was in place. Furthermore, we did some necessary morning stretch before we got started.

At two o’clock in the morning, it was time for the first meal of the day, ”Natt-fikat”. The food, which consisted of homemade porridge and bread with various toppings as well as water, was served in the boat's smaller dining room called ”Lilla Mässen” by Alva and Uno. Later on, we continued with our interesting work on deck, despite the growing fatigue. Since I was the ”Sjappis”, which is one of the supervisors on deck that helps keep the boat clean and in order, the rest of the watch was spent in the laundry room. When everything was done, our guard leader read aloud underthe magical moonlight.

As darkness slowly fell over the sea and the watch started to suffer from its end, the third watch team took over the guard for the next couple of hours. Everyone in starboard, including me, was quite tired and desperately went to their cabins to sleep the last part of the night. When we had rested for a few hours, it was time for the long-awaited lunch. The musty tomato soup and the bread
that was neatly laid out on each table was delicious, perfect for a bunch of starving students. Our busy schedule then continued to roll, from early morning to late afternoon.

The day went by fast, and when our four hours of guard were finished and the dinner was in our stomaches, the first lesson with studies on board was inaugurated. The lesson took place in ”Stora Mässen”, which is also our dining room and living space, with our only teacher Victoria. This time we had an introduction on how to properly study out at sea, wrote an evaluation about our latestport and studied on our travel assignments. By evening, everyone remained downstairs to prepare for the next day's watch.

In addition, some people in my sailing group even became seasick. Seasickness has never been a concern for me, and therefore I was lucky enough to neither puke or feel sick. However, it usually only takes a few days to get used to the stormy sea, so I guess it will get better soon.

Elvira Magnusson