At seven in the morning we are woken up. Today is our last morning in the Azores and we have a full day of sailing ahead of us. On deck, students are speaking on their phones, saying goodbye to their friends and families before the journey begins. Today marks the first day of a ten day journey towards Plymouth in England.
After line up we immediately start working, picking up fenders and starting the engine to leave the harbor. The fenders are all of different sizes and have to be folded into a small box, which becomes my job in this organized chaos. Our watch leader brings us the biggest fender on the boat, filled with air that needs to be emptied before it can be folded. The fender is as tall as three people stacked on top of each other and wider than my bed. Me and two others throw ourselves on top of this balloon-like giant to push the air out. After a few minutes of trying to stay on top of the huge fender we fold it and throw ourselves on it again, and again and again. After a lot of trial and error the fender is folded and can be put in the box.
The wind isn’t strong enough for us to sail so we will have to go by engine for at least a day. Instead of setting sails we spend the rest of the watch exhausted, longing for our beds after an intense couple of days in Horta. The only thing that keeps us from falling asleep is the newest member of our watch: the captains nine year old son, who seems to have enough energy for all of us. The moment four hours have passed and the clock indicating end of watch has rung we all rush down to shower and eat lunch. Since it’s the first day at sea in a while, we don’t have any lessons and the best way to spend free time on Gunilla is to sleep. On this ship there is no such thing as day or night, the moment you have free time is the moment you put your head on your pillow and close your eyes to sleep, but as always we are woken up far too soon and yet another watch begins.
Louise
Publicerad:
Öckerö seglande gymnasieskola
Björnhuvudsvägen 45
475 31 Öckerö
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e-post: kommun@ockero.se