Date: 17th December 2019
Author: Marlene K.
Position: Between Vieux Fort and Carriacou
Geographical Position: 31°26.332N/ 061°07.334W
Etmal: 84nm

Today started the handover day for the red watch and I got the chance to see what an engineer has to do the whole day. Actually Silja was the engineer and me the engineer`s mate, but we did the same jobs.

So my day started with a small tour around the engine room at maybe 8:00 o´clock, because I have not been in there before. Anson, our engineer, showed us how to start the generators and the water producer and we were allowed to do it also.

Yesterday was our departure day to another island which is the reason why we had to check the motors if they had enough oil. After lunch- made by our handover cook Marlene M.- we had a little bit of theory and learned more about pumps.

We started to depart at 11:30 am and the job from the engineer is to stay in the wheelhouse and control the motor. On the handover days, the engineers are allowed to do motor controlling and because we had two engineers we said that Silja is doing the departure and me the arriving. It was quite funny and it was so cool to know that you have the control from the motor of a tall ship. After a small break we went into the Bosun´s cabin and changed the plug.

Anson was always making fun of Silja and me, because it was really hard for us to change it we needed it a little bit of time. But in the end we got it and the plug worked. Another thing I really, really wanted to do is fixing the bathroom lock in my cabin (thank you to Noé for breaking the lock in the 2nd week).

Anson told us how to do it and went away. So there were just Silja, me and a broken lock. We had a really big fight with the door, but in the end we won. The best thing was the happiness of my roommates and our new private space (you can trust me it´s the first time that we have a little bit of privacy in our cabin).

After another tea break, Anson wanted to teach us a little bit more about pumps. Sadly I got seasick again, because the waves were very high again, and so I had to lay down. At 16:00 o´clock Anson always ends his job for the day, so our day ended also at this time.

I just wanted to say thank you to all students, teacher´s and to the crew for don´t blocking one of the toilets, because if a toilet gets blocked, the engineer has to unblock it.

And guess which person would have to do if it got blocked? Right me or Silja and I think Silja as the Chief Engineer would have said to me as the engineer´s mate I had to do it, so THANK YOU!

All together the day was great and Silja and me had so much fun. I hope also Anson didn´t lose his hope in us.