The whole crew has to clean the ship everyday. Everybody has to work at one station for a week in their group. We are working round about one hour to keep the vessel rubbish-free. The work is divided into four different stations. The first one is the dry store. The most to do is to get the water out of the bilges. If there was a stormy night and much water got into the ship, it needs very long to clean them. The second station is the main deck. We have to wash the deck to get the salt off the board, to check all the ropes and to get the main sail ready. Another work is to clean the brass of the compass. It needs a long time and one day later it looks like there was nobody cleaning it for a year and it is much fun if there are three or more people at the compass.
One of the bigger ones is the messroom and the way to the cabins. There are more little things you have to do like wiping the tables, the companionways or the fridge. Last but not least there are the toilets, showers and the way to the galley. I already had to clean the last three stations and in my opinion the toilets are the easiest station because you actually never need one hour. It is dirty work, but when everybody is doing their job, you can finish after 30 or 40 minutes. It is the same on the main deck. You are outside in the sun and you get fresh air during the work. For the messroom you need hours instead. Especially on Saturdays because there is big cleaning the ship. The difference is that everything must be cleaned perfectly and afterwards it gets checked by the crew leaders.
In the messroom the difference is extremely high. We have to clean everything, even the fridge and all boxes. Luckily we have more time for the big cleaning the ship and we are allowed to listen to music at the stations. That is good for the general mood because it’s hard to clean for such a long time. Even the cabins have to be clean, so everybody is missing for about 20 minutes to make the cabins alright. After this long work „mizzen sheet on“ starts. Everybody goes to the poop deck and the whole crew is sitting on the floor. It starts with “Lost and Found”. All things, especially clothes, which were found are getting back to their owners or you can bit for it. It is quite funny and you can get handy things for little money. After it we get a snack and a nice drink. It is nice to talk with the others and you get rewarded for the work. On Sunday there is just cleaning the ship for toilets and showers. But why are we doing this actually? Its important for our health, to get no disease, especially in the Caribbean because of many tropical insects, like cockroaches or mosquitoes. Another point is that more things stay on the place where they belong. I think nobody likes to do cleaning the ship, but it is very important and you see the results after it.