Love lame roller-coasters

The night to the 8th of December was longer than expected. We were a couple of students postponing waking up to a boat wild as a beast for as long as possible. Postponed falling out of our bunks with a roller coaster in our stomachs. We stayed awake talking until the clock turned almost 03:30 in the morning. During the night our instructor Leo and chef Pontus said goodbye and we suddenly realized the sad truth that we were soon expecting our last sea leg in one and a half year. This time we at least knew what to expect. Finally, for the first time, we were ready for the roller coasters and what that may include. I prepared with a seasick band-aid and hard bread in my drawer before falling asleep.

As expected, 12 am the 8th of December we were back to “rondmen” purring us for an unstable walk to the “Lilla Mässen” and seasick triggering food, hopefully just to be tasted once. Every person who was back to stomach roller coaster regretted falling asleep as soon as they woke up, regretted it until they forced themselves up on deck and felt the fresh air in their lungs.

For the second time ever on this trip, we were called to deck to be the whole crew setting almost every sail as fast as possible and brace better than ever before. For once, the students were willingly climbing to every sail and watch leaders were satisfied with the hauling. After almost two months, we were finally both coordinated and disciplined enough to actually enjoy the sailing, and as our “Bås” once said, we felt pure euphoria when we coiled the deck together. I won’t lie, it was kind of fun.

On deck you could barely feel the waves and the weather was swell. We went from a group scared to spend days leaning over deck to a group with hope. The first day was calmer than expected and no one except our “chronical seasick” had the pleasure of tasting the food twice. Surprisingly, most of us had more like calm child roller coasters than big ones with a 140 cm demand (like earlier sea legs) and actually could use a bit of our free watch for socializing and “studying”. Our day ended a bit late, as usual, and when we finally laid down in our bunks, we could all agree on the extreme eagerness we felt about being purred for night watch at 03.30 amJ

-Linnéa Sandén, Nas 2023