So Where Are We?

So were the hell are we?

 

Still on Queens Wharf, Auckland I’m afraid!

I joined the ship on Sunday along with the rest of the voyage crew.  It was a usual sort of joining day, meeting up with friends and the permanent crew.  The crush below decks to sign on (or become indentured), hand over your passport, and get allocated a bunk.

The bunk is really important, especially on a voyage of this length. It’s where you sleep, read, listen to music, and spend some quality time away from the rest of the crew. It is about the size of a larger single bed, and it is your personal space.

 Usually I’m in the fo’c’stle, together with 8 other crew. Its cramped, it can be smelly. It is busy, and can be noisy (snoring in particular), it’s where you get bounced around in storm. But it is a place where you have cooperate with each other and the crac is usually good. But not for me this time!

This time I’m sharing a cabin with Garry. Here we have a bit more room. We’re on the same watch, so it’s less noisy. We keep saying that this is the party cabin. I keep saying that we will name it ‘The Cavern’ or ‘Erics’ to reflect the party life we will have to organise over the next two months.

But the big news is that the main jack stay is broke and lying on the deck. Can’t really sail without this huge piece of wire cos it holds the masts up and we fly a staysail off it. We’ll have a new one by Wednesday. But in the words of Nelson ‘men and ships rot in port’!

Errrrrrrrrrrrrr…………..but the shopping good!