Far Too Much Fun on Etoile

Posted on 29. May, 2009 by admin in Latest News

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It appears that the crew of Etoile are having far too much fun. Not having heard anything from them for a few days, we now receive the following report from trainee Sophie Baviere, which explains why: they were too busy enjoying themselves!

“Last Sunday was a special day. To break the weekly monotony on board, the captain decided that every Sunday would be a little different than the other days. First of all, it’s the day in which we change the clock and as the watches usually changes at midday, he decided instead of having lunch separately, the watches should have lunch together on deck. And since we all get one spare hour, why shouldn’t we pass it together having fun?

“That moment was special for two other reasons. First of all, before lunch even started, he gave us the results of the huge game we’d been playing for a few days! The one where all the permanent crew members had lost their minds, the ship had lost it’s way to Bermuda, and the trainees had to help them get their memories back! The two watch teams were very fast in resolving all the enigmas about actions, places and parts of the boat. I couldn’t say who was the fastest between the two teams. Both managed to answer every question to find the sailor’s Holy Grail which helped every one recover its memory. In order to do this they had to climb to the top of the mast several times, explain how to hoist different sails and explain procedures in case of emergency.

“It would now seem that the trainees do know the boat quite well! The captain, who at one point was disguised in a nice Pirate hat with a sword, was very proud of his crew. He even awarded every trainee the first degree of “Etoile’s Best trainee”… motivating us to pass to the second one: “Etoile’s Gabier of Honour” which means we have really managed to totally integrate with the crew as if we were a permanent member, understanding the ship and not being scared to climb everywhere. It’s a great honour for us to get that degree! Our ship and the entire crew are now safe after this huge memory black out game. We are now all knights of the Alizees, gently leading the ship towards Bermuda. Everything has gone back to normal.

“The second thing that made Sunday different was the singing. Where except on a lovely old wooden tall ship can we sing sailor songs? Singing is a very good way to unit people. We discover hidden talents in some crewmembers and add new songs to our repertory. The fact we were all together made us smile and allowed us to forget any little tension that may have developed with a mate during the week. It was nice to see every one putting their heart into the signing. We are going to train hard and then everyone will be able to hear us during the crew parade!

“For the rest of the day there was a real “smell of holiday” on board as it was really relaxing just like a real Sunday at home. Everyone was sitting together on deck looking out to sea, enjoying iced tea, laughing, talking and smiling to each other. Not that we never do this but Sunday was a little more magical than other days.

“The other game that has started is the Blind Date game being run by Jolie Brise. Each crew member has a number and Jolie Brise’s pigeon, Adrian, decides on the matches between the vessels. So far only five people on Etoile have been matched with another ship. Every evening we wait and see who’s going to be the next. It’s quite exciting but we’re a little apprehensive because we only get the number of a crew member and the boat name so we don’t know if it is a girl or a boy or their age! For the moment, our date is still a number. It’s even funnier because, all the boys on board hope to pick a number on Rona II… because they realise it is a boat with only girls on board! At least every day, Blind Date is the attraction of the moment for half an hour… We’ll see in Bermuda with whom Adrian has matched us by having a drink with our blind date.

“For three days now we have been in a windless area. We are not going very fast… in fact we’re hardly moving with often less than 2 knots of speed. Yesterday, for example, we sailed only 32 miles in one day. However the captain is quite happy because he thought we’d only make 24 miles in 24 hours! That is our lowest record since the beginning of the race! We are all watching the sea because it looks very clear and inviting us to jump in because it is 23 degrees. But we are not allowed, most of all for security reasons but also because there are a lot of jellyfish gently swimming on the top of the water. Instead we keep busy every morning by taking care of the boat, wetting the deck to keep the wood in a good state, washing up the zodiac to take off all the paint stains, etc. Then once it’s done, we read or learn astrology and the sextant method, ready to be useful whenever we can.

“Wednesday evening we had dinner all together again on the deck. While everybody was eating, something strange happened. Girls dressed in flashy colours appeared from nowhere… How come? Hasn’t the captain always said that there are no women and no men on board, only sailors? However, there are just three girls on board so it’s nice to exchange our navy tee-shirts and shorts for something more “girly” to remind them we are here.

“We are now still gently sailing at less than 3 knots towards North-West with an average wind speed of 5 knots; all fingers are crossed for the wind to come back and fill our sails again.”