Changes and a problem

1st May 2008

Bermuda
TA2 Day 36 – 38

We were joined by the rest of the new crew on Monday, and we lost Francis, Tom and Dave on Tuesday, which brings us now to a total of 25. Just in case you’ve not kept up with all the changes, including the ones I may have failed to mention at the time, the cast of characters now stands as this:

Mike Lovegrove – Captain, who I actually sailed with on Astrid on the Tall Ships Race 10 years ago, he’d joined as voyage crew for the heck of it.
Keith H- First Mate
Ben – Second Mate
Mike – Chief Engineer
Keith G – Bosun
Becky – Cook
Oli – Assistant Engineer
LJon – Bosun’s Mate
Jules – Science Officer

We have 4 watches now, which is a great relief to those of us who’ve been on the three watch system up until now;

Forward Starboard – Anthony, Jessie, Lucinda and Terry.
Aft Starboard – Myself, Lesley, Mick and Clover.
Forward Port – Polly, Ray, Rachel and David.
Aft Port – Rob, James, Eric and Alison.

Ant, Polly, Rob and I are watch leaders at the moment, but as the voyage progresses and everyone gets up to speed it will get swapped around so everyone gets a turn. The new faces are quite a mixed bunch, we have a couple of couples, David and Lesley, who’ve been married for 26 years, and Rachel and Mick, who are boyfriend and girlfriend. We have a 74 year old, Eric, who started sailing on Tall Ships in his 50’s, and we now have a medic, Clover, who’s been sailing forever, (ish). Lucinda is due to take over from Becky in the Azores, she used to work on the Soren Larsen where she was permanent crew. Alison is a country lass, who’s more used to heaving hay bales and is a qualifed tanner. She did a trip on the Malcom Miller 28 years ago, but hasn’t sailed since. Terry’s from Salford, retired now and up for adventures, this is the first time he’s actually seen a Tall Ship in the flesh, last year he learnt to fly a plane in Florida and next year he plans to learn to ride horses in Spain.

It was so sad to see the people we’ve become so close to go, but we know we’ll see them back in Weymouth when we come in. The change I failed to mention at the time was the loss of Nick, who left us in the Caribbean as he had to get home for some work stuff, we will be joined by him again in the Azores though, and we’ll have a beer waiting for him!

On Monday I was set the task of checking all the harnesses we have on board, a very important bit of maintenance as we put our lives in their straps when climbing the rigging. It took me most of the day to get them oiled and checked thoroughly but it’s good to know they’re in good working order!

Tuesday dawned with some bad news, the freezer compressor had died overnight, putting our plans for leaving on hold until further notice. We’ve been helped out by a local wholesalers who’ve kindly lent us some freezer space for the interim as the part we need is being flown out from the UK. It should arrive on Thursday, so we may be able to get off on Friday, time will tell…

What all this does mean though, is that we get to enjoy the island a bit more, we’ve been over the basic training with the new crew now, we did a bit more sail handling today and got a lovely harbour stow on the topsail and course in the morning. This afternoon we were free to do as we wished, Ant and I did some shopping and mooched about, nothing particularly interesting, but we’re going to have a full day out tomorrow, venturing further afield hopefully!