Tuesday, 17th July 2012
As always on board, I slept soundly until around 7 a.m., even though I was a little groggy. I had dreamed about a confusing Unicorns game with strange rules that went on forever. Additionally, I had to unclogg the toilets there. In the middle of my work, I went outside again to find that the game was finally over and the Unicorns had won 7-6.
Understandably, I was a little tired after that.
At breakfast, Hadamous’ successor interviewed me to ask if I was staying in the Océan Indian Cabin and if I was disembarking tomorrow (he was probably trying to get an overview of his work).
After breakfast, I called my parents again, but unfortunately there is no shared ride from Paris to Switzerland. Which to be honest didn’t surprise me.
At 9 a.m., I went for my last bike ride and discovered another new face that probably belongs in the engine room. Maybe I’ll get to meet the person behind it tonight. He looks very nice, after all.
After cycling and showering, I had a quick phone call with my dad, who had looked up the train connection from Paris to Bern for me. I’m so glad that at least my parents have internet. What would I do without that??!!
After that, I walked around a few more times, took a few more photos, chatted with Hadamous’ successor, who was supervising the logbook today, and Jean-Pierre, who must be feeling very, very strange. For him, it’s his very last working day on board because he is retiring.
Then I waited for departure, which was scheduled for 12 noon… but it was 12 noon, 12:15 p.m., 12:30 p.m., and nothing happened: the containers were loaded, everything looked ready, but there was no one there to cast off and no pilot in sight. At 12:45 p.m., I went to the mess hall and found out that the departure had obviously been postponed by an hour. So I only had 15 minutes until we were actually supposed to leave.
Of course, I got another telling-off from Jean because I was so late and didn’t eat my starter or dessert, and then I didn’t even have my dictionary with me, which is unforgivable anyway… always these annoying passengers *eye roll* 😉
After I had wolfed down my tough T-bone steak, or whatever it was, and the not-so-crispy fries in record time and under Jean’s annoyed muttering, I sprinted up to the bridge, where it was still reasonably quiet and veeeeeeeeeeeery relaxed.
When I arrived, the captain had just cracked a joke that had Sandra on the verge of a laughing fit.
Then he started singing—with his walkie-talkie on, if I saw correctly. He’s obviously really looking forward to his vacation in three days.
The pilot arrived about five minutes after me, and then we were off. Compared to yesterday, it was completely unspectacular, of course, because we were already traveling in the direction we wanted to go.
And now we’re on the last few hundred kilometers of our journey, and tomorrow at this time I’ll be almost home (it’s now 2:35 p.m.).
I can’t really imagine that at the moment.
Marion, Christophe’s fiancée, found me and confirmed that she will call the taxi company tonight and can pick me up tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. So that we share a ride get to the train station / into town.
Somehow, everything is going so quickly and easily now that it’s quite eerie.
I think I’ll take a nice tour to the Forecastle before I go back up to the bridge and try to say goodbye to the captain. It would be pretty sad if I couldn’t manage that….
I’m really dreading my last evening here tonight and tomorrow. Let’s see when I burst into tears for the first time….
After a quick trip to the Forecastle, where it was unpleasantly windy, foggy, and cold, I sat down in the crew smoking room and read some of the magazines lying around. Jean stopped by briefly and had a cup of coffee. He’s really happy that he’ll soon be able to go home and relax.
After that, I somehow killed time until 6 p.m., then went back down to the Crew Smoking Room and played darts with the guys one last time.
For once, I ate with the cadets because I had to keep my promise from the beginning of the trip that I would try the cheese on the last day.
Of course, I did just that.
I had some goat’s cream cheese, which was actually quite good, and a piece of Camembert, only to realize once again that I really don’t like Camembert at all.
Luckily, there was plenty of water and Ricards to wash it down, so the taste quickly disappeared. I also had the chocolate cake from lunch, which left a delicious taste on my tongue.
After dinner, I actually wanted to play darts with the crew again, but since no one was there, I read a little. Around 8:30 p.m., Gaél came by, and since the weather had turned nice and sunny again, we went back to the forecastle. It was still a bit chilly, but not as windy and nasty as before.
And for the first time, I was able to see (and document via photographs) how the pilot comes on board :-))
I took a few more photos of the bridge in Le Havre and then went for my “last round”:
first to the crew smoking room, where I said goodbye to Jerome, Jean-Pierre, and Serge, the chef. Then I went up to the bridge.
When I walked in the door, everyone—including the pilot—stared at me, which was a bit strange. I said that I would like to say goodbye, and the captain was the first to respond, shaking my hand and giving me two kisses. I thanked him politely and he said it had been a pleasure.
After that, I said goodbye to Sandra, then to the nautical officer, who also got two kisses. I took a few more photos of Pierre-Antoine, Lucien, and Marion in front of the bridge in Le Havre before going back downstairs and watching “In Time”.
Since everyone had to be up again at 3 a.m. for maneuvering, I was back in my cabin relatively early and packed as much as I could into my suitcase before my last night on the Fort St. Louis began.
The pictures from the last day on board:
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