“Dolphins to starboard”
Funny how these three words changed everything and made us late for watch and what a watch it was! Sails up and down, hoisting and handling, furling and coiling, sweating and tailing, braces made up and belaying and all in total darkness; swaying all over the place, trying not to stand on each other or on the ropes.
We started off at a racing speed of 0.00 across the Irish sea which funnily enough never got us very far, but actually it was good because we crossed the main shipping lane and had we been a minute or two earlier, we could have collided with another ship! It was a few miles away but with a bit of wind........
We managed to reach the grand speed of 4.6knots under sail so our hard work paid off.
Do dolphins go to sleep? Take it from us they don’t! They played and called to each other for most of our night watch as we sat under the starry sky surrounded by an ink black sea with the wind in the sails and the sea gently lapping round our ship.
It all seemed rather surreal!
Karen, Cheryl, Sam, Annette T, Pauline W, Eleanor and our beloved watch leader Mary (Fwd Port watch)