Mixed feelings

For me, the day started at 03:30 which felt strange, since we just changed watch hours. We’ve never been woken up in the middle of the night before, so it didn’t feel like morning as I slept less than 4 hours, which would also affect me later. I haven’t gotten used to the new routines so the first night watch was horrible and felt like an eternity. The whole first day became unstructured and generally weird.

As we just left France, I realized that the voyage is coming to an end and that there are only two weeks left. After we left A Coruña, time went by very quickly and the thought of being back home, and living a normal life is unreal. I’ve gotten used to life on board and it feels normal to wake up on a sailboat. We’ve been on the boat for more than a month with people around us all the time, so coming home and being alone will feel strange. It’s a bittersweet feeling that we will be home soon.

When I was woken up in the middle of the night for my watch, I felt that all I wanted was to continue sleeping. But since I didn’t have a choice, I just had to put on all the clothes for the night watch. At the end of a nightwatch, all you want is to go to bed, so getting late to line-up isn’t an option. When I got up on deck, I noticed that we hadn’t set sail during the night, which meant we needed to drive by motor. Driving without salis means there isn’t much to do during night watch. I knew it would be a challenge to stay awake as I was so tired. The highlight of the watch was undoubtedly the night meal where quesadillas were served. During the rest of the watch we did absolutely nothing except for scrubbing the deck. When the sun rose I was confused because my brain understood that it was morning, but not my body. It made the rest of the day feel strange. It was hard to keep my eyes open and I was close to falling asleep several times when I was waiting for the watch to end. What I learned from that watch was to sleep more before my next one. When the watch was over, breakfast was served, which also felt strange because I had to go to bed right after. Even though it was breakfast, I didn’t eat because I was so tired that I went to bed straight away.

Later on, I was woken up for lunch at 12 o’clock. It also felt strange to eat lunch immediately when you wake up. After lunch we had lessons until we had to prepare to watch again. During the watch we had to clean under the foredeck which wasn’t fun, but it needed to be done. We were still driving by motor and nothing special happened, so it was a regular watch. After the watch we had some spare time before it was time to sleep. It was a fun and special day even if not much happened.

Isac Appelgren, Midskepps