We are waiting in Lowestoft – for the wind and new crew.
The wait went quickly yesterday. All hands were set to work. The ship was thoroughly scrubbed and scraped. All equipment and all deck planks were taken up and, using small wooden wedges, every nook and cranny where rye bread crumbs and old salami had stuck to the tar were scraped clean.
After three weeks of sailing, it was a challenge just lifting the deck and lowering one’s head down to the bilge-water and stone ballast, and not everything that was picked up was identifiable. The living conditions on board, especially the lack of tabletops and openings for storing things, combined with unsteady sailing, mean that you easily lose your grip on coffee, tuna salad and peanuts, and they disappear down into the dark depths under the deck – down where semi-putrid bilge-water meets fluff-balls from our woollen clothing.
Once the unpalatable mess had been scraped away, all sections were washed down using a garden hose, and with a washed deck and a scoured galley the Sea Stallion was as good as new by 14.30.
Today is a day off. We’ll enjoy the sun and wait impatiently for the new crew to arrive. As most of the hands are volunteers and spending their summer holiday on the voyage, the trip is divided into two stages. Many people are with us for all six weeks, but some are signing off here half-way through and 16 new hands who have waited at home in great anticipation will come and take over their places.
Some of the 16 who will arrive this evening are old, experienced Sea Stallion sailors, while others are so new they’ve never set foot on board before. Their first voyage will be the stint across the North Sea. An exciting challenge for the leaders of the various sections, but help is at hand in this situation since those who were completely new in Dublin are now experienced Viking ship sailors and accustomed to life on board.