The pile of bodies 

The sound of the creaking door handle and the voice of the rondman that said “God morron, klockan är 03:30 och det är uppställning om 25 minuter [Good morning, it’s 3:30 am and the change of watch is in 25 minutes]. When no one in cabin 3 answered, the rondman turned on the light and continued saying: It’s rainy and windy outside so I would recommend that you put on the full sailing set.

The guys outside have had to pour water out of their rubber boots. By this time the people in cabin 3 had woken up. 25 minutes later the 4-8 watch stood ready on deck. The watch started with a lot of bracing (adjusting the angle of the sail) and at 5:00 am we were exhausted. Therefore it was a big relief when our watch leader told us that it was fika time. Sleepy and tired we got inside for a 20 minute fika. The rest of the watch was calm and everyone got into a big pile to stay warm. At 8:00 am the watch was over and we ate a long awaited breakfast and then we went to sleep until lunch.

Most of the watch slept past lunch due to them being tired and/or seasick. We also had to set back the clock one hour so we spitted it between two watches. That meant that the 4-8 watch got 30 minutes more free time and 30 minutes more work time. During the watch we got to see the island of Madeira in the horizon. It was the first time seeing land for a few days and once we saw it the first steer man made us change course away from land and out towards the ocean. At first we were a bit confused but then he told us that we had set a new course towards the Canary Islands and that we would arrive there in a few days.

Anton Larsjö NAS2023