Diary 22 April 2006

Funny thing happened on the way to work this morning............I got an email from Doc in the States asking me what it was like sitting on the futtock at sunrise. I politely (I hope) disabused him of his romantic notion that I float willy-nilly around in the rigging at all hours of the day. I am not required on deck at either sunrise or sunset unless two watches need to make some sail changes fast and permission must be sought before climbing.We are on call 24 hours and are expected to function at a reasonable level during our watches regardless if that is at midnight or the middle of the day. We all pull two 4 hour shifts and the longest uninterupted sleep one is likely to get is about 6.5 hours. So I do a lot of napping to supplement the sleep reserves.

Put that together with 17 people sleeping in bunks and hammocks in a room the size of most people's modest kitchens, all on slightly different personal schedules, and the fun and games are on. Some people play cards, watch videos or have a laughter filled conversation and it often feels like party central is situated under my hammock. I have missed one call to watch as I couldn't differentiate the Swedish party noises from the Swedish weather report. If it ever goes quiet it's a sure sign to get up and do something. Often that is Fica time in the afternoon, something not to be missed. I've developed a taste for Raspberry soup especially as I've twigged to adding a dash of milk. thankfully there is usually a Fica Fairy that will wiggle a toe so that no-one misses out on this national pastime.Last week I was losing my precious sleep time as each night I was waking up progressively earlier due to nerve pain in the two middle fingers on each hand. Initially I didn't mind getting 5 hours sleep, that gave me quiet time in the morning for a pot of green tea and story writing. When it started to be 4 hours sleep and one hour of fire in the fingers then 3 hours sleep and two hours of not being able to even type with my thumbs I knew I'd have to change something.

I went through the official channels and three days later I have the temporary use of a bunk. Heaven. I still wake up with some pain but at least now I can reposition myself easily without feeling I'm disturbing the other peas in the pod strung across the ceiling of the skans. I even got a bonus massage from Janne who works professionally doing, you guessed it, Swedish Massage!Oscar, who is at present in my hammock couldn't understand how I have even been able to sleep at all. He and Calle have done some hammock adjustments to change the shape and apparently it is more comfortable now.

Anyway I digress.I wrote back to Doc suggesting that I may not end up seeing a sunrise from the futtock, although I have started thinking about kidnapping a hot water flask and putting the tea makings in my backpack, but that there was a chance I might furl in the full moon.Well kiss my grits and bite my tongue. Bugger me if when we get on that very night at 2000 the weather report is a chance of a gale even thought he winds appear to be dropping. We will often reef or furl well in advance of expected high winds as each procedure can take about an hour.I'm a bit suss about the "winds are dropping" bit still it is not for me to question (out loud) the decisions of the almighty OOW (Officer Of the Watch). They have the bigger picture. I have no desire to be caught unprepared on the high seas with too much sail and as Michael will often say we are to have some sail handling "practice".

Tonight is magic! We have the full moon and it's possible to recognise people's faces by the light. That means we can see the safety lines we are to clip onto.We can already recognise each others various silhouettes in the dark with a large degree of accuracy.Time to reef the fore topsail. We scurry up the shrouds and out the yard. The topsails are huge. To reduce the size of the sail is quite a process.There is an extra rope attached to the edge of the sail, the revskänkling, that will be hauled to the yard arm (that is the last half meter of wood at the outside of a yard) and then the person on the end does a little macrame and begins to take some of the weight at the edge of the sail and the process of tying the reef points begins. Tying from the yardarm to the mast.We all reach over and try to pinch a bit of sail so we can haul it up and place it under our bellies on top of the yard. Ett, Två, heeeeeeey (one, two, heave, you soon get used to that one. The one I get confused with is when we Ett,Tvä, heeeey in a direction that is only known to the initiated. Anyway a lot of those heeeeys will only move the sail a few centimeters. It's important to stretch the sail towards the ends of the yard to make an even reef. Our reef is beautiful. We have reduced the depth of the sail by 3 meters.Tonight there is a lot of howling going on. The weather couldn't be kinder, the company finer. I reserve my howl until I'm off the yard and have a firm footing on the futtock a mere 25 meters or so above deck.

We all head to Fica and there is a lot of laughter. It's the best way to get high, a bit of exercise, a bit of danger and a touch of madness.We head off to bed with a job well done, which the watch after us got to do in reverse as Michael says, we were having sail practice! I'm glad I got to be a part of it!

Ooooooooowwwwww

:> Adios Jenny 17