First port of call

We had to get up slightly early to have breakfast before going on watch at 8. We had passed our destination of Hanko during the night and it was Clare’s intention to sail back but unfortunately the wind had completely died down. We did get a few of the sails out but then pretty quickly hauled them in again as we turned to go into Hanko early.

On the way in the Permanent Crew staged a man overboard drill. A headless dummy was thrown into the water and as we were on watch we had to shout ‘man overboard’ and point at the body. It was amazing how quickly it became very small. It must be quite frightening if it happened for real. The PC were all rushed to the bridge where Clare, for the purposes of this practice, decided that the ‘weather conditions’ were too dangerous to launch the DOTI boat so we were going to have to do a wet recovery. She then came to the bridge to shout instructions at the helmsman (I forget who it was) and I, being the nominated person in my safety harness, got sent up the mast to get a better view. Unfortunately she told me to go up the mizzen mast which I’d never climbed before so it took a little longer than I hoped. Eventually made it but couldn’t see the body until it hoved into view from around the bow. Poor Nat then had to jump in in a dry suit and swim to recover the body.

it’s hard to push the wheelchair when you’re drunk

It was very interesting to watch and certainly made our watch go quicker! Apparently the water was warm though. We were due to arrive into Hanko after lunch which was very welcome as I was starving.

Hanko is a fairly large port with a fairly non-descript town attached. We were berthed in the port, about half an hours roll from the main area of town. BY the time we finished tieing up it was mid-afternoon. We had signed to have dinner onboard and decided to stay onboard for the rest of the day, especially as Pete and I were on harbour watch from 10 till midnight. It was an interesting watch as we had a few people who wandered by to ask questions (mostly in better English than we speak) and were generally attacked by mosquitoes.

The next day we headed into Hanko and to the main part of the town which was on the coast on the other side of the port. It’s a fairly pretty place but with not much in the way of interest. There was a few monuments to the wars, a pretty church and the harbour was fairly picturesque. Other than that it was just a case of getting a few beers, a bite to eat (Pete had a nice whitefish and described it as fish and chips. No class that boy) and then heading to the crew party. It was meant to be a beach barbeque but the rain made it a barn party. They had a karaoke truck which was worrying popular but as there was no beer the Lord Nelson crew wandered down the road for beer. We then spent the rest of the day in the pub, punctuated by going for dinner and rolled back to the ship for the midnight turning into a pumpkin curfew (actually only for under 18 year olds but we were showing group solidarity with Dannie). Plus it’s hard to push the wheelchair when you’re drunk.