New painted bollards and new arrivals

T/S Gunilla has taken back the tradition ”sailing over the Atlantic Ocean every year” but that doesn’t save us from the maintenance work on board. Our shift started in the morning at 8 am as it usually does when we are in port. And there we stood with a painting brush and an ice cream cup with white color. Our mission was to paint 8 bollards white. But our problem was the rain. When you paint you want the things you paint to be dry.

We started with waiting out the rain. When it finally stopped we got our things and wiped off the areas that we were going to paint. And then, the moment I painted my first line with the painting brush I felt a raindrop in my neck. This painting project took a while, actually the whole day. But we had a great time listening to Benjamin Ingrosso.

After lunch a black and mysterious taxi drove straight up to Gunilla and everybody stopped with their doings and looked curiously at the car. Four men stepped out and pulled out a bag from the trunk. I looked confused at my friend and then back to the car where a lady stepped out and shouted happily ”Your chef is here! ”. Well, she said it herself, our new second cook was here. The whole scene reminded me of the scene in Mamma Mia where Donna met her friends again after a very long time. She also said something about a pirate ship and meatballs before she asked the captain: ”Who is the captain?”. Her arrival was a fun break from the painting.

A few hours later we painted our second layers and at the same time as my friend painted a white line over my face a new taxi showed up. But, this time the taxi was white. A girl stepped out and smiled at us and feeling a bit embarrassed I tried to walk behind our officers to wash off the paint. But after three steps I heard a voice behind my back , ”I see you”. I started to walk faster and heard the voice say, ”Be better!”. On my way back to work I saw our officers welcoming our new watch-leader, Bea, and I even got to say hi.

It’s been amazing to see civilisation again after 15 days at sea. After a day with painting, rain and arrivals we went to bed to be prepared for the next days adventures.

Rebecca Borg

Midskepps