first and second full days aboard

First official full day on the Sorlandet

First impressions of the ship are its more spacious in the Banjer ( where I sleep eat study and hang out below main deck in the middle of the ship ) the layout of the Banjer is really well thought out with all possible storage space being used to its max. I have two lockers and a sea chest to keep all my belongings in and I sleep in a bunk. Some are in bunks and some in hammocks and we switch at the semester break. Our first watch cleaning in the morning was in the ships laundry. the ships laundry has two washers and dryers in it three toilets and three showers these are for the teachers and maritime crew only. Cleaning consists of wiping down all surfaces with a cleaning cloth with uniwash on it ( a universal wash this includes washing the ceiling), scrubbing the floor, and emptying any finished laundry and flooding it and putting it away ( unless its someones personal laundry ) and putting washed clothes in the dryer. after all that a quick bleach of the sink to finish. our first time it took more than an hour but on the second day we finished in about 30-40 mins. My first sleep on the ship was quite cold the ships has air conditioning which comes out through vents at the side of each bunk ( with 40 people down there is can get quite sweaty so this is a necessity. its getting better though and I'm getting a sleeping bag to keep me a little warmer. each of us has a specific "watch". Our watch consists of 7 people which is the largest and our duties as a watch are o watch the ship at certain times in the day ( 24 hours ) my watch time right now is from 2am till 4 am and we have to helm, be lookout on fore deck do our chores so we don't have to do them in the morning do safety checks and report anything strange on the ship ex. a clanging or noise you have never heard before or a strange smell that isn't natural to the part of the ship you're in. There are 6 watches in total in the student crew. each watch is overseen by a professional maritime crew member. As well as a watch you also have a galley crew that you are in. galley crew help the cook feed the crew so you help cook, clean dishes carry food and empty dishes to and from the banjer ( where we eat ) or the fridge/freezer. the are 6 galley crews also and they run on a six day cycle. galley is the hardest post when your aboard because you are constantly working between galley duty, classes, and watch duties, or helping with sail trim. one small perk to being on galley duty is that you don't have to wake up for watch at night because you are so exhausted from working all day is just too unfair and you could potentially fall asleep at your post. Then after all your jobs are done you repeat it all again the next day again. 

Second full day on board august 24^th

Today I slept much better and wasn't as cold overnight. Everyone had a swim call in the morning but I just layed in bed for a bit and took my time in the morning it was too cold outside for swimming in my opinion

Cleaned the boat this morning went abit quicker and I remembered everything I had to do :) 

After cleaning we started to load up the ship with supplies which included probably around 5 – 8 pallets of food we made a giant line that snaked from shore onto the ship down onto main deck into the banjer and down into the food lockers refrigerator and freezer which are massive.

Lunch came next and I tried something new called “tajin” ( I think ) is basically citric spice that you put on fruit one of the Mexican students tamara who is on my watch brought it and they all seem to be nuts on it. I quite liked it tated pre good on watermelon and apparently its super good on melon and we loaded some cantelopes on during stocking supplies in the morning so im excited for that.

After lunch we started our familiarization with the ship with the maritime crew I almost have all there names remembered now we learned how to put on a harness properly and what the point loads are on it learned about ship watch duties and general knowledge that we might not have known or understood. We also went up the rigging for the first time today not for very long mabe ten minutes if even that just up the side and across and down the otherside and learned where to clip our harnesses into and where to stand just a familiarization with going aloft. We were told by our watch-dog that it's going to be in small stages so it’s a gradual ascend to being able to go aloft all the time and rigging the sails and doing other jobs. after lunch we went over a lot of safety things briefing of man over board drills and fire drills they showed us how to put on survival suits and lifejackets. A huge amount of knowledge for one day and a lot to remember it will take us a while to get into the way of things I think. all and all though I am really enjoying myself so far and THIS YEAR IS GOING TO BE AWESOME !!!! 

I will post some pics soon :)