The North Sea
It’s Monday October 14th, 10:30 pm. I am on my way to sleep. We have already received a small warning concerning the following increase in bigger waves and therefore, sea sickness.
A few hours later, someone enters my room to wake me up for my shift with the following words: “Good morning, it’s 4:30 a.m., 14 °C, raining, … oh, and I hope your watch won’t puke as much as mine”. Such a good start to the day! A few minutes later, my watch duty begins. I look to the right, then to the left and again straight forward. Water. Everywhere, only water and gray waves! I am well aware that this day, I should not volunteer for any tasks under deck to avoid… well… the bulwark.
When my watch had ended, I went back to bed and even slept through lunch. After a few hours of rest and a late lunch, the whole crew met and our captain, Detlef, gave us a quick preview of the following days. He informed us about the upcoming crew change and that – because of bad winds – we would have to seek shelter in a harbor. There were three options: one at the south coast of England, one on the west coast of Spain or somewhere along the west coast of France. The thought of going ashore made me forget about the seasickness quickly and put me in a much better mood.
The next day, we experienced a complete change of atmosphere. Some rainbows occurred on our way and as a highlight, dolphins passed by. On deck, the mood of the whole crew including myself improved immensely. Then, we received some nautical lessons and learned about the ship and the basics of sailing as a foundation for the upcoming months.
At 10:50 am today, we turned off our main engine, which is named Olga. Thus, we are now sailing completely without Olga’s support for the first time on this journey. This means no more noise! Just the wind, waves, and the voices of the other crew members.
I am learning more every day about how to sail such a big ship, including how to do a tack or how to set the sails.
You could say that the past few days were really hard for some of us, but surely, it was an adventure for everyone!