Blue Watch: day 2 Europa 11: Parade of Sail, Games and tour of Halmstad

Day 2- Woken up at 7 for a quick breakfast and games. Borrowed the dog’s ball and within 5 minutes it was at the bottom of the harbour. Then we played a quick and confusing knot game followed by dinner. Then we had to make ready to depart climbed bowsprit and untied the sails, unfortunately we untied one to many (the flying jib) and had to spend another 10 minutes figuring out how to tie it back up. We then followed the tall ships out of the harbour and then prepared and set the main sails. We sailed approximately three nautical miles (nm) out to the peninsula at this point we turned around and headed back to Halmstad. On the short voyage we learnt how to brace the yards and how to correctly handle the ropes to hoist the sails. Working together in our watches (with a lot of help from the crew) we managed to get safely back to Halmstad where the sails had to properly put away and the ship moored. Operating the ropes, especially the mooring line (Parking break), was hard work but fun even though it started to rain.  Dan then climbed the rigging all the way up to the royal (the 2^nd to top sail) and had to make sure the gaskets were put on and the sai was tucked away nicely. Once we were moored a few of the trainees from Halmstad showed the rest of us around. We visited sculptures one of which was designed by Picasso and was situated within Picassos park. We also saw a new library which cost 6 million euro and a youth centre which was well equipped for many activities such as dancing, filmmaking and arts and crafts and a pool table. Then we saw the graffiti park which is one of the only places where graffiti is allowed and is actually encouraged. After this we learnt a Swedish dance which was about a frog to celebrate spring time and I am sure the video will be on youtube (oh dear) – here’s the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFn-cj8dTVQ . Finally we headed home to the ship and had diner and chilled out for the evening singing sea shanties such as the last shanty.