Öckerö gymnasium

A lot of tar and hopefully the sight of France soon

When the bell rang, and a new day began, me and my watch, starboard, stood on half-deck waiting to go off guard. A watch-mate and I had been working in the kitchen for the past four hours and were very tired and ready to get off guard and sleep. The food of the night had been quesadillas.

The day continued when we were woken up in the morning, at 7 o’clock. We ate breakfast and at 07:55 the watches were standing in line on half-deck again, ready to go on-guard. Today, luckily, the weather was very nice. At the start of the watch all of us sat down to sew ropes with a needle and thread, to prevent the rope from breaking. It was a fidgety work, and at first it was hard to get a grip of it. But after a while all of us got the hang of it. After this, the infinite output of tar continued.

The past few days all of us students have been dressed in large, marine blue overalls with a bucket of tar over our shoulders during the shift. With this clothing, we have been climbing the rigg and putting tar everywhere. This has gone on for days. Today, luckily, I got assigned to clean up the excess tar that had dripped down on deck instead of climbing the sticky rigg. Everything smells like tar right now. Both above and below deck.

Tomorrow we will arrive in Cherbourg and the tarring will finally stop. I’m looking forward to it! The stop there wasn’t entirely planned though, but because of the current wind-situation around the area we are going to stop there to wait for the worst winds to pass.

Elina

Publicerad:

Öckerö seglande gymnasieskola
Björnhuvudsvägen 45
475 31 Öckerö

Telefon: 031-97 62 00
e-post: kommun@ockero.se