Engines on

It is not even 8 AM when we can all hear the engines starting to roar. Hands are called on deck to clew up the courses. The rest of sails follow soon. During the journey still they come up in a couple of occasions trying to hold on, but in the afternoon they are packed away.  

A light breeze blows from the west and along the day veers to a northeasterly, right from the direction where Tristan da Cunha is. At least the seas are calm today. 

A day for sail training, lectures and sail repairing. 

Hands on thick canvas 

Leather sawing palms 

Sailor’s needles 

Strong thread. 

On a long journey on a sailing vessel like the Europa, it's common to damage some canvas now and then. Sails have to withstand furious gusts and windless rolling, swaying and chafing then against standing rig and lines. Eventually, a rip, a hole, an open seam. On calm quiet days like today, when they are not needed and the engines propel our progress, it is a good time to mend them. Depending on the sort of repair needed, they have to be bent-off and brought on deck. Sometimes it's enough to fix them hand stitching, for others it's necessary to bring up the large sailmaker’s sewing machine. In the best of cases the repair can be done aloft.

On the sloop deck, Leo works on the Deckswabber. Listening to his favourite music, he stitches, by hand, a patch along the leech where the canvas had been wearing thin. The material is thick so progress is slow but the job is nice- the kind of maintenance every deckhand loves- so he is content. Up the Main Course yard, Teymour has a similar job. 

A day too when the deckhouse is quieter than usual. A couple of people at the back, inspecting their landing gear for hitch-hiking seeds, some in the front, reading. Biosecurity is becoming a well-known word to the crew onboard Europa. The process of brushing Velcro and vacuuming pockets is well practiced, and we all recognize the importance of this ritual in respecting and protecting the remote environments we visit.  

Most voyage crew are on the main deck, enjoying the first warm and calm days we have had of the trip. Leaning on safety lines, they listen as Nat and Teymour recap the basics of striking square sails, preparing for our next manoeuvre.

The galley is full of giggles today. As Brahm cleans dishes from breakfast with our trusty dishwasher, Hobie, Cato and Greg prepare for lunch. All are enjoying each another’s company. Five weeks into the trip, the humour is delirious- we are all comfortable letting our guard down and being silly. 

Haakon and Phil bring some people aloft, time for a few more explanations and practices on furling sails. 

In the bridge, Janke and Dan oversee the ship, monitoring the sail handling on deck, the course we are steering, alarm panels, lookouts. They keep a close eye to wind forecasts to route our trip accordingly meandering our way amongst the different pressure systems that affect the area. 

Europa is a living organism. All her parts functioning differently. Every crew member’s life onboard is unique to them- some spent in the dungeons, others in the rig. Each has a different story to tell of a voyage conducted by a whole. Like a colony in symbiosis- or parts to a body- we carry out our separate roles, trusting that it all collaborates to keep the ship moving onwards.