Page 18 - Demo

26we went on watch he put more sail up. The next watch officer was notso keen and so insisted we took some down before he took over. And so, we were always busy and the whole thing was very interesting. One of the officers had sailed round the horn in one of the last square riggers and so had stories to tell. As we went round Lands End we were caught in a storm. It became obvious that our watch alone could not reef the sails or get the jibs down and so we had to wait until the next watch came up to help. By now, the ship was racing along and heeled over so far that the lifeboat floated up on its davits and the inclinometer showing how far over we went stuck at its maximum deflection! My job was to go out on the bowsprit to organise pulling down the jibs. As we hit the waves the spray came right over me. We had on harnesses which might have helped a bit if we fell so we should not have gone overboard but even so it was very exciting. When it was over, only 2 lads and I sat down to breakfast. The others were all being sick including one who was so bad that we tied him to the rigging. As we sat down the ship heeled over again and one of the lads got soaked when a milk jug went over. He just went to bed leaving just 2 of us with strong stomachs to finish our breakfasts. The ship used a navigation system called Decca. To plot a position, you took readings from 3 clock type dials and plotted them out on a special Decca chart. It was very accurate and one of my jobs was to take fixes every hour. One of the officers explained how it worked one afternoon as we sat around on the deck. Later at Oakington our navigation officer did the same as we used it in the Varsity. His explanation was extremely confusing and nothing like the casual explanation we had had that sunny day on the ship. This sailing trip took place in the 6 weeks leave period we had at Cranwell in the summer. So, when we arrived at Bristol I asked if I could stay on for another 2 weeks. My watch officer had also asked me if I would like at some point to act as crew on some ocean races where I would be very welcome. Unfortunately, I could not