Amazing Grace

On board SeaDragon: Thursday 12 November

I am in my bunk, there is just enough room to roll onto my side but not enough room to touch my toes. There is a shelf four inches above my nose . When I first scrambled into it, it felt like a coffin but tonight it is more like a cocoon.

I am reading my friend Jack's book A Case Full of Insects, a young boys adventures around the world. Below me Imogen, Emily and Holly have their head in the engine, using intelligence, experience and a healthy dose of trial and error to fix a problem. I feel like a six year old in the back of the car, holding my breath and wishing I had a magic wand to make it all better.

I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I am being woken for my watch, the engine hatch is down and all is quiet below deck. I put on my one size fits all waterproofs which give me the silhouette of a garden gnome.

The night is dark, the rain is lashing and we are one watch member down as Jan is having an evening off after cooking and cleaning all day.

It is left to Amanda, Jess and I fulfil our watch duties. We start off quietly as the rain lashes horizontally and we retreat into the hoods of our waterproofs like shy snails until Jess suggests we learn a song and soon we are all singing about cheese and Amanda is enthralling us with tales of the Yukon, of gold mines and best friends. I relay to them what I have just read, that the man who wrote the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ sailed out from Darkar  with a cargo of slaves, when he was out in the Atlantic ocean he had an epiphany, realising that his cargo was as human as he and he set them free. We sang Amazing Grace, pretty much in tune, apart from that high note.
He turned the tide, Captain Newton, inspiring the anti-slavery campaign. As we sing I make an intention to the waves that our campaign can be as effective. That we can change habits, policy and people. We sit in silence for a bit.
Then the wind came.