What day is it?

After a week at sea aboard T/S Gunilla the days are starting to blur together, and it is getting difficult to tell them apart, but I will try my best for you. Of course, everyday is different from the one before, but the daily routine stays the same. It can be quite repetitive, and tiring after a while, varying between sleeping, eating, working and having classes. Along all this you are constantly surrounded by others, performing physically demanding work for a minimum of 8 hours as well as managing schoolwork.

This day has been a very much needed chill day, starting when my watch got called, with other words, woken up by the previous watch at 3.30 A.M. After that we had 20 minutes to get fully dressed in oilskin, boots, lifejacket and harness, standing on quarterdeck. Getting dressed before a shift might be one of the most chaotic and fun moments during the day in my opinion. Sliding from one side of the hallway to the other, clothes everywhere and three other people standing one millimetre away from me.

I served as helmsman, and changed with the two other posts (lookout and life guard) every 30 minutes. Being helmsman means that you are the one steering the boat. Before taking over the rudder you have to ask the first officer “Får jag lov att förfånga till rors på kurs xxx?”, which translates to “Am I allowed to take over the rudder at course xxx?”. Either you will get a yes or you will get a new course to follow. I find it a bit difficult because if you steer in one direction you have to steer in the other before you get on course, to prevent you from steering to far, but I think I have got the hang of it now. people are part of the workforce. They work with stuff like maintenance, bracing the yards, hoisting and setting the sails and climbing the rig.

This night we sailed through a time-zone, which means that we braced the clock forward one hour. This meant that one watch would get one hour less of sleep and another would get a one hour less shift. In the near future this will happen again. To make up which watch will get what, we all competed in a small quiz yesterday. Starboard lost and that explains why my watch was extremely tired during this day. Our superior even let the workforce take a break for 30 minutes, so all 9 laid all over quarterdeck. It looked so cozy and it was very appreciated.

It normally does not happen anything special between our two shifts, and today was no different. Everyone went to sleep, only to be woken up for lunch and classes in the big mess. The weather was really nice, therefore most of us went up on deck to read for a while instead of sitting inside. Then it was time again. Our superior had gotten sick with a fever, so the “BÅS”, Martin jumped in as an extra. My watch had much more energy, and the working force did what they usually do. We had a little bit of extra time before watch change so we played some games and made up a song for midship, that we performed to them the same day, and lastly wished them “Go vakt!”. You could compare it with wishing someone good luck!

I hope you have learnt something new about how life on a boat could look like.

Rut Nilsson Humlehagen, Starboard