Friday, 22 of June 2012, 10:28 AM (Le Havre)
Once again, I feel like an idiot and wonder whether this feeling will ever go away this year and how I ever got the idea to go on a ship sailing under the French flag of all things???
But here’s what happened so far:
This morning at around 6 a.m., I was woken up by Nsenga’s wife, Aurelie, who was getting ready for work. After that, the rattling shutters kept me awake, and at 7 a.m. I finally said goodbye to my bed. For breakfast, we had baguettes, turmeric bread, which looks very pretty and yellow, and croissants. To go with it: salted butter, chocolate spread, strawberry and rhubarb jam made by Nsenga’s mother, honey, and Belgian pear and date compote. Everything was delicious, although I found the butter a tad too salty.
Afterwards, Nsenga got ready for his bank appointment, his uncle, who had stayed overnight, said goodbye, and I spent one last time on the internet. That’s how I found out that Portugal is in the semifinals of the European soccer Championship and learned other important news, such as that Halle Berry is likely to get married in South Africa soon.
At around 8:30 a.m., we finally set off (way too early for me) for the port. Mr. Hardy from CMA CGM said we should call him before driving into the port area, but Nsenga said it would be fine, and when we tried to call this morning, no one answered. Anyway, we ended up standing in front of the security gate and weren’t allowed in. I have no idea what Nsenga, the security guy, and Mr. Hardy discussed, but the fact was that we would have had to drive back to CMA to get a permit to enter the port area, and it was too late for that (because of Nsenga’s bank appointment). So they ordered a taxi to take me to the ship (about 500 m), then Nsenga sped off and I stood around in the cold wind at the security entrance… until a taxi picked me up about 20 minutes later.
No idea if it was the taxi Nsenga had ordered – I actually didn’t have the impression – but anyway, there were three guys already in the taxi, going to the same ship, and I was soooo happy… three more passengers. But well, turns out that’s not the case.
At the ship, I had the feeling that everyone was already waiting for us. In any case, we were greeted immediately, and my suitcase was taken from me right away (luckily, because I have no idea how many tons that thing weighs and why that is…). And then, what did my weary eyes see: two women on board…yay…in work clothes, but still, yay… I’m not the only one. Then we went up the gangway and I was glad I didn’t have to carry any luggage, because it’s not that easy to walk up there if you’re not used to it.
Once on board, it was shaking hands with everyone and introducing ourselves, we signed the logbook, and of course everyone speaks French—everyone, everyone. Everyone is chatting casually, it turns out that the guys from the taxi have come to work on the boat and one of them already knows half the crew, and I feel „great“ (aka „totally out of place“) because I don’t understand a word and I’m not here to work. I also have the impression that the girl, whatever her name is, who is obviously in charge of me and the three guys, already dislikes me.
I hope that my first impression is wrong, otherwise the next four weeks could be long. Or maybe I’ll just stay away from the blond guy from the taxi, whom she apparently already knows and admires, and then everything should be fine.
She then showed me my cabin, the pool, and the mess hall, where the head waiter asked me if I would prefer to eat alone or with the cadets. So it’s clear: I’m the only passenger on board—congratulations!
Of course, I chose to eat with the cadets, otherwise I might as well get a tattoo on my forehead that says “antisocial.”
At least I was able to get my request for seafood-free meals out of the way and had the impression that I had now finally left the girl with the impression that I was a “difficult chick.” Well, you do what you can…
After a quick tour of my deck and the one above it, I’ve now retreated to my cabin and am looking forward to lunch. I hope that by then I’ll have the worst behind me. Keep your fingers crossed!
In any case, I’m feeling really out of place, half sick, and my back still hurts—great conditions for a fantastic trip…
13:38 – Halleluja
So lunch is over now and wow! Things are already looking much brighter.
First insight: the captain and the officers meet around 12 noon in the bar and have drinks… Note to myself: don’t take gin – the whole thing lasts about 15-20 minutes and all sorts of things are discussed (if I understood correctly), so it’s a kind of informal department meeting. For example, the engine is apparently making some strange noises, the blonde girl has become manager of something, and I’ve learned that we’re obviously not leaving until around 9 p.m. tonight – all, assuming I understood correctly.
When I was already pretty wasted (gin on an empty stomach is just not ideal), we went over to the mess hall for lunch. I’m sitting with the three cadets – super cool :-)) But now for real!!
One of them not only speaks great English (because his father is English), but also lived in Bonn, Germany, for five years – hallelujah!!
Maybe we cando a kind of tandem: he’ll teach me French and I can brush up on his German – that would be really great. It was just a shame that the other two didn’t really like speaking English, so I didn’t get too much out of the lunch conversation.
But they’re all nice, by all means.
For lunch, we had tabbouleh, then potatoes and some kind of finely chopped fish thing for the others and a rump steak for me… ha! The others were just a little jealous.
Then there was a cheese platter, which I skipped, and strawberries with cream for dessert, and now I’m stuffed.
We could have had wine with the meal, but then you’d be completely drunk afterwards, unless you’re already an alcoholic – my goodness.
The three guys are studying marine economics or something like that (it’s not easy to translate) in Le Havre and Marseille.
And apparently, as a passenger on the Atlantic, when the duty-free shop is open, you can buy 8 bottles of alcohol and 20 (?) cartons of cigarettes at a bargain price, hmm…
Unfortunately, as we discovered earlier, they don’t have Bombay Sapphire, and how did the English-German-French guy know that’s what I meant when I said “good gin”? Très intéressant :-)))
Otherwise, a few comments about the staff: I already had a bit of a run-in with the chef because I don’t eat seafood or fish (and I always thought they belonged to the same food group), but apparently there are three other people in the crew who don’t eat fish either – lucky me :-))
In any case, even though you’re not allowed to bring alcohol on board, you’ll have no problem spending the crossing completely wasted and stuffed if desired… yeah :-))
Apparently there’s also a gym: down on the engine deck – let’s see when I get around to checking it out – it’s supposed to be pretty disappointing….
22:28 Underway
Finally, we’re on our way. The departure was originally planned for 9 p.m., but it was brought forward by an hour and the port agent unfortunately failed to pass on the change to the pilot, so we had to wait forever for him and didn’t set off until around 8:30 p.m.
Before that, I had dinner with the blond Frenchman – the other two didn’t show up.
He’s actually really nice. He used to be the French sailing champion and will be competing in the championships again in September. He actually wanted to do the cargo tour to Asia this year (which takes about 6 months), but then he wouldn’t have been back in time for the competition. I’ll have to ask him sometime whether sailing is such a dangerous sport or whether he likes to live dangerously in other ways too. He has some relatively new grazes, but also some pretty big older scars… all very interesting.
Apart from that, it’s a bit complicated to talk to him, even though I thought in the taxi and at the beginning that he was the most open of the three… how misleading a first impression can be.
After dinner, I went out onto the bridge, or rather onto the same deck. There I had plenty of time to chat with the captain. He’s a really nice guy. He used to play rugby and was temporarily the manager (for the shipping company) for all the Caribbean islands, stationed in Martinique, but apparently the people there drive you crazy with their work ethic. That’s why he prefers to go back to sea now. By the way, his family is also here with him on board and his daughter, maybe 4 years old, is a real cutie :).
He was also the one who explained to me why we were waiting so long and that we would be leaving Montoir at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday (morning!!!) and recommended that I should get up anyway and watch the unberthing maneuver, because the ship has to make a 180° turn and then somehow has to pass under a bridge…. I probably won’t be able to sleep much beforehand anyway, if they’re working through the night. But we’ll see…
On the way back to my cabin, I met the English-German-French guy, who explained to me that he and his colleague had been outside all day and weren’t allowed to leave their position. Hopefully they at least got something to eat in the evening – anything else would be pretty rough 😉
So, now I’m going to get ready for my first night on board. Somehow I have the feeling that the propeller isn’t running smoothly, because we’re not moving forward at a steady pace, but rather in jerks… although… now it’s actually fine, so off to bed now – at 7 a.m. it’s already breakfast time again.
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