Our last day in Lissbon was quite hectic. The morning assembly was 8.00 o’clock as usual, we hoisted the Swedish and Portuguese flag and the captain had his usual morning briefing. At 9 o’clock, it was time to cast of the lines and set course to Tarragona where we would arrive in six days.
This Monday was the day we exchanged watch time for the last time. My watch had before this day had the time 8.00-12.00, which meant that we from now on would have the time 12.00-16.00. But before our watch we made a desperate attempt to try to catch a few hours of sleep. Well rested we all arrived well in time for the shift to begin. The watch before us had been quite busy. With all sails set it is safe to say they all seemed to be looking forward to the well-earned rest that waited. That feeling is something we are all way to familiar with. The work that waited us was plenty. We braced the yard, cleaned the safety line we used when we oiled the rig days before. The sun stood high and proud all four hours with not a cloud in the sky.
For some reason, the fridges started a strike and decided not to work but give us more work to keep us occupied. I think someone mentioned to me the reason of the strike was to much air in the water tank, but I was never really confident about the problem. My part in all of this was to ease the pressure in the tank whenever a specific pipe was getting to hot. It was important to keep the temperature in the pipe cool or else it wasn’t going to work. With other words, I wasn’t allowed to leave the pipe which was situated in a storage room in the galley. In the other end of the ship was another “pipe watcher”. Her job was to keep track on a thermometer and to increase the pressure whenever I eased it. With the use of a VHF we could easily communicate and be prepared for what the other person would do.
That was my position until the exchange of the day watch and someone else took over. After that we all ate dinner and took some well-deserved rest.
//Elin Mattsson
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