Sunday, 24th June 2012 (9:17 AM)

Now we’re really on our way.
There won’t be any land for the next 5-6 (or 7??) days, but honestly, I’m not worried at all.
Later we’ll have safety instructions, and I’m sure there will always be something else going on 😉
Sorry if today’s entry is pretty boring, but I feel like I only slept 3-4 hours.
I’m really looking forward to seeing the ocean!

Yesterday, the loading lasted until late into the night, and I was still awake until at least shortly before midnight (i.e., awake… not outside or anything like that!!), although it wasn’t so much the
light and noise that bothered me as the fact that, once again,
a million thoughts were going through my head…
Well, actually, I was looking forward to the departure maneuver this morning, which had been so highly recommended to me.

Shortly after my cell phone rang at half past five (this time even
on time), there was a shaking through the ship that felt as if the ship was shaking itself thoroughly before waking up.
So I just had a quick wash and then went up to the bridge. By the time I got there, we were already several meters away from the shore and a tugboat was keeping us on course at the front. It was
actually quite interesting, as we were initially completely across the shipping channel and then, after about 15 minutes, had turned a full 180°.
And I find it fascinating how you can literally feel the concentration (and that it works so early in the morning).

After the maneuver, however, I didn’t even wait until we had passed the Saint-Nazaire bridge again. I just wanted to get back into bed. But I couldn’t sleep anymore. At half past seven, I got out of bed and went down for breakfast.
I had actually expected to be the last one there again, but apart from me, there was no one else in sight and the plates were all still untouched today.
Actually, I don’t care when everyone else is having breakfast as long as I still get something to eat ;-).
In any case, I enjoyed it and then went straight back to bed until I was kicked out by the steward at around 9 a.m. because of the safety briefing.
So I went up to the bridge to find out that the briefing had been postponed from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
But I think I’m finally out of bed now.

It doesn’t look so great outside today either (overcast sky with a few drops of rain), so I can have another lie-in this afternoon.
And I’m going to have a look around the ship.Well, I don’t care if you can never tell when breakfast is actually served. In any case, I enjoyed it and then went straight back to bed until I was kicked out by the steward at around 9 a.m. because of the safety briefing. So I went up to the bridge to find out that the briefing had been postponed from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
But I think I’m finally out of bed now.
It doesn’t look so great outside today either
(overcast sky with a few drops of rain), so I can have another lie-in this afternoon :).

Next day, in the morning:

At 11 AM actually the great safety briefing took please: the Rumanian Chief something (there are just too many positions here on board) read from a piece of paper that in an emergency, you will be notified by the steward, then you go to the B deck with your survival suit (which can be found in the chamber), where you will receive further instructions.
There are two lifeboats, several life rafts (or islands??), and life jackets.

Then the cadets had to put on their survival suits. They have to
be able to do this within 2 minutes. Most of them were well
under that, especially after the captain showed them the best way to do it.

The captain’s wife and I didn’t have to do it, but her son tried on the children’s suit and that was basically it.

Otherwise, we were told that if anything should happen at any time, anywhere, or if we wanted to know anything, had any questions, concerns, or problems, we should always come to the bridge, because there is always someone there.

For lunch, we had rump steak and potato balls (very tasty), the first meal from the new chef, and Magnum ice cream for dessert… hmmmm… delicious 🙂
Dessert is always a problem for me, though:
as is customary in France, there is a cheese platter between
the main course and dessert, which I always politely decline.
That’s why Jean, the head waiter (there is not other waiter but Jean is definitely not a regular waiter!), always says „No cheese, no dessert“ or ”Pas de fromages, pas de dessert“ when it comes to dessert.

And every time I have to come up with a really idea (e.g.
that the cheese plate is perfect for putting the ice cream on)
so that I can still have dessert 🙂
Let’s see if on the very last day I might be tempted to have a
piece of cheese, which I will then dramatically grimace at :-))

The second running gag about the cheese platter is the responsibility of Thomas, my table neighbor and former French sailing champion: If I understand correctly, he asks every day for at least 3 types of cheese: what kind of cheese they are and which one is particularly recommended (or which cheese the captain eats??).
No idea, but every time there’s a never-ending discussion and Jean pretends to be completely exasperated that someone can’t make up their mind.
Apart from that, all three cadets (as well as the rest of the crew) are cheese experts and know exactly which cheese they want and how to eat it properly: Depending on the cheese, one is peeled, one is eaten by hand, and a third is spread on bread… my goodness… it’s really a science in itself.

Just like everything else related to eating… obviously, the French are born with table manners and while I’m still wondering which cutlery is used for what on the plate and which glass is filled with which liquid, everyone else obviously knows how to properly fillet a fish or a banana, or whether to use a spoon or a knife to get the jam out of the jar.
If things go badly, I’ll learn some really important things on this cargo ship—who would have thought??!!!!

The afternoon passed somehow, and around 6:30 p.m., after I luckily had found a new interesting (!!!) German book (about savants by Daniel Tammet) in the lounge, there was an announcement (in French, of course), which I ignored at first.
The announcement in the afternoon about crew safety training wasn’t for me either. And for that it was announced in English especially for me, „for crew only, for crew only“ – I thought that was pretty cool 🙂 After 10 minutes, there was another announcement and I listened very carefully and understood something about “anniversaire”…. hmmm, so maybe it was for me after all? Besides, it was almost dinner time. In the stairwell, I met Christophe, the …?? electrical…mechanical..?? chief engineer?? and asked him.
And he confirmed that everyone was meeting in the crew smoking
room for drinks because it was the chief officer’s birthday. So I
went downstairs. The French-German-English guy was standing in the hallway and showed me the way. Otherwise I would have just followed the noise.

And then I stood there, the two gentlemen, whom I suspected
were the captain or the chief, were sitting next to each other and I didn’t know who to congratulate, so I grabbed a drink at the bar first.
In the meantime, someone else came along and congratulated Guillaume on the left. So I did the same, and that finally solved
the mystery: Guillaume, whom I initially thought was
the captain, is the chief, and ??? on the right with his wife and
two children, for whom I would already scrub the deck or jump into the icy cold ocean, and whom I find super, super, super nice, is actually the captain. And at some point I’ll find out his name, which will certainly make life easier.

For the first time, I also saw all the other crew members, who otherwise always just hang out in the engine room and further down: lots of older gentlemen, who sat somewhat shyly in the sofa corner at the back, a few Romanians, who slipped away relatively quickly after the captain had given his little speech (he said afterwards that there was nothing interesting for me in it – I suspect it was about alcohol consumption that evening and work this morning or something).

At first, I stood around a bit awkwardly at the bar and let everyone look at me (it reminded me a little bit of the zoo), clinked glasses with some people, and emptied the snack bowls of chips and other stuff.

Until the youngest and newest cadet started chatting to me… Damn, did he tell me his name? Anyway, he had been living in Munich for some time, but still didn’t speak as good German as my
table companion, but with a mixture of English, German, and French, it worked out. Next came Pasquale. No idea what
his position is, but apparently he’s the person on board who makes everything possible: he promised that I would swim with dolphins today (hmmm… with about 10°C outside and murky water… do I want really that??), told me that the pool will be filled today, wanted to organize a car for me for Martinique.
Hmm… let’s see how much of that is true.
In between, I chatted with Jean, the head waiter, and
the two cadets, Thomas (the blond one) and ??, who were serving at the bar.

At some point in between – around 9 p.m. – I sneaked away briefly to the crew mess, where my food was still waiting. The original plan was actually for me to eat with the crew (and not the officers and cadets) for once, but no one else was there except me. So I was able to eat my dinner in peace and quiet again: schnitzel with fried potatoes – cold.
Jean was horrified when he saw that I didn’t put it in the microwave, but I wasn’t that hungry anymore anyway, it was just a matter of counteracting the alcohol a little.

When I got back to the bar, Thomas had put on his music (electro) and was a little hyper. He told me about a huge techno festival
(was it in Holland or Belgium??) that he’s going to next year
and that he already has the tickets and is really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, his music didn’t go down too well with the others, so he had to switch it back after a short while.

Afterwards, Pasquale told me enthusiastically about a Roman spectacle in the city where he comes from (he wanted to write down the name for me), which is the world’s best spectacle of its kind, which someone else, Jean if I remember correctly, was able to confirm.

At 9:30 p.m., we were supposed to cross the “Motorway,” which is the route that ships from the Bay of Biscay take to the north, our last chance to see other ships for the next six days.
It’s actually a mandatory event for the cadets, but since you can’t see anything in the fog anyway, the cadet sitting across from me at dinner and I were the only ones who went up to the bridge – and saw nothing 😉

But at least, I looked around there properly for the first time
and had most of the monitors explained to me, but I’m just not a techie. I think, yeah, that’s nice… and that we’re lucky that other people who are really interested in that stuff deal with it.

After 10 minutes of looking at monitors and into the fog, I decided to go to my room. If I had gone back to the bar after that, I would probably have had problems with headaches and worse, as my table companion always predicted when I drink pastis undiluted.
It was a bit strange, as it was only 10 p.m. and, after adjusting the clock (we are traveling to the next time zone), it was actually only 9 p.m., but since I hadn’t slept that much the night before, it was okay. However, the fog made it so bright that falling asleep was once again not so easy. But once I fell asleep, I slept like a baby.