Departure

Every day is different on the T/S Gunilla; you always get a brand new experience, because everyday takes place at a different location. Today wasn’t like anything we’d done before, because it was time to leave Ponta Delgada and set sail for À Coruña.

The pilots helped us out of the small Azorean harbour, which could have been done with one turn. The exit seemed quite easy, with not very much to look out for. I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry, and use a pilot when you can.

I had been checking the weather for a few days, and it didn’t seem very promising for our first sail. Multiple forecasts predicted strong winds around 35 knots, with gusts over 40 knots. Waves would reach a height of eight meters. A lot of people were worried about the heavy weather, but I was mostly looking forward to the challenge.

The sea was surprisingly calm the first hour or so after we left, but there were still whitecaps. The windspeeds were much lower than what was forecasted. Most people managed this very well, because the waves only reached a meter or two in height.

The northern winds that were going to take us to Spain were being blocked by the large Azorean island Sau Miguel, which resulted in much calmer condidtions than expected. As soon as we got around it, we got hit with the heavy weather, that the forecasts had warned us about. Waves started to splash up on the main deck, with spray sometimes soaking parts of the half deck. Even the helmsman got wet! Seasickness was a problem for an ever increasing part of the crew, which made it difficult to stay below deck for more than a minute. This was a hard start to our long journey.

The first shift was quite uneventful, but still very tiring. We didn’t hoist any sails, but we went through what all of the lines do. Standing around outside for four hours in heavy weather makes you hungry, but most people couldn’t eat because of seasickness. Everyone in my shift went straight to bed when we were done; anything else would be impossible. Those first eight hours of sleep were more than needed, and were crutial for getting up at four in the morning to work on a pitch black maindeck.

Jakob Geshel, Starboard