A real slacker

Fefe Fefe, the bird that a couple of days ago decided he was a part of the crew, is walking around picking on something on deck too small for me to se.

The chief officer talks about what midships did on their watch while I´m thinking about how the name Fefe doesn't fit the little slacker. Lilleman maybe, or perhaps Shark so that every time someone says his name everybody will look out over the sea trying to find something bigger than a little birdie.

“We took down all the sails because, as you may notice, it´s a slack wind”. More like no wind at all, the water is completely still and there is no sign of more wind. It only takes one word to describe the weather: grey, and this usually means maintenance work. I bet that Lazy Fefe won´t help as per usual, he really is a little bitch.

I'm sitting on the jib yard seizing all the buntlines together with Ebba. We´re talking about the people who want to move to mars and how nothing matters, as teenagers do. “Think about never seeing the ocean again,” Ebba says as she tightens the yarn. “I can´t even imagine that, the ocean is literally the only thing I see nowadays”, I answer while bringing out my knife to cut the yard and finish the work.

The lifebuoy guard strikes the seven bells and the lookout answers. Suddenly Fefe flies past my face. I think to myself: Maybe he wants to help Agnes on the mainmast? but no, he flies to half-deck and starts picking again. “The cleaning is approved,” the second officer says as she dusts off her hands after stroking it on the cabin sole. Thank god. I start walking towards Lilla Mässen to get some fika but before I even get close Anna says that we have to lash the monkey sail. Can´t Fefe do it? I´m so hungry!

The whole watch gets out on the deck and as we get closer to the half-deck we notice music from the navigation rooms roof and the monkey sail is already lashed. Anna leads us towards the music. “Go up on the roof”. The chef's rats have turned up sandwiches and cups for tea. There are light trails and Evert Taube is played in the background. The whole watch sits and talks about homework and life back home while eating French toast. Everybody except Fefe gets a sandwich. Serves him right! We practice the song we came up with before we started cleaning. We´re planning to sing it at the gathering when starboard takes over the watch. Melodi: Ich libe dich, Zlatan Ibrahimovich “Ingen runkar vajjer som oss, babord, ja sa babord. Bästa vakten på att knacka rost, babord, ja sa babord. Un der hålls arbeete, vilket jävla helvete”.

Hi mom and dad, Linnea Solfors, portwatch

P.s we saw dolphins in sea-fire on the night watch. Also, Fefe died later that night. I may not always have liked that little birdie, but R.I.P.