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wildwood-faun · 3 years

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See you in Liverpool or: traditional sailing in 2021

So this has taken a while. Everything has been very all the time all the time ever since I came back on shore which. Is a different kind of all the time all the time than the one you get at sea.

For those who aren't sure what this is about, this summer I had the opportunity to spend two weeks as a deckhand on the Swedish ship Götheborg, a replica of an East Indiaman that sank outside her home harbour Gothenburg in 1745, coming back from her third voyage. (And THAT is a story of a remarkably well controlled running aground that all sailors and a lot of the cargo survived - evidence points to insurance fraud which is just. A Delight.)

The modern Götheborg was launched in 2003 and went on her maiden voyage in 2005. Today she is the largest ocean-going wooden sailing ship in the world. And I love her.

Prep

Before our voyage, the old lady hadn't been out at sea for six years and while preparations had been underway for some time, there was still a lot left to do so we spent the first few days at pier, readying the running rigging, preparing sails and carrying things aboard. The 250 square metre (that's almost 2700 square feet!) main topsail was. A challenge. Half a ton of linen is very comfy right here and does not need to be moved thank you very much. It was kept up on a loft accessible by a narrow spiral staircase and a very optimistic watch leader first had us try to carry it down said staircase. That. Didn't work. Luckily there was a winch solution that allowed us to get it down and let us get used to carrying the thing on even ground before we had to bring it on the ship.

Putting everything together was at times very confusing and I think my least favourite thing was being given a long list of instructions, to be carried out at the top of the rigging. I was all right with the climbing (though there were scary moments) but I cannot for the life of me carry a list of verbal instructions in my head. Luckily that ordeal mostly characterised one day in particular or my overall experience might have been less overwhelmingly positive.

At sea

Once we were at sea, we went from working as daymen (meaning working from 8-18) to being on sea watches, meaning working 4 hours, being "off" for 8, and so on around the clock. I was in port watch, meaning I worked from 8-12 morning and evening - probably the easiest hours to get used to for me. Starboard watch followed us from 12-4, and midship watch worked 4-8.

("Off" is because there are a number of things you need to do in those 8 hours, meaning you don't really have all that much downtime that you're awake in.)

A watch could mean either being on posts (fire round, lookout, helmsman), helping out in the galley, or being available for general work on deck - things like working on and in the rigging, sail handling, painting, etc. I've had everything from calm night watches, climbing in the rigging while the captain and a crewmember played the violin on weatherdeck, to four hours of horizontal rain and work that needed to be done. The fascinating thing is that while you're working it's just... something that you do? I was very rarely cold or hungry (though that is easily attributable to the fact that they literally fed us every third hour...) and while there was one day in particular where I came down to the fo'c'sle with an inch of rainwater in my boots, and hurting all over just became a fact of life - I have rarely felt such a prolonged sense of... contentedness.

(Tbh this is not an original thought but there is a lot to be said for having an arguably adhd adjacent brain and being given very clear, concrete work that is both physically and intellectually stimulating while not having to deal with a deluge of external stimuli at the same time. I'm going to take this info and work on getting better at giving myself screen free time.)

General impressions

The work was heavy and uncomfortable and I understand why sailors are known for their swearing. Somehow it helps to swear a blue streak when you're 20 metres aloft, holding on to a balls heavy sail for dear life and your entire left hand is throbbing because of a damn hangnail. Oh and I found myself singing in the scary moments in the way I used to do a lot as a child, in the way that my body somehow remembered even if I consciously didn't.

There are SO. MANY. ROPES. By the time it felt like we'd started to get the hang of things, the voyage was almost over. There's clearly only one thing for it: I need to go back. She's sailing to China next year and I'm eagerly awaiting more info on the sailing legs.

Sailing at night? Amazing showstopping spectacular. Spending a very calm night watch looking at the stars and feeling as if the firmament were swaying above us, singing Lowlands Away? Just. Take me back. I think that was also the night we first practiced night climbing. The sky was clear, the moon was almost full and, in the words of my watch leader: there was hammered moonlight on the sea.

Not having very many new impressions meant I had about four songs running on loop in my head which was. Interesting. In preparation for next time I want to learn more lyrics by heart.

I said I was rarely cold and that's true but I did also wear some of my warmest clothes and I cannot FATHOM how to stay warm in colder waters jesus CHRIST take me to Chennai (but also I AM eyeing an Antarctic voyage I got an email about 👀).

It's funny but I didn't think so much about how old fashioned everything was, I was so focused on the function of it all. It wasn't until the final day when I was putting some things away on cannon deck that I suddenly saw things with the eyes of an outsider. Happy I got that experience because it was an "oh..." moment.

And the people! Working and sleeping very, very close to 17 other people round the clock really makes for fantastic relationships. I feel like some of these people are my long lost siblings. I miss them. I want to have a beer with them. I want to knock them over the head and tell them to get their act together because they deserve it (okay this is about one guy in particular but yk). I wasn't alone in getting quite weepy on the final day but I'm hoping I'll meet at least some of these people again. My watch leader told us that back in the day, European sailors wouldn't say goodbye, they'd say "see you in Liverpool" - the place where everyone ended up sooner or later when they were between ships.

#sailing adventure 2021 #feel free to ask questions because I feel like there is SO MUCH i could talk about #but i didn't want this to turn into an absolute monstrosity of a post #... it may be too late for that #will try to pick out some pictures too :)))

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