The day started at 11:20 as I was waked up by someone from the other watch group. My memory of the first minutes of the day is slightly blurred. What I do remember is that I eventually somehow got out of bed and walked to where we eat breakfast.
For us who work between the hours 12-16, we get the option to eat lunch instead of breakfast as our first meal of the day. As most of the others in my watch I chose the lunch option which this day consisted of Chili con carne. After lunch there was half an hour until the watch began. This day I was in the workforce. Almost immediately after the watch shift, the bosun on the boat asked for two volunteers to furl the royal. My sense of duty made me raise my hand even though furling is not my expertise. Since no one else volunteered our watch leader Soraja eventually had to pick someone out in the crowd and I was happy with choice. The job passed pretty fast and we were down again within half an hour. The next hours passed rather uneventfully. Finally, our watch leader gave us a very simple job that could be done on the part of the deck where we usually assemble. It was a good cure for boredom. While I was performing this task our watch leader assembled us all to read out loud from a book about a sailor. The reading went on almost until the watch was over.
The time was now 16:00 and I was free from duty for 8 hours. The first two hours up until dinner was consumed of studying. The following two hours after that I played a quiz game with a couple of my classmates. It was fun but it didn’t go as well as I hoped. I ended up in the second last position and made myself a fool in the last question. What is the height in hands of the smallest horse in the world? I guessed 110 cm. I don’t believe how this is true but apparently the correct answer is 35 cm. I don’t like to lose and I therefore needed some time to recollect myself after the game.
After getting myself some sleep, it was time for watch again. Just before the watch started, my watch mate asked if I could trade my position in the workforce for being a watch guard. I accepted the offer. I started out as a look-out which means that you stand in the front of the boat to look for boats and floating objects. This task usually makes me very bored. This time I was entertained by the beautiful sky that was filled with stars this very clear night. I was also entertained by the sea-fire that blinked in the water below me. After half an hour it was time for me to steer the boat. While I stood behind the rudder, northern lights, also known as Aurora Borealis, showed itself in the sky behind me. As I was steering, I couldn’t watch very long but I did see something green over the horizon. The rest of the watch I entertained myself by playing system games with my watch mates. We were served pizza buns for fika. The last half an hour of the watch I was listening to the rest of the watch who was singing sea shanties while I was steering. The day finally came to and end and I had a good night’s sleep. That was all that worth to mention about this day.
Caspian
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