A long day at sea

Today, we woken up like usual at 03:30 by portside, plenty of time to get ready for our guard. We swiftly got dressed and as soon as we got up on deck we had a rude awakening by a giant wave crashing up on deck, which could very well have been a sign of what is to come when we sail through Biscaya in just a few days. Once outside it was a battle in itself just to stay on deck, clutching and gripping the safety lines with all our might.

During the past few days we had a flat ocean with almost no wind, so we had put up all of the sails and were now using the motor to get to our destination. But just as we thought that we were in the clear, the wind blew up against us and the waves grew yet again. But since there was no use of the sails, today was actually the one of the only days that the one and only Ulf, our chief mate, did not make us run practice drills of how to put up and down every sail. In combination with not needing to work, the sails not being used, and the waves being too big, the workforce did not have any work during the day. That meant that the other work posts such as post, which includes the helmsman, lookout and the lifeguard, were the only ones really working throughout the night. The most exciting part for the workforce was probably when the bell ringer broke the bell, but other than that it was a rather uneventful night guard.

It was now 15:30, the whole of Starboard started packing down their school gear and putting on work clothes to get ready to go on deck. We lined up on deck for the guard shift, getting tired just from the thought alone of having to work another shift. We were still running under power, so there was still not much to do in regards to the sails. As it now was light out, the starboard workforce, with help from their guard leader, put the light to good use and practiced some good to know sailing knots. When there were no more knots to learn, or at least no more will to learning them, we sat down on half deck to write songs about the midship guard to sing during our guard transfer at 19:55. To our surprises, there was actually work needing to be done with the sails after the songs were finished, more specifically the staysails. After the winds had suddenly turned it was now time to take them down and furl them. After a windy walk in the rig to get the staysails down, we lined up for the big guard shift but this time with a beautiful sunset and a big grin on our faces knowing it was now time to sleep.

Oscar Gordon

Starboard