Atlantic Crossing

4 July 2017 – Shipboard, Port of Vlissingen, Netherlands

Happy U.S. Independence Day! Hope you kept in mind the Jack Marshall maxim, “To have a happy 4th, buy a 5th on the 3rd!”

Completed the crossing of the Atlantic from Philadelphia on July 2 in only 10+ days! One last shot of the city and the locomotive loaded onto the ship there.

This trip doesn’t compare to the convenience of hopping across the pond on a plane, but it seems few experiences can bestow a greater appreciation for the vastness of this Earth of ours than chugging along at about 17 miles per hour (15 knots) for days with a seeming endless and unobstructed horizon in all directions…

Some observations after long days at sea:

One thing we were not prepared for is being regularly overwhelmed by the desire to sleep. We’ve had naps as early as 9 am! Here’s how Henry explains it:

“As we lumber east across the North Atlantic… we lose an hour almost every day….(the cabin clocks change automatically) Plus with the gentle rocking of the boat and the low rumble and throbbing vibration from the 21,000 HP diesel engine, we have fallen into a malaise which causes us to feel sleepy at odd times of day. The only recourse is to take a nap!!

Captain… says this is because we have left the “bad vibrations” of living on land behind. The sea, he says, is a peaceful place with the dolphins, whales and other creatures living in harmony… the water on ship is distilled from the sea and the air is as clean as air can be…… No TV, no internet to surf, no external worries…..It does feel different…I do not miss the 6 o’clock news ….”

Hoping to have an opportunity to sleep out on the deck to watch the stars, we prepared by purchasing a couple of very cool air pods, but haven’t used them yet as nights on the Atlantic have been mostly overcast, very windy and/or cold and damp. Should have ample opportunity later in the journey.

The third day out from Philadelphia, the captain threw a party for crew and guests (we have been joined for a short time by a third passenger, Sophia – a young French woman who is returning from Canada to pursue her PhD studies at home).  The Filipino crew took over both the grill and the Karaoke set-up for the evening, fueled by beer and natural enthusiasm! Best food we’ve had on the ship so far…..

We have visited the Engine Room to check out the …. engine. Here’s the Chief Engineer and his baby:

The Bridge is open to us at all times (except during loading and approaches/departures from port) – we check in there regularly to see what may be on the radar and exactly where we are on the charts….

Safety musters are held every Saturday and are fully attended and seriously taken.

With limited activities available and frequent fugue states, we both were getting foggy physically and mentally. To translate that into Fitbit-speak, out-of-port days on the ship were yielding less than 5000 steps per day! We tried doing some of the 7-minute body-weight workouts so popular now, but have found a better option – incorporating those moves along with some of our own while walking the length of the ship alongside the cargo holds. The ship is 631 feet from end to end, with several stair wells along the way. Eight laps a day get us past the 10,000-step mark (and around 60-90 stairways) and help to stimulate flagging metabolisms.

Every time we get to the bow, we examine the waters ahead to see if our friends the dolphins are around – we have seen groups of 2 to 6 and more playing just in front of the prow:

There can’t possibly be any practical reason for them to do this; just the sheer joy of the rush of water and air as they show off their swimming and jumping skills – it’s a thrill (and almost as much of a joy) simply to be witness to their exuberant displays.

Henry has been using his time to start cataloging and editing about 14,000 photos he has taken but not organized over the last 15+ years. Robbie has read books, solved some crosswords and finished several yarn-related projects.

We had planned to leave the ship here in Vlissingen to check out the countryside; unfortunately, we are moored along the pier in such a way that no one is allowed to disembark, so we will wait for 3+ days to unload some nasty-looking lead-based material, then work our way down the channel to Antwerp.

The ship should arrive there on the 6th; we will get a rental car and tootle around the Low Country until we rejoin the ship in Hamburg on 13 July. The ship’s chief engineer was good enough to point out that the G-20 summit will be taking place in Hamburg 7-8 July; another good reason for us to pretend to be Canadian and avoid urban areas for a while, eh?