Lifeboat practice kept us occupied on our first Saturday. The crew do this every week, and we saw the life-boat almost launched. It was swinging over the side of the boat, then they reeled it in again. The Captain gave us leave to take photos, and go everywhere, so I have quite a collection. One day I'll get organised and have a few more up on the blog.
We had freedom to go on the Bridge and look at all the dials, maps, gauges and charts. It was enormous, with lots of window space front and back, side to side. As well as keeping the radar on all the time, a crew member with a pair of binoculars was looking to see if any boats or objects were around. Most of the journey we spent with nothing but ocean in view. Then when we arrived in the English Channel, and sailed from Northern France past Plymouth, Dover, Calais and in to the Thames Estuary, as well as land closing in on both sides, we could also see around eight other boats a lot of the time. Some were going in the same direction, some in the opposite one, and some sailing directly towards us. Those mostly ended up going behind us, across our wake.
During the journey we could do email from the crew's address, when we weren't feeling nauseous, as the Bridge was at the top of the boat's swing! There was also a satellite phone, so I talked to my Dad when we were 1000 miles east of Ascension Island, and 1500 miles west of Africa.
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