helming in the pitch black until 0400hrs last night/this morning - I
couldn't even see the mast! When you are handed over the helm you
are given instructions of what to steer to. Sometimes it is a wind
angle for best speed, sometimes a compass course, sometimes it is a
course over ground or more confusingly sometimes a mixture! You
generally try and helm by 'feeling' the motion of the boat through the
water and swells and anticipating the correctionon you need to make on
the wheel to keep your course steady, using the instuments as a
reference only. It is made more or less difficult by the wind
strength, direction and variablity, what sails we have up, the light and
visiblity and the sea state (oh - and wheather your getting soaked with
rain or waves and what kind of angle your having to stand on!).
After 2.5 hours sleep I was up again and on deck for 0800hrs. No rest
for the wicked - the wind had picked up and it was up to the bow to hank
on and prepare the yankee 2, drop the yankee 1, hoist the yankee 2 and
flake (fold up and put in it's bag) the yankee 1. One of the things
that first struck me on our first day of training was just how large,
thick and heavy the sails are, which makes team work vital!
With the wind still rising next was taking in a reef (making the main
sail smaller). Then i baked flapjacks/krunchie before heading back on
deck to helm so Andy could go below and take his turn on 'mother watch'
to prepare our lunch. 2.5hrs later i'm finally off the helm and my
shoulders ache!!! Usually we don't do so long on the helm at a time so
that your concentration is mantained at it's best. Howver today the
weather was too wet and cold to have our happy hour on deck so while the
othes met down below 2 of us stayed up on deck.
It's not always busy on deck. Although some times i go off watch
exhusted and aching at other timess we'll spend our whole 6 hour day
watch or 4 hour night watch sitting on the high side of the deck and not
have to do anything other than check the sail trim every so often. This
can be quite nice looking out at the ocean if the sun is out and it's
not too cold. But especially at night, when its cold, dark and often
we're getting sprayed with waves or rained on it's not so fun and you
wish there would be a wind change so we'd have to do something just to
warm up and get off out butts! (Also one of the reasons it's good to be
able to rotate onto the helm!).
The weather changes so quickly out here. Sometimes i go to bed and it's
a bright sunny day and i'm woken up later to 30 knot winds, confused
seas and generally cold and wet conditions. The other day we were so
becalmed we were only doing about 0.5knots. Andy P turned up at happy
hour in fancy dress - his dive suit - and following our meeting he
abandoned ship and tied to a rope dove down to check out our rudder
after our whale encounter.
2 days ago we celebrated Finlands independance day. At happy hour the 3
Fins on board gave us a bit of a finnish history lesson, there was even
more chocolate eaten than normal and we had a toast to finland, all
having a shot of finlandia.
Right time to sign off. It's 1630hrs I've only got 3 hours left of my 6
hour off watch left to get some sleep before being woken again.
Night x
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