Internships – With the engineer, bosun and in the provision area

For our ship’s handover we get to know different aspects of the ship. There are the ship management, the engine and of course the provision. Some jobs for the ship’s handover can be learned in an internship. We have the option to do internships with the engineer, the bosun and the provision masters. The internships consist of three days. In the following text, I will introduce the internships.

The bosun internship – my first internship – is with Sunny or, during the second Atlantic crossing, with Ole. In my internship, at the beginning of the first Atlantic crossing, Pius and I built a swimming pool out of wooden pallets. We were told how much wood we could use and where the pool should be. From then on, we developed a plan and started building. We worked with two other interns on this project so after a couple of days we finished the pool. In my opinion, internships are a very good way to contribute something to the whole community. On our last day, we looked after the rig. We climbed on the top of the mast and put tar on the shrouds. In other bosun internships, students were sewing broken sails, working in the rig and doing other maintenance work.

The engineer internship is the second one I want to present. During an internship you learn how to start and stop the generator and the osmosis plant, that turns seawater into drinking water. When you are really motivated, you can even learn how to start and stop the engine during your internship. You also help the engineer to check the amounts of water, oil and other resources on bord.

The last internship is in the provision area. Rahel and Flori – our provision masters – are the people on board who are responsible for the food. They have to check how much food we still have on bord or what needs to be thrown away. I also had a provision internship, and I planned with the people, who were on galley duty the next day, what they should cook. At the actual internship day, I had to collect the ingredients for our meals. The next thing is in my opinion the best thing about the internship. As an intern you get the task to do something for the afternoon break. When someone has their birthday, they can wish for their favourite type of cake. I made the birthday cake for Lorenz who was our first mate on the trip to the Acores. Every two weeks we do inventory to plan the next weeks. We need to check the dry store, that contains everything packed in cans and cardboard, the cold store, where cheese, meat, fruits and vegetables are stored and the freezer, where you, of course, find everything that needs to be frozen. We always have some kind of fresh food, so we regularly need to check vegetables and fruits to find out if everything is still eatable. If we found something rotten, it needs to be sorted out and the boxes -and potentially other food that touched the rotten parts- need to be cleaned with vinegar.

My favourite internship was the bosun internship because I worked outside and with my hands. In my opinion, internships are a very good way to learn more about the daily business on the ship and what you have to do when you want to be on the Thor Heyerdahl again as a crew member. In the ship handover, we can show what we have learned in our internship and have a way bigger internship with more responsibility. 

I am very happy to have had the internships because I got a better view of different parts of the ship life. It was a lot of fun to do something for the community and the ship.