“Anja,
Anja, it’s 0600 and it’s time to get up.” Ugh, it was one of those mornings
when the wake up seemed to come way too soon. I stumbled into breakfast still
half asleep and already counting down until our watch would be over.
“Oh hey
there JWO.” I looked around confused trying to slowly piece together what the
watch officer was saying to me. JWO. Junior Watch Officer. I was racking my
brain, what does this mean? Coffee. Definitely coffee.
Walking
onto deck I prepared myself for what I could only anticipate would be the
longest most stressful watch so far as I was entirely responsible along with
the guidance of a part-time amnesic watch officer who seemed to “forget”
answers at the most inconvenient times. As I mustered my watch on the quarter
deck I quickly realized my shipmates were not waiting for me to bark orders and
tell them what to do, they were waiting to help me. The first words spoken
were, “Anja, whatcha need?” It quickly dawned on me that I was not in this
alone. I had an amazing knowledgeable trustworthy group ready to help me shine
as the JWO. And that is exactly what they did. Instead of passing by painfully
slow and stressful as I had anticipated, the watch flew by with more things
being packed into a morning than I thought possible. Sail handling, squalls,
science stations, updates, sail plans, shooting the sun, and all the hourly
needs of the ship seemed to magically happen with an unimaginable ease.
To say
I learned a lot in my first watch as Junior Watch Officer would be like saying
the 35 knot winds we were hitting were just a little gusty. I learned how to
brief the captain, how to maneuver the ship to the right point of sail with the
wind at the correct point off our bow, how to shoot Local Apparent Noon, how to
call a sail set, and so so so much more. Yet all these details and the vast
amount of ship knowledge I gained all seem inconsequential to the real lesson I
learned as JWO.
With
supportive dedicated shipmates at your back, anything is accomplishable. Sails
can be set, squalls can be faced head on, and a first time mariner who still
can’t walk the deck without tripping can keep the boat sailing happily to
Honolulu.
No comments:
Post a Comment