Sailing the seven seas two oceans and some seas

[juliet]

It occurred to me recently that I never wrote anything here about my cargo-freighter-based return from Australia, and that perhaps I should rectify this.


The first part was from Adelaide to San Francisco (via Auckland, Papeete (Tahiti), & Ensenada (Mexico)), and took somewhere around 24 days. It's hard to be entirely accurate, due to the fact that we crossed the International Date Line between Auckland and Papeete, and thus had Monday twice. Which was a little peculiar. ("Tomorrow will also be Monday!" the officer on duty announced at midday.)

I was sailing on the MV Hansa Flensburg, a container ship of about 30,000 tonnes (so not all that big). There were 23 crew (including two apprentices), and after Auckland, two other passengers besides me. We also had a spare captain between Auckland and Papeete (one was handing over to the other). Both captains and the chief engineer were Kiwi, and were very welcoming - they'd all been at sea for pretty much their whole working lives (although it sounded like their current working conditions involved a fair amount of time ashore between voyages), and had various interesting stories to tell.

The main problems I ran into were the lack of exercise, and the lack of vegan food. Theoretically here was a gym on board but none of the kit seemed to work terribly well (apart from the rowing machine which was no good for my knees). Mostly the exercise I got was walking up & down 6 or so flights of stairs three times a day for meals, and wandering up to the foredeck on a daily basis. (I have many, many photos of the sea taken from there.) Which was a bit of a shock to the system given that usually I'm belting about the place on a bike all the time. I was sleeping pretty badly and generally feeling a bit peculiar by the end of it. Food-wise: well, vegetarianism is not normal on board ship :) The cook did his best to produce something for me to eat, bbut it was mostly along the boiled potatoes/rice and frozen veg line. They did have a wide & exciting array of hot sauces available, though! And some very nice avocado salads.

What was rather good was that I was allowed up on the bridge whenever I wanted. Also they had *charts* there, which was v exciting - our course was marked in every 4 hours. (You're still obliged to navigate with paper charts unless you have two unconnected navigation computers.) And lots of radar and GPS and a thing that told you what other ships were called, if you were ever within range of another ship. (On the 9 days between Papeete and Ensenada, this happened precisely once, and it was *very exciting*.)

Plus I saw flying-fish (awesome) and dolphins (also awesome) and a whale! (the whale and the dolphins were when we were on our way into Mexico. No shore leave in Mexico, alas; we were only there for 3 hours. Just standing on the foredeck watching the water going past was surprisingly fascinating, even when there weren't flying-fish or dolphins in it. The feeling of being surrounded by ocean in all directions with no other sign of life anywhere you can see is also -- odd. And yet (I found) somehow uplifting. The world is a very, very big place.

The other thing I found to be of note is just how difficult it is to keep yourself motivated to actually *do* anything. It felt a bit like that lassitudinous interstital feeling one gets in airports and on trains, but over 24 days. I did manage to get various things done, but I did an awful lot of reading, watching TV, and generally feeling a bit lazy. (Having the knitting helped - at least I could do that *whilst* being otherwise lazy.) Time seemed to pass rather faster than I'd expected. It did help that there were books and DVDs and so forth available to borrow, but that also rather put me off doing the stacks of more useful/productive things that I'd meant to do!

My second voyage was from Philadelphia to Tilbury (I got the train across the US, which was also rather fun). This was on the CMA-CGM Manet, a similarly-sized container ship but which seemed slightly newer (and I think the accommodation was slightly bigger[0]). The food was definitely better - the cook made a real effort to provide interesting veggie food, including tofu! The officers were almost all Croatian, with a couple of Filipinos, and the crew all Filipino (the crew on the MV Hansa Flensburg were mostly Kiribasi). As the only passenger I was given the option of eating with the officers or on a table all by myself; of course I ate with the officers! They were interesting to chat to, especially the captain, with whom I had several interesting philosophical discussions over dinner. Also wine was provided for me, which was rather nice :)

The Atlantic crossing only took 8 days, which was much easier to handle. I did start feeling the lack of exercise again by the end of the week (the gym on the Manet did work, and I'd have used it if I'd been on board any longer), but motivating myself to Do Things was far easier.

So. It was definitely an interesting experience, and I'd happily do the Atlantic crossing again, but I think the Pacific was a bit much. (It really is very, very big....)


[0] Container ships have a single accommodation block, usually of about 6 floors, at or towards the back, with all the people-space in it and the bridge perched on the top.

Comments

[samvara]

Wow, that's really interesting! A Buddhist monk I know used to tell stories of retreat/excursions where they'd take a group on a cargo freighter and go traveling for a few months. They'd combine seeing the world with meditation classes - it sounded like an amazing way to see the world :)

[juliet]

That does sound pretty neat! Meditation would have been a good way of getting some structure into the day - should I find myself in the same situation another time I shall bear that in mind!

[lovingboth]

On the boring practical side, what did those voyages cost and where did you find them?

[juliet]

A lot. About £2.5K all in, I think?

I booked via Hamish Jamieson at http://www.freightertravel.co.nz - he's v helpful.

[mstevens.livejournal.com]

I've been long interested in the idea of doing a container ship trip, but I'd really rather not take the risk on the vegetarian food thing. (and my previous research has agreed that nobody will guarantee it)

[juliet]

Well - it depends on what you're prepared to put up with. You would certainly be able to get sufficient not to keel over altogether just by eating whatever starch (potatoes/rice/pasta/bread) was available in its plain version, with salad or fruit. Plus biscuits & crisps & whatnot are available from the captain's stores.

If I were doing it again I'd take more of my own provisions as backup (on the 2nd voyage I took a tub of vegan cream cheese & had half a jar of Vegemite left, so could have cream cheese & Marmite on bread). You can usually *export* fruit/veg, but you may have to make sure you get rid of it before you get to the next country.

Cheese is also a normal sort of thing to have available.

Basically: I survived OK for 24 days, and I reckon that trip was about the worst situation you'd be in in terms of "eat what you can & hope for the best". So I wouldn't be put off by that. People are generally very helpful & will assist :)

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Did you get the chance to do any star gazing in what I'd hope is the dark of the ocean, or were the ship's own lights too bright?

[juliet]

A little bit! More so across the Pacific than the Atlantic (it was mostly a bit cloudy across the Atlantic, and also midsummer, though I did see the Plough for the first time in 9 months & got strangely emotional!). The full moon from out on the foredeck was seriously gorgeous, reflecting off the sea (although limiting the stargazing, of course). The ship's lights are brightish but if you look away from them they're not really enough to bugger up the sky (just your eyes).

I saw more stars when out in the Warrambungles, though, and also on the Great Barrier Reef.

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

No nautical telescopes available then - a pity.

I saw more stars when out in the Warrambungles,

I guess that's why the AAT got put there :-)