high point was passing the white cliffs of Dover .
Now , as for that gale : heavy weather is not a big deal for EAGLE – the ship has dealt with far worse ( including a hurricane during its passage back from Germany , after the war ). We reduced sail to the upper and lower topsails , which decreased the stress on the rig , but allowed us to maintain good speed . In general , we prefer to have strong winds off our stern , as opposed to on our bow , and , although the wind strength was more than we had expected , the direction was favorable .
As conditions deteriorated , we “ Set the Heavy Weather Bill ,” which essentially means that additional hatches were secured , equipment
was more tightly secured with additional lashings , and safety lines were rigged , for personnel to hold onto as they walked along the weather ( i . e ., outside ) decks .
Eventually a pipe was made that “ Weather Decks are secured except for personnel on watch .” Basically , this meant that , unless you had to a job to do on deck , you had to stay inside . As a QMOW , I did indeed have a job to do , on deck – I was responsible to stand navigational watches .
CONDITIONS on deck for the 0000 -0400 watch could be described as miserable : the temperature was in the mid to low 30s , there were frequent blasts of hail and sleet , and salt water sprayed across the deck . I was wearing two layers of thermal underwear , my ODUs , a fleece sweater , an ocean grade foul weather jacket , and a thick wool hat – and I still got chilled .
Although I could do most of my duties in the relative comfort of the pilot house , I did need to periodically go to the stern of the ship in order to gather weather data . This was exciting , to say the least , since it entailed going outside the relative safety of the lifelines and carefully working my way , along slick decks , in order to get the wet
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