Seasickness – I´m going to be sick

Rough – that was how you could describe the sea in the past few days.

After leaving Kiel we travelled through the Kiel Canal and headed towards the North Sea. During this time everybody was still excited that our big journey had finally begun. The first two days went by without any incidents because nobody was seasick YET. As we reached the North Sea, we got our first taste of life on a sailing boat sailing in open seas. The people on board experienced their first signs of seasickness while we were still travelling the waters of the Elbe. From then on it only got worse. The North Sea DID NOT have any mercy – strong winds, heavy rain and stronger waves than before didn’t do us any favour. Almost everyone had a tummy ache, was tired, wasn’t in their right mind or was even feeding the fishes, our metaphor for throwing up into the sea. Because of these problems, the people working in the galley had the special task of preparing meals everybody was able to eat even if they couldn´t keep anything inside of their stomachs.

I can still remember clearly how the day started. When I took my first step outside, I felt the water hitting my feet continuously as I walked towards the middle of the main deck. I saw most of my friends sitting there with lowered heads as the ship went up and down and up and down. The porthole of the galley was open and we could smell the meal the chefs had started to prepare. They tried to make food to fit our needs. Vegetables, a variation of soups and many packs of salted crackers were eaten. They made hot tea and coffee so everybody could at least feel warm inside while sitting outside (going inside wasn’t an option, because inside the seasickness got worse). I’m sure these meals took part in our recovery and as the days passed by, the level of sickness slowly went down. However, our achievements were quickly ruined. Due to a storm rolling towards us, we sailed to Falmouth, where we anchored in the bay in front of the little city. There we had the chance to go ashore again after having been at sea for the last few days. While touring the shops and boutiques of the city, we slowly but surely one after the other felt “land sick”. That sickness is the opposite of seasickness. While we were in a queue, we almost weren’t able to stand on our feet, as we tried to stand like we always did on the Thor, always balancing out the movement of the waves, always bending our knees and always having one hand in the air in order to be able to steady ourselves whenever a big wave would hit our ship. To strangers we must have looked like drunken sailors.

Our second day with steady ground underneath our feet was already a big improvement. We felt safer again while stepping forward and not tumbling like a toddler being taught how to walk for the first time. But that achievement was ruined yet again when we left the bay of Falmouth to continue our journey southwards. This time the seasickness didn’t hit us as hard as it did the first time, a few days before. Many still felt slight signs of sickness when the first student held his presentation on that exact topic. With the help of that presentation, we could understand better how and why we get seasick in the first place, who is most likely to be sick and how we can prevent it.

Right now, as I am writing this blog, we’re all sitting inside, and the ship is going up and down and up and down, and yet: Nobody is experiencing any signs of seasickness. We are slowly getting used to our new home and its movements and our bodies are getting used to that new way of life. Hopefully, the last few of us will also be able to overcome the last traces of seasickness before we move on to the Atlantic and towards the Caribbean.