En Route to Galway, Ireland: Rock N’ Roll Slip And Slide

Monday September 21st

I was awoken by “It’s 4:20, smoke ‘em if you got ‘em”; so chuckling I got out of bed. I got dressed and as I put on my boots, the new crewmember in my cabin asked why I was putting on my boots, was it wet? I replied “No, I’m just from California and a wuss for the cold” and man was it cold when I got on deck. Ed the passenger from the crossing, and my A-watch mate, was leaving the ship for a bit and tossing our lines.

We pulled our docking lines and I was asked to go on the helm. I wasn’t looking forward to that responsibility as I was not here when we came into the harbor and thusly had no idea what the channel leading to the sea looked like. Thanks to the almighty gps and our charts we threaded out way through the channel in the dark.

A freighter called Zues was coming through the channel at the same time as us, so our captain radioed them to say that we would slow down so he could pass us. He replied irritably that he could not slow down, he had to maintain a minimum speed. We looked all glanced at each other and the captain radioed “No, WE will SLOW down and YOU can maintain your speed”. The voice angrily came back that they had already slowed down as much as they could. We all laughed. The first mate got on the radio with the thought that a new voice might be better understood. A repeat followed. The mate eventually just said loudly into the radio “PORT TO PORT” (meaning the vessels pass port to port as they normally should) and we got a “roger”. So I steered the ship to hug the very edge of the channel and our hearing impaired friend came slowly by us.

We made it out to sea in the dark, which saddened me as there were many old forts and towers we motored past in the night. We found ourselves with a lovely head wind and seas, so we motored against the building wind and swell until the end of our watch. I went happily to my warm bunk and slept like a log.

I woke on my own shortly before noon and went to the galley for lunch. Had our capstan meeting with a man overboard drill, but it was too rough to send the small boat out so we just let it down to touch the water while everyone went through the motions.

Jessie, Slav (World class small boat sailor from Bulgaria and my new cabin mate) and I put up nets above the rails that we have for weather so foul that we need nets above the rails. The plan  is to make permanent toggles for them so they are easier to put up in case of said foul weather. So we’re now sailing around Ireland with neon multicolored nets around the ship. I joked that now at least in bad weather if you went overboard you would go down tangled up in nets.

I spent the rest of work party putting whippings on new earring lashings. Our watch was pretty droll as we motored against the wind and sea with a peak speed of under 3 knots, often being check down to one by the swell.  I asked Caleb about the storm I had heard rumors of and he said it was going to get ugly in the night. As we have a while to go before we can round the southern tip of Ireland and get over enough the breeze becomes fair I was not happy to hear this. I asked if we were anchoring out for the night and said no. A little later in the watch I was told we were setting  some staysails because we were turning off the breeze to anchor in the lee of shore for the night. I was very glad to hear this.

Our watch was relieved and I went below in a very good mood. I went to sleep after Caleb told me I had the last anchor watch and therefore got to sleep the longest straight time, in recognition that I usually got the worst anchor watch times. I always tried not to notice myself, but it is nice to know someone besides me was aware of it. Oh I slept so well that night!

Tuesday September 22nd

I was awoken for my anchor watch shortly before 7am. I woke B watch as they would be getting the ship under way. I did a boat check, as it was the end of my watch I pumped the bilges, and did an anchor plot. When all this was over I only had about 10 minutes left of my watch so I had some of Cookie’s wonderful crepes for breakfast. After filling my belly I went back to bed knowing I wouldn’t need to be up again until lunch time.

I slept until after 11 and then just lounged in my bunk half asleep half grinning at such a wonderful morning. I can’t remember the last time I slept until I could sleep no more and then just lounged in bed, not even on my vacation did I get such a luxury. What an excellent morning!

For work party I went aloft to tie the earring lashings I whipped yesterday. The ship was pitching and rolling on all 4 axises and I knew it was only a matter of time before I got seasick in these conditions. So aloft I went and worked as quickly as I could and by the last few lashings I was so nauseous it took every amount of concentration to not shower the deck. I finished my last lashing and laid below, got on deck, walked over to the stern, and fed the fish as they say. I laid down on deck next to the capstan for the remainder of work party.

Between work party and my watch we passed in between a pair of islands. The one on our starboard side was covered in birds and had a huge sea arch; the waves pounded it sending up huge spray. The one on our left is a famous one I don’t know the name of. Apparently way back a few monks came out to this rocky tower for solace and to hide from the frequent Viking raids.

The rocky tower is extremely steep and yet these men built huts and walls on the top of it and carved steps into a ravine I would have thought you needed climbing gear to ascend. The dangers these men faced getting on the island and to their homes on it, let alone living on this desolate island, are absolutely incredible.

Half way into our watch the wind became fair and we set the main topsail and fore course, struck and gasketed the staysails, and killed the engines. The seas had been building all day and there were several big swell  that covered the horizon when we were in its trough. The leftovers of some storm I am glad we did not encounter.

We sailed on and our watch was relieved. I went below, wrote in my journal and then settled down to try to sleep in this heavy swell. In between rolls when the ship did not creak so loud I heard water drip, quite a large stream. I thought “that is definitely not good” and jumped out of my bunk. I was met in the hall outside my cabin with a thick dark liquid pouring from in between the planks above me spilling on the sole (deck inside the ship). Nelly was up at the same sounds and said something about a diesel leak. I took a deep breath in fear and then realized there was no way that was diesel, the smell was familiar and it was some kind of oil.

Gabe came down and said that a barrel of linseed oil we had in the tween deck had broken loose and the tween deck was awash. By this time the dark rain had started in my cabin as well and I sacrificed my towel to the cause. As the oil spread across the deck of this heavily rolling ship things got interesting.

While I was stopping up the spread in my cabin I looked up to see Gabe standing still and sliding all the way across aft crew with each heavy roll. I laughed so hard I nearly cried as he slid in and out of view past my door with an “ahhhh”. I managed to get myself up to the tween deck to help out and almost everyone was up in their underwear (I fell in this category) and pajamas sliding around the deck trying to get heavy items resecured and begin getting the oil off the deck.

For an hour we mopped, scrubbed, and cleaned. Each time the ship took an especially heavy roll we would all slide, which, though it began with lots of laughter, quickly became rather dangerous. I was in the middle of the ship when we took a big roll and with no way of stopping I slide all the way across, still standing, to the starboard side. I rammed into the wall with my arm and shoulder, the fleshy part of my right forearm taking most of the impact unfortunately on a metal fire extinguisher bracket.

I sat down for a while until I could regain my senses and then helped out with what I would. We got things cleaned up as best we could, dried the deck, and put up a lifeline to help cross the deck with any residual oil. All the rags we used were conviently hung in the life netting to prevent spontaneous combustion. I iced my arm and went to sleep in the great cabin.

The ship was rolling so heavily I could not sleep so I eventually gave up and went to my bunk where I found the fumes not as bad as I anticipated. I slept for a couple hours until watch. In the end I suffered no more than a few bruises and my right arm came back into use over the next day. Certainly, no one would ever call this job dull.

Wednesday September 23rd

I was awoken at 3:20 for watch and came on deck to a chilly night. We were about 55 nautical miles from Galway, with the lights of the coast on our starboard side. Watch went by fairly quickly and uneventfully. I chose my position so that I would not have to do a one handed helm.

While I was on bow watch I glanced over the side and noticed a long streak of light in the water, like some sort of serpent. I heard the telltale puff of a dolphin spouting and realized it was a dolphin swimming along in our bow wave leaving a bright phosphorescent streak in the water; the outline of its body a greenish white glow. I told the other members of the watch and they came to gaze upon 8 dolphin streaking and darting around the ship.

Such an incredible scene as this is difficult to describe and it is a shame it cannot be recorded. They were like slow motion shooting stars with all the grace dolphins posses.  This scene is easily one of the most beautiful things I have ever scene.

This instance again illustrates the extreme ups and downs of this experience. During a busy nearly sleepless night, getting bruised and battered while feeling seasick the word miserable hardly does the mood justice. Yet, not 6 hours later I wouldn’t trade my place for anything as I sail North along the coast of Ireland in the night with glowing dolphins streaking around the ship like gleeful ghosts.

I slept well during my time off and woke for lunch fairly refreshed. My arm was getting better by the hour, but when I found out work was going to have to be created for my work party I opted to rest it. When we came on watch we were in Galway Bay heading for our anchorage. All hands was called as we were going to sail to anchor and then get our sails ready for the weekend.

As we came in the anchorage was changed a few times until we found just the right spot. As we anchored one little sloop came in quite close and as they tried to hot-dog-it throwing up their spinnaker they wrapped it tightly around the forestay. We all laughed and the captain said “Don’t you hate it when you try to show off and fail miserably?”

We got a call on the radio that a freighter was coming out of the harbor and the pilot from that ship could take us in tonight. We were all very happy at the prospect of Guinness within 4 hours. So we went into high gear getting the ship ready to go. When I came on deck a little later an entire regatta, with colored spinnakers flying, was weaving its way down and around us.

We slung our hook (took up our anchor), picked up our pilot, and came in nice and easy to Galway harbor. We have a class coming tomorrow in the morning so we got the ship ready for tours and got the ok to hit the town. Trying to get all the crew together for a beer is like herding cats; so Adam and I wandered until we found a nice old pub, had a pint, and went back to the ship for a good nights sleep, calm and still at the dock.