Wednesday, 27th June 2012 4:59 PM
Today is day of the water – through and through
This morning at 8 o’clock right away, I washed my laundry on board for the first time. Everything is still there and everything came out clean. Funnily enough, it’s exactly the same model of washing machine we have in Bremgarten in my apartment complex, so there were no communication problems between woman and machine.
While the washing machine was doing its job, I checked out the general situation in the area (lots of water) and at the pool, where, surprisingly, something was happening:
Pasquale was sitting in the pool with paint (so no water there yet)…
And then the story with the dolphins was also cleared up: the dolphins he had promised me were not made of plastic, as I had first assumed, but… ta-da… made of paint, white paint to be precise (see photo documentation below). And, unless something urgent comes up, the dolphins will also be supplied with water by the cadets, and maybe I’ll be able to do my first toes-in-the-water exercise tomorrow.
According to Jean, the water here will probably still be quite cold, while the air is really nice and warm today for the first time (20°C maybe??) – I’m excited :-))).
Once the laundry was washed and dried, it was time for fitness training: 45 minutes of cycling while reading John Grisham: once again, a lot of water went down… ha, ha, funny pun.
The captain also stopped by briefly, so I was able to get the OK to watch the firefighting drill.
When I got back to my cabin, there was just enough time to take a quick shower and put the laundry away, then it was already lunchtime. We had some kind of funny stew-like substance that everyone except me found pretty disgusting, but I had a hair in my… well… thick soup. For dessert, we had watermelon, which was also pretty watery.
After lunch, I sat by the pool for a while and looked at the dolphins, but unfortunately they were still lying on dry land (and drying off). Then I went downstairs for a round of darts (still no significant improvement… so I’m slowly starting to think it’s down to the darts – or the swaying ship…).
In between, I tried to find out where today’s fire drill was supposed to take place, but no one knew anything… everything was hush-hush.
So I went back up to the bridge for a moment, but apart from lots of deep blue water and blue sky with clouds, there wasn’t really anything interesting to see, especially no information about where I was supposed to go later.
So I went back down to the smoking room and killed the last quarter of an hour before the alarm with a few more darts. Then it finally came and everyone ran down to the A deck (this time I heard the announcement loud and clear), where the firefighting equipment room is located. After that, we went out to the stern of the ship and then there was… NOTHING, no fire, nothing. First, the firefighting experts demonstrated how to use the hose properly, and then the cadets were allowed to have a go, while the rest of the crew was “allowed” to go back.
Instead, I was allowed to get closer and take lots of photos of the cadets working with the hose :-). I think they were pretty happy to be working with clean water again after 1 ½ days of cleaning up gasoline.
Anyway, no sign of real fire, but there was plenty of water again, which, incidentally, is currently also everywhere else on the ship. Did it rain heavily again yesterday at some point?
What else: while playing darts, Alex stopped by at some point and said that there would be a darts competition tonight… well, we’ll see.
All in all, the day went by really quickly. Let’s see if anything else happens…
And I just realized that today would have been Meike’s 33rd birthday – happy birthday! I hope you’re doing well, wherever you are!
11:41 p.m.: A nice day with a stupid ending
Everything was still fine at dinner: I was joking around with Jean and even flirting with the captain. Everyone was in high spirits during the meal because Victorien and Jean-Pierre are baking crêpes tomorrow and don’t have much else to do. There was even red wine, and I understood a little bit of what they were saying.
Then, of course, the exciting question came up: “Darts or no darts?”
Guillaume had already started playing darts in the smoking room, and I was really hopeful that if the second captain played, it would work out. But no such luck :-(.
The captain came in with the chief engineer and Christophe, and they immediately sat down at the card table, which is right under the dartboard. That was the end of that.
The guys had already called Alex, and we stood around a bit awkwardly until it was decided to play Uno.
Since Jean wanted to eat in peace in the mess hall, we went up to the owner/passenger lounge.
I’m not really the gaming type anyway, and playing with five people who all speak a foreign language is just super depressing.
To be fair: Before going to his cabin, Thomas said, “Hey, you really understood everything well tonight” (they spoke French almost exclusively, except when Adrien explained something to me which wasn’t that often). That was very nice!!
And now there’s rough seas, so I’m sure I won’t be able to sleep for ages.
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