30^th June and 1^st July

We started our watch on the ship’s bridge fairly early, at 8 o’clock in the morning, and shared the duties of keeping lookout on both port and starboard sides of the ship, and manning the helm. This watch lasted four and a half hours. During this time we got involved in the bracing of the ship in order to change the direction of the sails; beforehand, we couldn’t have guessed how strenuous it would be and how much team work was required. After this we ate a nutritious lunch of soup, rolls, cheeses and meats. Panic struck when François, a racing pigeon, made a pit stop; possibly not the most threatening intruder but keeping him from the kitchen was one of our top priorities onboard. Due to the early start we really had to recharge. After our 3 hour ‘nap’ we awoke to climb the rigging for no reason other than the brilliant view of the vast sea, and then ate our evening meal. Our next duty was from 8 o’clock to midnight, where we watched the setting sun with a hot cup of tea. An interesting aspect of this watch was doing the weather for the Met Office, which involved identifying cloud cover, cloud type, water temperature, to name a few.

In the night, the clock moved forward one hour, resulting in less time in bed. We sleepily did ‘happy’ hour, including everyone’s favourites: sweeping! Mopping! Hovering! Scrubbing! and the most loved task of all, cleaning the toilets! To overcome the sheer excitement of happy hour, we chilled on the bow of Tenacious under the sun, munching on fresh watermelon.

This brings us up to now, where we’re on watch – the noon till four o’clock shift – cruising along the Belgium coast.

Forward Starboard – Fiona, Will, & Helen