After happy hour Neil gave a sail setting talk in the lower mess. He told us everything about the jibs, staysails, square-sails, furling sails, spanker etc. We will practice everything this afternoon.
We have no idea where the name ‘Flemish horse’ is coming from but we are aware now from the ‘I haven’t got the clew’ (clew). It is coming from the clew lines from the square sails when they will drop off (when the sail is too old). It is also hard to remember which day we are in. It is the weekend now but with all the watches during night and day, the dates of the day are slipping away. The voyage-days are going too fast for us! We are busy with watches, sleeping, the program, eating and sometimes taking a shower. We have a ‘water-issue’ on board which means that we have to be careful with water and do not take long showers. But at sea you ‘all smell’ so no problem for all of us. And if you really like to have a shower, go to the bridge, outside we have little rain/showers! And tomorrow we will get fresh water in the harbour.
In the late afternoon we have handed all the sails so that we can motor to the anchor place. At the foredeck we have a lot of fun with doing all things. Gerry, the cook made a delicious meal: fish pie and banana splits. I guess we all put on some extra weight this voyage J!
After dinner and after the presentation of the captain ('Hi chaps') where he tells which leg we sailed and why, explaining the weather conditions, high and low pressure we are now going to our anchor place. (Firth of Forth: close to Dunbar) Downstairs all countries are preparing for the ‘Nellie’s got talent show/ EU country contest’ It is great fun. Every country is doing a song and Ronan (IR) is playing the guitar. At the end we are all singing together and it is a really nice Saturday evening. The crew is also very international (UK, Germany, Polish) and they made their own special song they sang in different languages. At 9 o’clock we had to stop the party because some people had to go on anchor watch in the night but all others carried on further in the bar and later after anchoring they went outside on deck. We have a nice view at the coast of Scotland; we see the little town Dunbar with the beautiful houses at the rocks. It is cold outside, cloudy but dry!
Aft Starboard watches Saturday 15th of August
4 am till 8 am
Lianne (NL) and Franzi (GE).
Tonight we had the night watch. There was a lot of wind and therefore we could sail very fast. The ship didn’t rock so much as the days before and the others can sleep well. Unfortunately the sky was not clear enough to see stars. We had some rain but it was not too bad. We prepared the advertorial game where everybody had to mention special things about themselves. In the afternoon we will work it further one.
In a few minutes we will have our breakfast, from the best ships-cook ever Gerry J !
Today we will be sailing and we hope tonight we can anchor somewhere close to the coast and do the Nellie’s got talent / EU talent contest. This afternoon besides sailing we need to prepare for this.