Date: 28.02.2022
Author: Clara M.
Position: North Atlantic
Geographical Position: 35* 57.2′ N 056.5′ W
Etmal: 124 (11.366)

Daily sail handling dose

As some of you might have noticed, our past days have been full of sail handling and working on deck. But I think today was extreme.

Why? – Well during the 00:00 – 04:00 watch the wind came around and increased quite quick. Because we had a lot of sails up, the Pelican immediately started leaning over to the side, apparently up to 45°. At least that‘s what I was told by Connor, who was on the helm at that point and probably scared as hell.

The watch and many volunteers, who were still awake at that time- don‘t ask me why, had to brace and hand all the sails. During that procedure our Royal sheet ripped and the sail started getting out of control. As if that hadn’t already been enough two of the T‘gallant‘s Bunts decided to also break.

I honestly don‘t know how they managed to get both sails stowed with 30 knots of wind. And also I don‘t think I could be happier to have day watches during this transatlantic.

Because during the day everything was fine: We were making a decent speed up to seven knots and could even have lunch and dinner outside or in general spend time on deck.

It‘s just the night watches that have to struggle with the bad weather.

The day ends just the way it started

Other than sails and all that it was a rather interesting and fun day. In school we had geographics and physics, which were also disturbed by Sail handling.

Also Mickey gave us a briefing about job interviews, because our hand overs are coming up. I don‘t know if they have already been explained in the last daily reports, but basically you have to apply for one of the permanent Crew‘s job and then take part in a job interview (it‘s for Simon‘s amusement also).

My watch from 12:30 – 16:00 was really nice, as it was warm and sunny and we only had to set one sail. Other than that there was not much more going on.

The next watch is definitely a lot more interesting. Mizzen A, also known as Too-hot-to-handle is a very creative watch. They keep thinking about new dress codes, for example last week Till and Lukas came on watch in just their underwear. But this time Hanna and Lilli decided to also join in. Sooo all four of them put on a Bikini Top and some of the boy‘s underwear, covered up with a jacket and a harness and stood up on the bridge for four hours straight looking like that.

It looked absolutely hilarious, but I‘m afraid I can‘t show any pictures, it‘s only meant for our eyes. <3

Except for a beautiful sunset nothing more happened – oh wait – I forgot: We had some more sail handling in the evening, which took about 45 minutes. We had to wear ship, which meant bracing and sheeting in the spanker and Staysail.

It may be warm during the day, but it gets very cold in the evenings and at night, so most of us spend time playing games in the messroom. The Münchners enjoy Playing Schafkopf (Hanna‘s absolutely hopeless), the bunkers like Poker and especially Luca and Leon have found their own passion: Making a mess.