One week in: Report

 Week two begins with dog watches, where over the course of 24 hours we work shorter watches until we are switched, so I went from nights to days. 

    It's busy, as Winter is here. Nonstop mlre kr less but I got enough time off and a berth yesterday to get groceries, and armed with what I need my morale is reasonable despite working mostly nonstop. 

        It's cold. Approached zero a couple of times, we had snow and 2 ice storms, two days in a row that made trouble. Soaking rain gets between pipe flanges, where 2 pipes are bolted together, freezes into ice, and expands, opening up the pipe join, causing a leak. 

 That, and the damn rain got into the hydraulic valve for the boom (arm up/arm down) control for my port deck crane and it freezes periodically, locking the control and requiring a hammer to break loose, which isn't good for the lever... 

   ...but we're holding

. My teeth are wiped and my ass is minty clean as the fresh water hasn't frozen, which makes a *huge* difference in morale aboard. 

    It's cold. Uncomfortable, and I slip on the ice on deck at times, but we're holding.  Work gets done, maintenance too, though the occasional annoying non-routine task now becomes something arduous given the temps.

 But we're holding. 

     We're between gales today. Days where tye wind is under 25kts are a treat. Gales twice a week minimum. 

But we're holding.