Ship ahoy or How to get to London the difficult way

[celedhring]

No mutiny or keelhaulings one hopes 

Still hoping Threviel leads a mutiny and takes on the pirate life. 

[The Brain]

Ship arriving this morning:
https://twitter.com/antonhowes/status/1556554769736634368?s=21&t=rHBzYSSSjPDnjpQGUVkZXA

Very nice.

[Threviel]

I was in on the starboard side of the foremast topgallant under the bridge.


Will return with full report when I'm home.

[Jacob]

Looking forward to it

[Sheilbh]

Looks very cool:

[The Brain]

Did she fire her guns this time? Or is that from a different visit?

[Sheilbh]

I think a different vision - it was very sunny today - but it's for the ship being open for people to visit.

[Josquius]

Looks very cool:

Looks like something supernatural is invading London. Call the doctor.

[Syt]

Looks like something supernatural is invading London. Call the doctor.

[Threviel]

I came home Sunday evening at 23 or so and started working the day after. This has been hectic...

Rammstein in Gothenburg was a damn good show, they really gave it all. Can recommend.

The day after Rammstein it was time to say goodbye to the family and take a bus to Oslo. Was not very fun and a few tears were shed.

In Oslo I stayed with a friend and drank beer, we also had some some sight-seeing before I joined the ship. That was a nice city in a nice location.

On joining the ship I got allocated to the starboard watch, which mean that my watches were 00-04 and 12-16 using the standard merchant ship watch system (and not the Swedish system) with fixed and permanent watches without dog watches. Also I got a green scarf.

In port we had to climb the shrouds up to the first platform, to acquaint us with the safety procedures. The ropes in the ship were all made of hemp, but the safety lines were nylon and they were available everywhere to attach our safety harnesses to.

What's not immediately obvious, but a big problem for me, is that the shrouds do not go to the base of the platform but rather to the center of it, or perhaps better described as to the top of the lower mast (the mast being divided into the lower mast at the bottom, the top mast and the topgallant).

This can be seen on the main and mizzen mast in this picture: Götheborg

So for the last 3 meters or so one has to climb at an outward angle, hanging with straight arms to save the muscles. And then you have to climb up on the platform. I'm very sensitive of heights and this scared me out of my mind when they described it. But then I was dragged up as number two into the mast and didn't really have time to chicken out, I just had to go. Once in the shrouds I was just focusing on the climb and it actually went really well. All my swimming and dieting beforehand paid off and it was quite easy actually.

We were recommended to try and sleep before our watch and I tried. If you get the chance to sleep in a hammock on a ship in a small room with 14 other people then for fuck's sake ask the experienced ones for tips. My first attempt was absolutely horrible, I got my bedding wrong and it was cold on my back and it was just absolutely horrible. And I didn't dare move because we had the hammocks setup wrong and I was lying pressed up against the feet of some girl. This probably gave me some inflammation in the back and for the first half of the trip I could barely sleep because of the pain. But once I learned how to use the hammock it was actually very nice and the second half of the trip went well.

The first watch was spent tidying up the ship and learning the ropes (I have learned so many expressions, for example what a slacker really does). The command language on the ship is Swedish, so archaic Swedish commands had to be learned for rope handling and general sailoring. The watch leaders all speak english normally and translate readily, but the primary command language is Swedish. So everyone had to learn commands like "Kom så vackert" for when to let some slack in the rope in order to attach it. But that's not much of an issue since the english terms are often just gibberish and might just as well be Swedish for any non-nautical person. (If someone tells you to "tighten the starboard fore topgallant clew garnet" they might as well tell you to "sträcka bukgårdingen till bramseglet på styrbord sida").

To be continued

[Zanza]

Great experience!

[Jacob]

[The Brain]

Cool.

[Berkut]

Threviel on his first day:

[Threviel]

We got to watch this movie on a movie night, the real old sailors were hard men.

An old captain filmed the last time Peking went around the Horn in his youth and lived to tell about it in 1980, real sailors in real situations. Must have been a hard life, I especially appreciate the dude going down the side of the sail to the next yard, holding the sail between his thumbs and fingers.