All men on deck!

I woke up half past three this morning to go on watch at 4 o’clock. We
have to be on deck at ten to four and ready to relieve the previous
watch at five to four. It was an unusually warm night and we only needed
to wear pants and a t-shirt. I was very surprised by the temperature
because for the past couple of nights we’ve had to wear multiple layers
as not to freeze. We start every night watch by climbing the mainmast in
order to wake us up. After that we practiced furling the mainsail. We do
this by first hauling the sail and then a couple of people stand on the
yard and work together to neatly roll up the sail into a “package” witch
we then tie up on top of the yard with seizings. We also had to lift out
the flooring in the showers which was a real struggle. It was difficult
to first get the flooring out and then it was slippery and covered in
mould. We took the flooring up to the forecastle and washed them off.
We ate our usual breakfast consisting of porridge with cinnamon and
sugar. On Mondays my watch, starboard, has their washday. Most of my
morning went to washing and drying my clothes and I was able to sneak in
some reading time up on the forecastle in between the washes. We had
classes after lunch and since today is our last day at sea we didn’t
have our usual classes. The first class was “port presentation” where
our teacher talked about our upcoming port: Dakar. He taught us about
basic facts, historic events and all the safety precautions to take in
the city. After that we had two consecutive classes of self-studies, in
this time we get to study whatever we need to. I prepared my demography
studies.

During the night watch another person from my watch and I got to work in
the galley. The cooks make the food so we just helped with the dishes
and serving food for the crew. During our watch we could see the skyline
of Dakar as we slowly sailed closer. After dinner we had lots of dishes
to do so the last hour or so of our shift was really stressful.
Thankfully we got it all done in time. When we were done with our watch
we went up to the deck to get relieved from our watch, but that’s when
the night took an unexpected turn… all men on deck! It was time to furl
all of the sails. In order to get the sails down in time everyone had to
work together; all three watches at the same time. I casted off
bultlines and helped furl the inner jib. When we were done, a whole two
hours had past and it was time to go to bed. I didn’t get to bed until
11pm but when I did, I just couldn’t wait to see what the next day and
Dakar had to offer me.

Sara Ringblom