Ship Work

 This voyage from Barbados to Portugal is a repositioning trip, and the ship will be in dry dock in Lisbon for 3 weeks to get ready for its summer season sailing in the Mediterranean, after 2 years on the water.

The crew took the trip to get a head start, and every day they were repairing and repainting and revarnishing. The three little wading pools were out of commission for repairs, and the tenders were likewise always full of crew hammering, rustproofing and painting.

As we all lay in our cabins rolling from side to side in our comfortable beds, we could hear drills and hammers from early in the mornings.

We passengers were asked to help with only one chore, making baggywrinkles. I know. It's a dreadful name of unknown provenance. But they serve an important function, preventing friction on the sails from the ropes and lines, and thus keeping them usable for longer. 

those fuzzy looking things on an angle are baggywrinkles

baggywrinkles doing their thing, protecting the sails

Over the days many of us took a turn and added precut rope pieces to a long string. It's an oddly meditative task, easy and mechanical. No wonder the crew wanted us to do it! 

baggywrinkles in the making

Jenny and Nancy from Rhode Island
doing our bit for the future of the ship

After two weeks we have completed about 12 full lines of baggywrinkles. 10 are needed for each mast and there are 5 masts. Looks like the crew will have to do them anyway.

Oscar, from Honduras, was the one who worked a hefty sewing machine to repair sails that had been duct taped temporarily. He is very deft with his hands and (tried) to show us how to tie knots, but he was too fast for us to do anything but fumble with ropes. 

Most of us have a bit of Oscar with us, as he sold bracelets knotted in a particular pattern. You could see almost everyone sporting one of these in different colours.