Thankfully, the weather Gods have been kind to us during this week of maintenance enabling us to progress work on deck.
I’ve had the pleasure of throwing David the 2nd Mate, Tom the Cadet and BM Craig over the side of the ship (attached to Bosun’s chairs, harnesses and gantlines, naturally) to prepare and paint the port bulwarks. They’ve had the pleasure of getting covered in dust and various different paints! Thanks to everyone’s sterling efforts, the port side of the ship looks much improved.
Earlier in the week, our French volunteer Lauranne squeezed herself into a Hamworthy (that’s the poo tank to you and me) to paint the inside. For once I wasn’t too concerned about the quality of the paint finish as I’m not expecting anyone to go and inspect it once the unit is back in service!
The whole crew spent this morning doing various drills including rescuing 'Headless Fred’ from a 'fire’ in the bar area and then rescuing him again, this time from aloft. He had carelessly 'fallen’ from the course yard (twice) and had to be lowered, first with myself and then with David to the deck. Under the supervision of the Medical Purser Jane, we were shown how to administer oxygen and then practised log-rolling Chris the Mate, onto a scoop stretcher.
After all of these exertions we settled down to Will the Cook’s fantastic roast dinner. It was then time to enjoy a lazy Sunday afternoon in the Canaries sunshine before we make our final preparations tomorrow, for the start of the next voyage.