Day 3

Awakened to beautiful, blue skies this morning, and after our usual good breakfast, we did a lot of important things with ropes (pulling and pushing — as you can see, I’m a real novice at all this).  Then came Happy Hour!  Oh, don’t get excited — not that kind of Happy Hour!  Our Happy Hour is “clean-the-ship” hour!  Some of us were assigned heads — that’s toilets, you know; some were assigned mops for the typical swabbing the decks; others vacuum cleaners.  By the time we were finished, the ship was spick and span!  Lunch was delicious cauliflower soup and homemade bread with various cheeses.  My next duty was “Watch.”  Not only do those of us on watch actually watch out for things that could be a detriment to our sailing — things like a little fishing boat or a container that might have fallen from a container ship; fortunately, we have seen nothing like that — only big ships: container ships, freighters and the like.  We did see several wind farms and World War II gun emplacements used by the British during the war.  Many people today have been climbing the rigging. Now voyage crew members are hoisting the sails — it’s an amazing operation requiring a lot of cooperation and skill, for many of us learned on the spot.

Forward starboard watch