The Freshman 15

As you may know the Freshman 15 is a term to describe the weight most freshman gain at their first year of College, my Freshman 15 is based on this first 15 day voyage. After our days of training, a delayed departure and saying bye to our parents again and again, we were finally off. Excitement was everywhere but honestly I think it was more a combination of excitement, “what have I done” and fear of the unknown, but it was too late now.

It was evident once we left that I had no idea what to expect whether it was the sailing, the sea sickness, school or whatever else might come up. As we left the port of Amsterdam a few of us were told to be on fender duty so we stood by the fenders for probably around 2 hours as we began the track to sea through a river/canal. The reason we had to stay by the fenders is because we had to go into a lock to get to sea. What this is, is almost an elevator for boats. The boat goes in the gates shut behind, then they’ll either raise or lower the water level in order to match the water level of the ocean so you can sail into the ocean without going off a waterfall I guess. J

As we entered the North Sea I was about to find out if I would be seasick, the next part of the unknown. I have never seen so many people, both faculty and students, throwing up and laying down in my life and I honestly felt perfectly fine. However, I was soon to find out an iron stomach comes with a price. A maritime member (Gabe) comes over to what was left of my watch group and asks us if we want to climb aloft (climb the masts). At first everyone said yes and were very excited. Gabe gave us the long safety talk and ended it with, you must hold on very tight because if you don’t you will fall and die and repeated this statement many times. He did this to scare us in order for us to understand the severity of danger that was involved and it worked. 2 kids in my group were throwing up before the safety talk so did not even get to attend the meeting. Once the meeting was over 3 other members of my group felt very sick from standing at the bow of the boat for 10 minutes so immediately left to throw up when the meeting was over. This left Gabe, another guy in my group named Nicholas and myself. Nicholas told me he was terrified of heights so this was turning out be a gongshow. I have never been scared of doing something daring before but this was on an entirely new level. Being the first student this year to climb aloft while at sea, with the boat rocking in pretty big waves while not being harnessed was crazy, I can honestly say I was absolutely terrified at one point. Oh ya and by the way I should mention we had to move fast to beat the storm that was moving towards us in the distance. The first wave of fear hit me when the rope rungs got less than a 30cm ruler wide. From there you had to pull yourself onto this platform that doesn’t exactly have a spot to hang on to so I was hugging onto the mast holding on for dear life, this is where it began raining. We then had to transfer ladders and remember we still are not harnessed in!. Once that ladder was climbed we had to step onto this wire under the mast and there we clip in. We had to practice hanging over not holding on to the mast to prove we can let go to work on the sails. When we were finished, we had to unclip and climb down the same route we took up. Which by the way is just as terrifying. Especially while rocking back and forth in the pouring rain, praying none of the foot steps break which sometimes can happen. When I got to the deck I let go and couldn’t open my hands from holding onto the wires so tight. I could feel the adrenaline rushing through me an it felt so good to be on the deck where I wasn’t constantly thinking “I could die right now, I could die right now” which kept rushing through my brain while aloft.

Not being seasick also gave me the honour of working in the galley with Lily (the Cook) because the rest of my watch group was sick. Although there was lots more to do it is even more challenging when the boat is rocking severely back and forth but I still have all my fingers so that’s a win.

We are extremely busy which exhausts us both mentally and physically with a rotating 5 day schedule that includes day and night watch shift, Happy Hour, classes, idle hands work (for those with idle time are asked to help on deck at times) and whatever else that comes up. I am currently running on about 5 ½ hours of sleep per day and my 0400 to 0600 night watch is still going on and not surprisingly it does not get any easier. However, I do enjoy night watch most nights as I get to navigate, have some pretty interesting conversations and have been learning about constellations which is very cool in the black night with the ocean. I have also been at the helm in seas up to 5 meter swell, where I think we may have got airtime because I did feel my stomach drop at times. The Malibu at the lake is much more responsive for sure. Even having to walk around the boat is difficult due to rocking or having the boat listed completely to one side. At one point the main deck level railing was almost submerged on the one side. It is strange how some nights the sound of the water on the boat and rocking can be so soothing but the next time the rocking and water can be so rough and uneasy that you can’t sleep.

The schedules here are very strict and there are consequences for pretty much everything, if you miss morning muster you are assigned to Early Bird, which is an hour of night watch from 0600-0700. Which is ironic since my 0400 shift still seems worse than the discipline shift. If you are late or miss galley you are assigned Tardy Party, which is a bunk area inspection every morning for a week. You do learn in a hurry here that everybody depends on each other which is the reasons for the rules. Even with the exhausting schedules we do have fun, we have had a beach party (on the boat) and a dance party (there may be a video J) and there are moments where I can’t believe where I am. Whether it is dolphin and whale sightings beside the boat, the clearest night skies, when a bird landed briefly on my shoulder at the helm or the chance to sit at the bow sprint with some friends at sunset with the water rushing underneath us are amazing feelings.

Yes, there is school time too! On our five-day schedule I have Marine Biology, English Literature and two classes that are mandatory for all students, Maritime Studies and a Sociology course. I thought I got distracted before in class easily, now I have to try and block out the distractions of being on a boat rocking back and forth, looking out the port hole to the ocean and the hardest of all not listening to the other classes one curtain away from me. My university classes are by computer module, textbook and mainly teach yourself which is a big learning curve for me but will help me for my future years of university to come. One nice thing about university classes is that we only have to submit around 2 assignments every month and have no unit tests. WHAT WORRIES ME THOUGH IS THAT I REALIZED MY FINAL FOR MARINE BIOLOGY IS WORTH 40%. English will be a lot of essay writing too which scares me a little as well because I take an extremely longtime on essays usually. I sat at the stern of the ship today doing some homework and I looked to the right and saw the White Cliffs of Dover in England, then I looked to my left, saw France, and realized wow this is the coolest school ever!

By the end of our 15 day trip we were all spent and I was extremely ill but looking forward to getting my feet on land in Portugal. Porto is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to between the river, old buildings and the food. I have come to realize how important food is to me since being on portions and having to ration out my own snacks. Once landed, I can tell you my euros were mainly spent on McDonalds, steak, egg & fries dish, churros, ice cream and a Pizza Hut…all in the same afternoon. There was 3 days of this type of eating including the Portuguese meal Francesinha, which consists of steak, spicy sausage and not spicy sausage, ham, bacon, In between bread topped with cheese, egg and gravy. The best part is its only 3000 calories. I could tell this was true about 30 min later when I was stuck on the toilet.

Beside food, we had our first Port class outing which included a guided walking tour, a Port winery and some cultural music and dancing but the best was yet to come. The next day, we had a day of surfing at Matosinhos Beach where we had a day of sun, surf and sand. It was awesome with sunburns and tired arms to show for it. Surfing does make me wish I lived somewhere where I could surf everyday. If all of our ports are like this one, it definitely makes up for the long periods of sailing.

 

Gone for another 14 day trip until we arrive in Sardinia, Italy and will fill you in again then. I’ll try to keep it a bit shorter next time but too much new this time!

E

eleedahl@gmail.com