Hard winds

9 July 2014

Update by the white watch:
“Our watch was monday night from 00:00 till 04:00 hours. When we came outside to take over from the watch before us, it was dry outside, we had wind force 2-3 Bft and the sea was calm, so we had a good speed. Some of the trainees in our watch took care of the steering. You’re steering on the compass, while you see nothing around you except a few little lights very far from the ship, that most of the time turn out to be massive drilling platforms. We had to trim some sails, but we didn’t have a lot of work to do. At 4AM the next watch took over, so we could sleep. We were very tired and cold after 4 hours of keeping sharp while we were sitting and standing outside in the wind.
The third watch was monday afternoon from 14:00 till 20:00 hours. It began dry with wind force 3-4 Bft and waves of about one meter high. After an hour it started raining and the wind increased. The course was changed, so we had to tack. A big job, because you have to back the jibs and than set everything to the other side. Simultaneously the other sails need to be set and trimmed. The waves started to get higher, about 1,5 to 2 meters. The wind had increased to 6 Bft, so we had to reef the sails. Reefing the sails took a lot of time because it kept raining and the ship was rocking very hard. We were being flushed by the salt water of the North Sea. The course we chose turned out to be great, because the other ships were struggling with the changing winds. We were sailing about 8 knots, pretty fast and we began to catch up with the other ships. Last night we were 6th of the 21 ships, a good accomplishment! Unfortunately a lot of trainees get sea sick again due to the high waves.”