Atlantic

At sea, 4th Dec.2007

Well here I am, crossing the Atlantic Ocean; once again... it’s never really the same, obviously! But it’s all good, right now, nobody had a mental meltdown yet, everybody is doing just fine, for a lot of people it’s their first crossing ever, right now I’m just waiting for an opportunity to cross the Pacific… well I guess I will get the chance someday!
Actually there’s not much to say, not much to tell, not much is happening.
Every morning I get up at around 7.30 do my best to be awake and on deck 7.55 in time to get a handover and to take over the watch at 8o’clock sharp. I then say good morning to my crew and our guests, drink my “wake-up” cup of tea, smoke a cigarette, and try to come up with a plan for the coming 4 hours. Usually my plan involves teaching the guests and educating my crew… sometimes very difficult at 8 in the morning. Luckily, there’s usually not that much to do, so we do have the time to hang around and wake up. Very Nice! We hardly touch the sails or the braces. 1mile out of port, we set the sails, and eh they pretty much stand the same way… we’ve done a minimum of trimming. A pity, cause it’s good training for everybody. But eh it gives us time to do other stuff, like chipping rust, sanding, painting, varnishing and such. At 10 we have “smoko” (smoke & koffee) for about 30minutes… nice and relaxed. 11.55 we gather at the bridge for another handover, only this time I get to hand it over and go off… run down to the long room, have lunch change clothes and get back on deck around 12.30 for 4hours of maintenance. Today I was taking of varnish and sanding like crazy… at 15 we have another “smoko” and at 16 we are off, for real. NO maintenance or anything, just relaxing and maybe get a little nap. The Last couple of days, I had booked appointments at “Pfnille´s beauty Salon”
Just great hanging out doing Girly stuff, like footbaths, pedicures, facials… etc. Not something I do on a regular basis, but I enjoy it and of course we have a lot fun whilst doing it…
At 19.55 I’m back on the bridge, handover, taking over the watch, looking at the stars, drinking my tea and smoking my cigarette, getting used to the dark. The first hour or so, we take care of our inside cleaning jobs, (mostly just cleaning toilets, nice eh?) After that we do some more training and educating of both guests and crew, at 22 we have a special Blue Watch (that’s us) midnight Herb session, basically we meet up and drink green tea and tell each other fairytales while looking at the stars… 23.55 we gather at the bridge, hand over, go the long room, get a glass of wine or beer, and then meet up on deck for a last gaze at the stars, before hitting the bunk once again… So everyday pretty muck looks the same as the one before… except Sundays! Sundays we’re “off”, which means we only do watches, no maintenance! So last Sunday I was lying flat on the sloppdeck, working on my sailor tan. (T-shirt, shorts and socks) trying to even out the stripes, unfortunately I fell asleep. But I’m okay, not red or anything. Pure luck!
Tomorrow it’s “Sinta Klaes” a Dutch Christmas tradition, I’m not sure what it’s all about, but I guess I’ll find out. But eh it will be nice break in the daily routine. Not that we really need a break yet, we’ve been on our way for less than a week, and it hasn’t been loads of hard work so far. It will be when we get to the Caribbean, full on cruises, fancy, pansy rich people, wanting to be wined and dined and entertained by “The Nautical Circus”
No complaining… they are the reason I get paid to do this, it can’t be all sugar and candy, take the bitter with the sweet.
Oh well dinner is served and Pfnille’s off too, so eh I guess we’ll do something crazy….