A rig full of tar

The day started like always, we got woken up by one of our classmates. Then we had breakfast before going on watch. Our watch starts at 12 pm and lasts until 4pm.

At our watch we set sails, sails that had been hurled only a few hours earlier. The process is the same as always, you climb up in the rig to untie thee sails from the square rig. But today and yesterday the whole rig is in the process of being tared, meaning its a black, thick and smoke smelling liquid everywhere where you put your hands and feet. The tar should be dry in a couple of days, but right now it is sticking to your body, how careful you even might be. The problem with tar is that even how hard you try with soap and water to rub it off your skin it wont work. You have to use something oil based, like normal cooking oil to get rid of the tar. It is quite weird rubbing your hands and arms in with cooking oil in order to get clean, but it works.

Enough about the black, thick and smoke smelling liquid. Today we celebrated a birthday on board, a girl from my watch turned nineteen. We celebrated with raspberry pie for coffee brake instead of the regular sandwiches. After our watch we had lessons in the mess, today we had swedish on the schedule. We had to read a looong text about historical fairness, but it was fine because our teacher was feeling generous and handed out one kilo of Swedish candy, to each watch. The candy worked well as a bribe and motivation, and everyone including me was very thankful.

Overall the day was great:)

Best wishes Sven Philipson Portside