Diary 4 April 2006
Volcano´s Diary

Today is our watch leader´s assistant  Henrik´s birthday and I woke up by the Swedish birthday song at 3.20 am, but at that time I totally didn´t know what happened. I even thought it was fire alarm again! Maybe God knows today is so special as well, so there is almost no wind in the morning watch. No wind leads to no work and no work means we can held a birthday party for Henrik. We even made a birthday cake for him and sing the song again and again. I can see that everyone of us were enjoying it so much.

After that Eric thought us to do some morning exercise on the weather deck. It´s the first time that we do such a body exercise and because of this the whole watch exercised. Mr Klas had to do the rudder man alone J Though it called body morning exercise, but I think it is much harder than the body solid I did in the gym in Shanghai, maybe I need more practice like this in future. After breakfast I suddenly found I prepared some Chinese small gifts before I leaved Shanghai and I finally choosed a box of chopsticks for Henrik´s birthday gift. There is two pair of chopsticks in the box, I think they are very nice and Henrik will must like them. Actually so did he. Is sunny smile really made me so happy, that´s enough! The work in afternoon also very relaxed as well, almost nothing to do. Before I went to sleep I wrote two emails to China, one for my parents, another Is for my girlfriend. I guess they are worrying about me so much.

Thanks a lot for the IT guy because of his work I finally can use the USB memory that means I can send Chinese email in the future though I still can not get any information from home, but anyway, I still enjoy everyday on board. It really makes me contented.

I love this ship. I love this voyage, everyday is a perfect day because I´m on board!

Volcano

Diary 4 April 2006

Howdy Folks,

"Whole World Meeting"-  Leeuwin term used for a meeting when everyone on the boat attends.

"Happy Gang Meeting"- Leeuwin term used for when the crew meet to discuss events, plans and the trainees.

"Happy Hour"- Leeuwin term used when the trainees attend cleaning stations and inevitably discuss how they never came sailing to clean toilets!

During the first Whole World Meeting on the GÖTHEBORG Captain Peter mentioned that tomorrow is Sunday and "we all know what happens on Sunday".The first thought that came into my head was that somehow I had missed the fact that this was a Christian ship and I was about to be converted. I glanced around to make sure I was still on a tall ship with sailors and was reassured by the motley crew. Hey, if they were going to have a service I could go with that, I respect the gods.

Entertainment! Sunday is a day of relative rest. Everyone still stands their watches, the galley still has it's slaves, the sails are still set. There is a general ban on power tools and the movies get a workout. First Sunday, Starboard watch has the honour of lightening the afternoon. Just after Fika we assemble around the capstan and groan, oh no, they can't be serious. A large, long heavy rope is laid out on deck running either side and through a block.

Just for fun we are going to pull on a heavy rope and this one is not even attached to a sail, it is of course attached to another watch. Tug Of War. The tug between Starboard and Port watch was pretty even and pretty ugly. We must have strained for 15 minutes to budge the line 15 cms. Finally the judges either took mercy on us or got bored and called a time limit. Then Starboard took on Midships. That was a little more decisive and Starboards honour was restored. Now it was time for the crew to step up and flex their considerable collective muscle against us! This time I opted out. As we needed to have even numbers there were some of our wacth that hadn't yet had the pleasure and I thought I could continue another Leeuwin tradition, queering the pitch.

I didn't like my chances of bribing the judges, Johanna looked like she took her job seriously. We did have some coaching for our team from Anna who actually competes professionally in Tug-Of-War. Sweden is amongst the best in the world and it has even been an Olympic Event, or so I'm told. As my mates strained and heaved, sweated and swore I thought I'd tell the crew how much older they were and surely how tiring this must all be. They may be older but they are of course wiser. They laughed at that feeble attempt. Jantz, the Bosun even seemed to have some thing wrong with his finger, he waved it at our anchor man when it was suggested that he give up.

I invented delicious dessert and coffee if only the crew would lay down the rope and head downstairs to no avail. They won. Man, they are serious competitors. There was more than one red face and much wringing of hands. Even the Old Man (traditional term for Captain) had worked up a sweat. The desired effect was achieved, lots of laughs and no sight of blood.

Last Sunday was our turn to entertain. I'm thinking we should do something with singing and holding hands that includes diving into the dress up box. Janne (beefy guy) has another "traditional" Norwegian game in mind. You guessed it, it involves a rope running around the deck. This time we are all in harness, this has potential! Every member must run one of their safety lines around the waist of the person in front of them and the other safety line over a fixed rope. The rope has been woven around the capstan up the stairs around the Kris Mast, down the stairs, along the deck, between the fore mast and some rigging (quite the squeeze for the big boys) and over and under it's self in a few places. Add a three meter swell and we are away.The Crew draws the short straw and gets to go first. As they line up one of the few waves to wash over the deck collects them. David the chef has his fag put out, but he's not, he just laughs like the rest of us. The Crew think stepping in time down the deck is the way to go, looks good.

The first challenge is the stairs. You'd think that if everyone went up one step at a time it would be simple. By the time Ingalill the ship's nurse and Backis overseer, is ascending at the end of the line her feet barely touch the steps as she levetates to the Sun deck. Coming down the stairs her bum found every step. I decide I don't want to be last in our line. Starboard goes next runs down the deck and betters the time by at least a minute, of course they have been studing the form. Midships cames within a few seconds of Starboards time. Now it's our turn and we are fantastic. At the top of the stairs I feel like I might be cut in two. There are a couple of biguns back there. We get down the stairs without breaking any thing but get held up in the squeeze between the main mast and the rigging. And the winner is...... Starboard, Midships, Port and Crew.

I don't worry about giant squid attacks but I do wonder about the myriad creaks and groans and new squeaks and squeals when we roll what feels like 30 degrees.

Adios Jenny:>