Kiera’s blog Part 2
is fully raised, we are exhausted, and our arms are feeling weak. But the work doesn’t stop there, we now have to set the sails, the fore sail, the main sail and then the mizzen. So, by the time we get to rest you can hardly feel your arms and hands. I’m definitely starting to get sailor’s hands, covered in blisters and calluses. One day I got 10 blisters in the space of an hour. Let’s just say my hands are now starting to harden and some mornings it’s hard to straighten them completely when I wake up. But this is fine with me, it’s part of the full experience and I’m loving it!
The following are abridged extracts from Kiera Sleeman’s blog. Kiera was brought up in Probus and has been working on Kawau Island in New Zealand for the past three years. It’s winter down south, and Kiera has a few months to spare so got a crew place on the 100 year old sailing vessel Alvei. June 2020, Sailing south off the east coast of North Island, New Zealand On this trip we have had all the sails up including the main square sails, oh my ‘Alvei’ looks so beautiful with all her sails up. We have had heaps of practice learning all the ropes, their positions and what each one does, and which sail each one is for. This was difficult before but now with the practice I think I may nearly know it, ha ha! On Alevi, raising the heavy anchor is a manual job and it takes several of us to turn the capstan - it’s really hard work. Some days we wake up before breakfast at about 6am to pull up the anchor a few shots so that it breaks it up for us, then we have breakfast and go at it again. By the time the anchor
Recently, we have been moving down the coast and anchoring in bays overnight. We have only been putting down the small anchor, as it’s much easier for us to raise it in the morning, but that means we have to do anchor watch in case it slips with the tides. There’s nothing like being on watch 2am-4am or 4am-6am, when it’s pitch black with incredible stars and a full moon, also just hearing the wind howling and the sound of nature waking up and making their noises. I’ve also heard heaps of kiwis. For a few nights it sounded like two males were racing the find the female, which kept me entertained for a while. I’ve heard blue penguins swimming around and making noise on the beach for everyone to hear, you can hear dolphins jumping and blowing in the distance. 24
