Jersey fever

27 days completed, 24 days left. More than half the journey is completed. Living on Gunilla has become normal. It feels weird saying that! Hearing the waves sloshing through the hull when you are lying in your bunk, the occasional visits from the majestic gliding seabirds and the endless horizon. Realizing that this life at sea is destined to end is in some ways heartbreaking. Knowing that a dream is about to transition to a memory.

Alright, enough reflecting back to reality!

After a lazy Sunday without lessons and drifting with the current three nautical miles in the wrong direction, in the middle of the English Channel. Are we now on our way to Jersey.

It has been a busy day, and that is a good thing. It is better to have something to do rather than slouching the entire watch on half deck. But I was on post. So I got to steer Gunilla, be on lookout and beeing lifeguard. Being on post was not hard but trying to stay awake was a challenge. So when we got off watch at eight in the morning it was straight to bed. Again.

At sea the days float together. When i woke up after my nap i thought it was the next day. That is because quite alot of time off watch goes to sleeping. That is all you do. Eat, Sleep, Watch and Repeat. We also have lessons here at sea so that is four hours. But the lessons are quite nice. You get to do your own thing. So I spent the lesson up on the forecastle* studying and looking out over the ocean and the waves. Then at three we had fika! And you would not believe, after
lots of begging we finally got what we had so desperately wanted and hoped for. Chokladbollar!

The clock strikes four and it is time for watch again. I got replaced for post for someone in the watch that is unable to haul lines, so I was workforce this watch. We reefed and lashed down almost every sail and we did a jybe. We also did a little sail repair! We attached the sail to the yard**. And fun fact the thing that holds the sail to the yard is called råband in Swedish and that is the origin of the Swedish word for reef knot.

Tomorrow day we are supposed to arrive in Jersey where we are supposed to get a pilot to help us into harbor. Everyone onboard is looking forward to jersey and what memories it will harbour.

Elias Iremark, Port Watch

*The forecastle is the part of deck which is situated above the capstan and on the most forward part of Gunilla.
**Yards are the booms on which the square sails hang from.