For me the day started at 7:00am with someone bursting into my room and screaming “time to get out of bed, it´s raining outside and you need to hurry or else you’ll miss breakfast!”. Not a great way to wake up you might think? Thats where youre wrong, everybody got up in a hurry and was on their feet after just a couple of minutes.
After a delicious breakfast consisting of rice porridge, bread and yoghurt the shift started. It was time to guard the ship and stop unwanted visitors wanting to come onboard. I sat at the gangway together with my friend Erik looking out over Gibraltar until around noon. After that it was time for lunch, which consisted of a healthy spinach soup, garlic bread and salad, all of which we all ate with great appetite.
On a ship as big as Gunilla thing often need maintenance, and today that meant putting grease over all of the wires in the rig. We all jumped into our overalls and began climbing with a can of grease hanging over our shoulders. In the middle of greasing the wires a small storm blew in over Gibraltar. And let me tell you, 30 knots of wind, rain and lightning shure doesn't make working 25 meters over the ground feel any safer.
Anyway, we pushed through and got done with the work in the rig that day. When we climbed down we had a greatly appreciated Swedish “fika” waiting for us.
Since we are all so new to the boat and to sailing we needed practice. So once again we climbed up in the rig, but this time we practiced on rolling the sails up, and tying them down in such a way that it both looks good and stops water from getting trapped. Our work got approved by the supervisors and we climbed down again. But the day wasn't over yet, Gunilla needed cleaning, and since we were the workforce that job landed on us. I grabbed a vacuum and started vacuuming the floor, the stairs and the frames in Gunilla. The cleaning went pretty fast and soon we started to smell the familiar fragrance of food coming from the kitchen.
At 6.00pm everybody was gathered around the dining tables, laughing, eating and chatting with each other. We helped the chefs with cleaning the tables, and it was time to go back to work again. Also this time I sat with Erik at the gangway, ready to stop people from climbing on board without the captains approval.
After a long day I went to bed at 23:00, exhausted after a long day of work, but atleast I know that the wires in the rig won’t need greasing in another two months.
Benjamin Rodin
Babord
Publicerad:
Öckerö seglande gymnasieskola
Björnhuvudsvägen 45
475 31 Öckerö
Telefon: 031-97 62 00
e-post: kommun@ockero.se