Day 10 Tuesday June
28, 2011
Another 18 hours and too much to tell. I’m going to forget
something.
Out on the bowsprit |
Sunset under sail |
I forgot to mention that before we touched the sails, we had
to brace all of the yards. Now that’s hard work. We moved all 15 yards to a
port tack in about 45 minutes. That requires uncoiling about 50 lines, pulling
like animals on 1/3 of them, and then coiling them back up. You don’t stay cold
for long with that kind of action.
I was so sore when I hit the sack that I thought I’d be
asleep in minutes, but not so. First the 12-4 watch gathered in the
companionway for a chat (they should have been on deck!) and then Christian
decided to open a bag of cheez doodles in the bunk below me and munch on them
one at a time while watching a movie. Ah, the joys of the banjer!
During the night the 12-4 watch decided to have a songfest
while working (?) and that was annoying. Have to speak about that with Henrik
& Nils in the morning. Maybe they can kick some ass for us tomorrow!
There’s a strong feeling on our watch that we have the best teamwork and
produce the best results of the three watches.
The morning dawned sunny and sparkling. We’re now fully in
the Atlantic, although the western coast of England is still in sight and we
discovered that the 4-8 watch had put us on a starboard tack. The big question
on everyone’s mind is how long we’ll sail before going back to power and
whether we’ll get to Waterford Wednesday night or Thursday during the day. We’re
approximately 100 miles south of the Irish coast right now. For the first hour
of the morning watch we were at the white board again with our third lesson in
tacking a full-rigged ship. We learned that we will do another tack later today
and now that sail is set, it’s an “all hand on deck” operation, just as it will
be during the races.
At our request we also got more stories about maritime
history. We learned about the astonishing inhumanity of the slave ship captains
and more details about the training ship Denmark. Both Henrik and Nils are
Danish and Nils trained on the Denmark. These guys are amazingly experienced
sailors with fascinating life histories. Henrik actually has a wife and
children in Thailand and hopes to start a diving business there when he’s done
sailing.
After lunch we did the tacking. First, the Captain gave his
“Clas’s Corner” daily update. He said that Waterford won’t allow ships to enter
the port on Thursday so we’ll be coming in at high tide late on Wednesday
afternoon. On the approach tomorrow, I guess we’ll be getting the ship ready,
part of which is polishing all the brass fittings on board, and there’s a lot
of it. And we paid for the pleasure!
Of course, everyone is salivating about the Guinness and
Jameson that awaits. There’s talk today also about parties on all the other
ships. It’s probably a good idea we’re coming in early so we have time to party
and then recover before we have to travel again for hours. I learned about a
better Irish whiskey than Jameson, but I can’ remember it now. Starts with a T;
I’ll have to have Allan write it down.
Lines for the braces |
Clewlines and buntlines |
Next Up: Arrival in Waterford, Ireland
To see all of the photos from my adventure, visit: Oslo, Oslo to Waterford, Waterford and Dublin 2011.