Author name: OC_Johan_Kegler

Knot interested?

Date: 28.10.2023
Position: Scheveningen, Harbour
Etmal: 27 NM (total distance)
Schip: Regina Maris

We are still stuck in Scheveningen because of the brutal winds in the English Channel that even blow against us. So we used the spare time for a couple of lessons in seamanship. The ones who couldn’t climb up yesterday got the chance to do it today. Marie and Ben gave a lesson about splicing and Mathieu taught us how to tie the bowline, sheet bend, figure of eight, round turn & two half hitches, clove hitch and the reef knot. For those who wondered why they are even here 😉 Mathieu showed them the hangman’s knot in the mess room. To make this daily report a bit more interactive we thought that we will teach some of them to you.

Bowline:

The bowline is one of the most important knots on a ship. To tie the knot, follow these steps:

  1. Make a loop.
  2. Take one end of the rope and
    put it through the loop, coming
    from the back.
  3. Around the rope and back into
    the loop.
  4. At the end, pull at the rope on the
    positions which are marked

There are two sentences that can help you to understand the instructions better, which are:

1: You form a lake, a snake comes out of the lake and goes to a tree. Then it sees you and gets scared due to your ugliness, turns around the tree and goes back into the lake.

2: You open a bar, a man comes out of it, running to a tree and behind (around) it, vomits and returns to the bar.

We believe the other knots are easy to learn if you follow the pictures that are attached, because it´s an easy step by step tutorial.

Sheet bend:
Figure of eight:
Round turn & two half hitches:
Clove hitch:
Reef knot:
Hangman´s knot:

Before you get any wrong ideas, we wont be explaining how to tie the hangman´s knot.

We didn’t spend the whole day tying knots, we also listened to Max, who had his presentation about “Techniken der Videodokumentation auf Reisen – Was macht einen guten Videotagesbericht aus?”. After the presentation had ended, we joined our “groups of interest”, which were as following: arts, sports, dance, music and fishing.

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Exploring Bristol

Date: 25th of October 2023
Position: Sharpness Dry Docks
Nautical Position: 51°71.671 N, 2°47.314 W
Etmal: 0 nautical miles covered
Ship: Pelican of London

Nightly Harbor Watches

After getting to know the principles of the harbor watches in the last few days, we all realize the importance of sleep on board.
Harbor watches are required during the night when we are not at sea. Therefore, the night is split into six watches, each lasting two hours, starting from 8 pm and ending at 8 am. For example, the students are responsible for checking the gangway, the mooring lines and whether the rib is still alongside the vessel. As you may have realized, people feel quite tired after doing night watches.

Preparation for Our First Shore Leave

Nevertheless, everyone got ready and had breakfast with a lot of energy, and we assembled on the well deck for the trip planned today. Having already spent three days on the Pelican, everyone was eager to explore the region near the dry dock. Luckily, everyone was quite punctual, and we arrived in Bristol via bus at 10 am.

Trip to Bristol

To start off, our teachers organized a surprisingly funny boat trip on the River Savon, which divides the city into two parts. Especially our guide enjoyed our company. In addition to explaining the most important sights and the nightlife of Bristol, he allowed us to play some of our music, and we ended up dancing to the beats.

Two of the students were interested in the guide’s life. So we asked them some questions about him. The boat guide, called Archie, is 20 years old and one of the biggest Techno fans in Bristol. That’s why he gave us lots of advice on where to go to party, but, of course, only when we’re older. As far as we understood, his main job is to guide sightseeing tours on the river. Personally, we think he loves his job and tries his best every day. That’s why we enjoyed his relaxed vibe.

Schüler*innen laufen durch die Stadt Bristol
Der Tour Guide der Bootsfahrt auf dem Fluss Savon
Schüler*innen teilen Belohnungen untereinander auf

Banksy Rally

After having such a good time on the boat, everyone split up into groups of four people to search for some of Banksy’s most important art pieces in Bristol. Banksy is a street artist born in Bristol who is well known for his ability to criticize societal problems by expressing himself with minimalistic graffiti all over the world.

The fastest group to discover four of his art pieces in the city won a small prize in the form of some biscuits. Luckily, they were generous enough to share the biscuits with the whole group.

On our way back to the bus station, we were happy to see our boat guide again while crossing one of the many Bristolian bridges.

Relaxed Evening

Before dinner, our Captain Chris informed us that the start of our voyage has to be postponed for some days due to bad weather conditions. For better understanding, Gonzo, our second mate, showed us some weather graphics that illustrate the movement of the wind speed during the next week.

In the evening, the spirit stayed high, we had a lot of fun dancing on the poop deck, others were playing games in the mess room and getting to know each other. Michelle had a surprise for all of us: she made homemade cookies! We are all very grateful for her great cooking, and we are sure it is much more stressful work than any of us can imagine. Therefore, we gave her a big round of applause.
With the cookies, a great day ended for us.

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