We arrived yesterday afternoon in Boston and spent the first hour or two being signed on as crew, meeting people and trying to work out how to get into our bunks! We then had safety and general briefings from the lovely permanent crew; Captain Clare, 1st mate Chris, 2nd mate Peter, Bosun Marcin, Medical Purser Rachel, 1st Engineer Rachel, 2nd Engineer Jenny, Bosun’s mates Claire and Joyce and Cookie Dave. Many of us then went up to the first platform on the main and foremasts, whilst a few are waiting for later in the voyage. We also did some practise moving the yardarms- bracing them port, starboard, square, and back to starboard. We had an evacuation drill where we had to put on our lifejackets and go to our muster station, though Watch Leader Liz might have forgotten to report we were ready :D However we remedied this by being first ready on the second drill today J We then had a very tasty dinner, and Blue Watch (Forward Starboard) spent much time decorating their neckers. Erin and Fiona did the harbour watch from 10 til midnight and started the voyage log. Everyone else settled in for our first night in our bunks – some appeared more comfortable then others!
We were woken for breakfast about half 7 this morning; full English, porridge, cereal and toast; thanks Cookie, can we take you home?
After this came “Happy Hour” (though slightly shortened), where we had a delightful time cleaning the heads, hovering the accommodation area and polishing up some of the brasswork, which does look lovely and shiny now. We brought the gangplank on board by hoisting it from the dockside, and other people manned the fenders as we pivoted round.
We were pulled around and out through the lock at Boston by the ‘Otter’ around 10 this morning, and were waved off by many people along the banks of the River Whittam, plus a few cows. Once the pilots had escorted us out into the main channel they too left us.
We had another mast-climbing session after we cast off, this time with a purpose. We went out along the yards and untied the gaskets for the main topsail and topsail and course on the foremast. All came down in one piece J
Aft-port watch (us, Pink), went on watch after a lovely early lunch.
During our watch the whole crew assisted with setting some more sails, sheeting them in and hoisting the yards up higher, which proved to be very much a team effort! We had both aft watches lined up on the side deck all pulling together for ages until the Bosun was happy with it! Back on the bridge, we managed to avoid hitting the enormous wind farm (54 turbines was the final count). Liz asked if anyone had spotted a whale, although we hadn’t Sarah did reply that she had spotted a Polar Bear on the starboard beam. Or it might have been a white wave crest, but you never know! We saw some guillemots, bumblebees and a few birds moving too fast to be identified. We had a quick lesson in buoys from Peter, who pointed out the fairway buoy and a west cardinal. All of our watch apart from Erin were able to have a turn on the helm, and Erin will be able to have a go when we’re back on from midnight to 4am tonight. After smoko – ably prepared by the two Charlies – we handed over to White Watch and came below. Charlie and Charlie are helping out the engineers at the moments, whilst I’m (Claire) sat in the bar with Fiona, Katherine and Liz. Fiona and Katherine have just been looking for the blue duck but so far haven’t managed to find it. We’ll probably all try to grab some sleep after dinner ready for our night watch, which I’m definitely looking forward to J
Aft Port watch