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Dear Diary,

well, it has been a very exciting few days. On Sunday, the 6th of July we
left Wicklow Town in southeast Ireland on our way to Torquay but before we
set sail the nurse on board, Anna, weighed all of the crew individually
with and without our luggage. She is going to keep a check on our health
while we are sea. We had a great time in Wicklow and I made many friends
including Cillian and Setanta from the Wicklow Educate Together School
where the crew slept. They made a lovely poster and came down to see us
off.

The sailing was great - even though it was raining - again! Honestly, the
whole crew spend more time taking on and off their jumpers and raingear
than anything else! Anyway, the wind died down a bit so Vibeke, the First
Mate gave the order for us to row. My knowledge of Danish rowing commands
is really improving. Ro væk!

Once the wind took up again we hoisted the sail and reached a steady speed
but a little further out the wind turned quite strong and the swells in the
sea were very big so for safety we reefed in the sail (this is where we
make the sail smaller using special little ropes on either side of the sail
by tying them together using reefing knots and making the sail smaller in
sections).

The weather turned so bad that most of the crew was quite seasick and four
people had to be taken to our accompanying vessel, The Cable One.
Thankfully, I wasn't seasick and I together with the other crew members in
midships who weren't seasick had to work very hard in our watches (on the
ship we are divided into four hour watches between port and starboard -
port is the left side of the ship and starboard is the right side of the
ship - every four hours we change the watch or shift so that people can get
some much needed sleep) and as a safety measure, Carsten ordered us into
our life suits. These are special suits that cover us from head to toe and
are designed to keep us completely dry and if we were to fall overboard
they inflate to keep us safe.

The ship had taken in a lot of water so I manned one of the pumps on board
to pump out the water. We pumped out about 18 tonnes of water! Finally, the
weather relaxed once we sailed around Land's End and I got to have a little
rest and enjoy the view of the English coastline. It wasn't long before we
reached Torquay where we moored for a few days.

All the crew were very tired after over 50 hours of sailing so we set up
our sleeping bags and slept. I had a great snooze but then I was woken by
Sinéad, my buddy for my anchor watch. We have a 'buddy system' on board.
Each crew member is partnered with another crew member. The buddies look
after each other and do watch together.

After my watch I had great chat with the other Erik on board - we are
distant cousins - can you see the family resemblance?

Hope you're all well.


Take care,

Erik