Arrival on Isla Flores / Azores

Ship: Johnny
Date: 24th March 2025
Position: Porto das Lajes, Flores, Azores, Portugal
Nautical Position: 39°22,8’ N 031°10,0’ W
Etmal: 129 nm
Total Distance: 11.726 nm

My day began like every other, with a friendly „good morning“ from the 4-8 watch at 7:10. The breakfast was very poor because the galley team thought fewer people were coming to breakfast, but anyways.

After breakfast, I had to rush to the bridge because, as the officer, you have to be there at least five minutes earlier than your watch so that you can carefully take over the watch.

At 08:00, my watch started and I was suddenly promoted from third mate to first mate of the students by the captain because, after Daniela, I will be the captain. I’m not sure if it was really a promotion, but anyways.

Daniela, the new captain, had the whole morning to read about her new job. During my watch, we took the nets on the side to catch bodies („Leichenfänger“) and removed the ropes that were on the ground and where you could secure yourself. We also saw whales and even a turtle right next to us. At the end of the watch, we took down the schooner sail.

After that was done, I still had to do my physics presentation and then I could finally catch some sleep. But not much, because at four o’clock, I was woken up by the emergency bell to take down the rest of the sails. We also lowered the boat into the water so that they could check out the pier.

It was very difficult to get the ship next to the pier because we had wind directly from the front. The pilot boat even helped us by pushing. We used all our lines and we even dropped the anchor. The ship was shaking the whole time because of the wind, so the lines were roughly handled.

One line even broke and three others are not in good condition anymore, which was a little frightening at first, but in the end, everything was fine and it got calmer.