atlantic crossing

The Atlantic crossing

We started our journey out into the sea today. We left the docks in Quebec at 10 in the morning. Naval cadets helped us with our mooring lines and we all dismantled the dicey gangway assembly that the maritime crew rigged up.

After the initial leaving of the dock it was smooth sailing out of Quebec and down the St. Lawrence. Normal watch schedules resumed, classes resumed, galley resumed we were all on our way to the Azores Portugal now. The St. Lawrence didn’t open up until farther down the St. Lawrence so it wasn’t possible to put sails up.

We had three pilots that came aboard with us one even brought his son. The boy was 15 and from Quebec he spoke English very well and hung out in the banjer with us and helped us haul on the lines to set sails. The Captain even granted him permission to climb up the rigging with us, to help loose sails. Sean put me in charge of keeping him safe up there. He told me to take him up onto the mizzen upper topsail. He followed me half way out the yard and his father took a picture of him from down below on aft deck.

Sean had us set sails on the second day of sailing out of Quebec when the channel widened more. We passed the Magdalene Islands, which was our last siting of land until Cape Breton where we anchored for a day and a half.  

The sail from the Magdalene Islands gave us our first taste of waves and ship rocking. I have to admit I was sea sick, sailing a laser is very different from the Sorlandet! You feel way worse in the banjer though, lying down helps allot. Other than the motion of the ship everything is great we’ve seen multiple pods of whales and dolphins following the boat. It’s amazing to think that those creatures just appear from what seems like nowhere.

The weather improved, and the maritime crew took up the anchor and headed to the sea while most of us were all in class. We managed to get under sail again but not for long the wind totally died and changed direction. So we took up the sails and are motoring now.  I like sailing much better the sails look amazing when they are all set and helming is more of a challenge, which I like. I was surprised on the amount of force the waves put on the rudder, which you feel through the wheel. If you weren’t paying attention or let your hands lose their grip on the wheel you could easily loose control of the wheel.

We had our 1-month anniversary on the 22^nd of September and it just so happened to fall onto a Sunday, which was our Sunday dinner day. Every Sunday on the ship the entire crew eats together, so all the maritime crew join us in the banjer for supper. The cook spoils us and makes us extra so everyone gets enough to be full. We take it pretty seriously everyone dresses up smart and puts on their best clothes. And the maritime crew either puts on their formal uniform or smart clothes. This Sunday we are having a celebration for all the birthdays in September, for dessert we get cake !! Really excited for that. Not sure if I have told you guys about the birthday tradition aboard. When someone has a birthday, right after colors we throw eight buckets I think, of water on him or her. Depending on the temperature they might be warm buckets or cold buckets. This tradition is kept up with the maritime crew also Jenn our principal was soaked today and Jesse an AB aboard was done maybe a week ago I think.

We are officially in the sea now and the waves are getting bigger! I was on helm today and we hit 11.2 knots in 30 knots of breeze, incredible! Erin, one of the AB’s told me that once the boat starts to sail 12 knots, things start to break, so 11.2 was pretty good I’d say.

While on helm today there were pilot whales following the boat! Better yet they were keeping up. I think there was a pod of about 10. I find it fascinating that they follow the boat and I wonder where they come from. The ocean is so large it really baffles me.

The ocean is also feeling quite small as well though. We cover approximately 200 nautical miles per day and average 9-11 knots and covered 2185 nautical miles in 16 days.

We are in the Azores now and it is beautiful! We had a really good run superb winds and great seas. Our passage was reasonable conditions the ship rocked a fair bit and things went flying all over the place. Textbook off tables luckily no laptops. The motion of the ship rolling seems to slingshot items off the tables. We’ve all become quite good at catching :P

 I had some trouble with seasickness I couldn’t keep my food down for two days it was absolutely horrible. Because of the rolling of the ship the Greek sink traps in the grey water tanks couldn’t function properly. As a result we had a horrible smell in the banjer mostly everyone seemed to get over the smell I unfortunately couldn’t I think this was the cause of most of my seasickness hopefully we don’t have this problem again. The medic aboard gave me this tiny pill, which cured all my problems.

In the last few days I was getting very tired though 16 days of watch, galley, and class was allot the whole crew was exhausted and ready for land. We all needed to have a good sleep and a meal without a portion plate. All of this is worth it though the views in

Horta are beautiful true island life at it finest Very peaceful and quiet. I haven’t had much time to explore yet but I defiantly will be today. It’s so nice to be able to have as much food as I want in a sitting that is probably the biggest thing I miss from home.

In a ship environment when you’re cut off from the world, you really start to appreciate simple little things about normal life that we can’t enjoy on a ship. Fresh fruit, certain chocolates, normal milk, soda, carpet, walking barefoot or in socks, beds, personal washrooms, being alone, food stocked fridges, drawers for clothes. Very simple things that you don’t think about at home but you start to miss on a ship.

I find myself getting more and more used to living on the ship Its my home now along with 60 others… kind of a strange feeling for me especially because I’m an only child. I think I’ll have a new view on life when I go home.

So that’s my summary of our Atlantic crossing I didn’t have much time for pictures but I have a few none of the waves that came over the bulwarks of the ship I was fortunately in the doorway of the banjer and this massive wave hit the side of the hull and splashes over the decks it washed the deck crew onto the other side of the ship.

I learned the true power of water and gravity in these last two weeks while on galley I walked from the aft quarters forward to the galley to pick up food for the maritime crew and a big wave made the ship roll. I didn’t manage to grab onto the safety lines and got washed into the scuppers, which are troughs on the inboard side of the ship, which drain water off the decks and back into the sea. I got washed into them. I was in no danger but I learned the power of the sea and how it can literally through you.