00:00-04:00, "Middle Watch", south of Bornholm.
Then we continued with education: our helmsman told us more about the entire rigging and how to use it ...
When our watch was over, the weather was still calm and turned misty ... looks quite mysterious :) 12:00 - 16:00, Afternoon Watch ... but I came different: 11:30 we were preparing ourselves for the afternoon watch - and suddenly: ALARM! All hands on deck, now! And don´t leave anybody behind! Within 5 minutes, all people, some not ready putting their clothes on, gathered around the capstan behind the main mast, waiting for instructions. All trainees stood at their muster positions of the three watches, the core crew around the aft stairway. First they said nothing, for they did not know themselves, what we saw was a fire guard going into the machine room. The captain gave us the first information: this was no drill! When they say nothing on the alarm signal, it is always a hot alarm... so we became more ernest ... What actually happened? The Götheborg III has 2 auxiliary propellers. During sailing, we used both machines to get us to Stockholm in time. But then the starboard machine had a faulty break and stopped, making some smoke in the machine room. That was automatically detected by a smoke sensor, and that triggered the alarm. Ironically, just 10 minutes before an alarm drill was about to come ... we were explained these things around 12:30 by our security officer when the situation was clear. The port machine was still functioning, but we could no longer use the starboard machine. But, no other damage to the ship, no fire. So we could continue our voyage. For us, it was a lesson how to behave in emergency situations. This was the only incident on the entire voyage. Luckily, we had wind eventually, and so we sat all sails, to support the machines :) And so we made 7 knots speed! On this watch, I was "backis", helping in the kitchen. Due to the alarm, even the cook had to leave his place - and eventually, the big potato pot had some burnt rests on the bottom, which was VERY hard to clean :)
Later the day, the sails were clewed up fro reefing
and the brails hauled fairly, to make work a little easier ... but still, the sail is heavy
to be shortened, as some canvas is to be bound inside the reefings, beneath the yard.
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