<p>Fine… I guess I’ll tell the story I told during sea year dinner.</p>
<p>It is my second or third day aboard the tall ship, still completely confused about what is going on, but I realize we are now sailing south from Norway. I have met a couple of cadets who spoke pretty good English, but most everything was in Russian. We had the sails up and by the time I went to sleep that night, we were making about 7 knots.</p>
<p>Around 0200 in the morning I wake up to this loud screeching noise and see all of the Russians putting on harnesses and I hear the words “Sailing Alarm.” I put up my harness and head up on deck, and feel the ship swaying a bit. Getting up on deck I see that we have entered a small storm, but could tell it was getting worse, and I line up with my group at the foremast. </p>
<p>The next 20 minutes is a blur of following around the Russians, having them hand me a line and telling me to pull in broken English, but as the storm worsens, I start to feel it in my stomach. The ship is only 110 meters long with a 15 foot freeboard, but the masts go up 50 meters above the water line, so compared to the RoRos I had been on, this was small.</p>
<p>After we had taken down the sails I was than informed we had to stow them. I was slightly confused about what this meant, and I heard the bosun say “Amerikanski… boom-bram.” I look at him confused and he says again “boom-bram”. I look to one of the English speaking cadets and I am informed that I am supposed to go to the royal yard to stow the sail… the highest yard.</p>
<p>So, hanging on for dear life, climbing to the top of the mast, not hooked in (you don’t get hooked in until you are on the yard) with the ship rolling, the wind blowing and the rain coming down I make it to the top and start shimmying down the yard. As I attempt to secure the sail, I think to myself…</p>
<p>“Its my third say on board, I’m seasick, It’s cold, windy and raining, and I’m about to fall to my death… how can this be any worse”</p>
<p>I than hear thunder.</p>
<p>Now, if this wasn’t scary enough, the ship is a metal hull ship with metal masts, so the fact is not lost on me that I am on top of a giant lightning rod. Somehow I manage to survive storing the sail and climbing back down, and when I get back to the deck, I see the bosun with a ****-eating grin on his face and he says “Good?”
I than proceed to walk over to the railing, hurl, walk back and weakly give a thumbs up and reply “Good”</p>