30.01. – Monday (Departure Ceremony & a Big Wave)
For many of us, it was quite a new experience to sail on the cruise ship into the open ocean. Some of the people were going to make their first visit abroad, so we were more than excited. It was my first check-in at the port. No one could even think that we are going to observe the most touching and pleasant departure ceremony. That is what I call “sweet memories”!
When the ship started to sail, we had to remain in the central hall, in order to count all the people who were on board. After the procedure, we were allowed to go to the deck and the party had started.

Everyone received the colorful stripe which we had to through into the air and made the rainbow of excitement, brightness, and joyfulness. That was the moment of real wondering and pleasure on the ship: 240 youth with their dreams, achievements, hopes and believes, who is going to sail during 30 days, and from the other side on shore – people who came to say buy to daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, boyfriends, girlfriends or just friends.

It was quite noisy, not because of the wind, but because of the sound of excitement and cheerfulness, which every one of us produced while screaming. The song from “Frozen” cartoon “Let it go” was supporting our joyfulness and small sadness about leaving Japan.



It was our first time of meeting the sunset on the ship and it was incredible…
Soon we started to feel the waves and I was absolutely impressed with watching them through the window. The white foam of the broken waves was illuminated by the lights of the ship and I stared at this for 10 minutes probably.
We are going to spend the first night while sailing and I would like to imagine this as a cradle of a baby which is waving by mother, in this case, we are going to sleep well =D
The first night on the boat was a bit disturbing. It was quite unusual for us to sail in the open sea, but we didn’t expect that it would be complicated to move straight forward between the levels of the ship. It was a bit windy and we were “dancing” from side to side because of the waves.
Well, maybe it was a good idea to keep the dinner as small as I can, so in this case, I didn’t feel dizzy with the food. Many of PY (participating youth) got sea sickness and were sitting on the floor with the “sea sickness” bags…
I was waking up frequently. I saw the night dreams about the waves and ship, I could say my dreams were closely connected to the weather which was occurring behind the window.
But captain promised that according to the weather forecast it’s going to be the worst day, later will be better.
Tip of the day: to prevent sea sickness you’d rather take some pills before starting your journey. There is some medicine which you need to take only once per 24 hours. It is better to protect yourself from this awful feeling, don’t rely only on your self-confidence that you are going to be ok.
31.01. – Tuesday (Influenza is on board)
I was quite excited about that feeling when you are sailing in the open sea and suddenly see the island. From the window of our conference hall, it looked like a huge stone and we couldn’t stop our curiosity to watch this piece of uninhabitable earth somewhere in the Pacific Ocean on our way to New Zealand.
The ship was shaking by the waves still and the way I could describe the movement on board is like you are dancing the tango without a pair, but pretending to be a good dancer, otherwise you could get a sea sickness. It is better to keep moving and feel the tempo of the waves and unite with them and play in their game to feel better. Feeling free to follow the ship’s movements and taking some pills helped us to feel better.
The second day on board was about the exploration of beauties you could observe in the sea. After the lunch, we went on deck and saw the dolphins playing with the ship. There were small and big dolphins and some of the people watched whales.

After the 1,5 days of sailing, we observed the lonely rock in the open sea. It was almost as high as our ship or maybe it’s just from mi sight… I was thinking how come that this lonely rock appeared to be here? It might be really huge, it’s obvious that the water hides the biggest part of this lonely rock. It is exactly the same with humans: you could see only the small part of personality, but usually his/her backgrounds, attitudes and motivations are hidden in the middle of the soul which is more deeper than just an appearance.
Today captain of the ship provides us with the lecture about our route and miles we are going to sail during this cruise. It is about 20 000 miles. I was wondering about the captain and crew work. How many times did they get into the storm? How well trained their organisms are so they don’t feel the sea sickness anymore, what are the pros and corns of their work? Of course, have the opportunity to wake up and go to bed watching the sea and sky beauty is wonderful but what do they offer instead? I am so excited to talk to the captain, maybe he will share with me some of the great stories of his adventures.
Suddenly, we’ve got an announcement, that one more person has got influenza and everyone have to wear a mask and go back to the cabins in order to not spread the disease. Isolation for 2 days without any of activities except having the meal is a challenge, but I will take this time for writing my diary on the ship and relax.

It was strictly recommended to not leave the cabins, but people are gonna get crazy while staying in a small room without a fresh air, so everyone started to make their own party. The rest of the evening I spent with my friends playing some Canadian drinking games, singing Japanese call for drinking and chilling out on the back deck of the ship watching the stars.
Tip of the day: if you are going to travel by ship for a long period of time with many of people, you’d rather do a vaccination if it’s a flu warning. Also, have a good rest and take vitamins to protect yourself from the disease.
1.02. – Wednesday (Tropical rain experience)
The morning was pretty sunny and I’ve got a lot of intentions to do the morning exercise on the deck. It’s high time to lose some weight after 3 weeks of good Japanese food;)

Hey, that looks like a life 😉
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There was a real life in the Pacific =D
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You are the boss of the dolphins?
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The captain is the boss of Dolphins=D Or I’d rather say a partner)
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Nice read….share the rest of the days….i also love your photographs
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Thank you ❤ I will share the other days a bit later =)
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Looks like lots of fun Lidiia. It surely is one of its kind experience. Must be great to meet so many new people from different countries
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That`s true! There were some Indian people who gave me a great understanding of your culture and traditions. I told them about your blog.
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Oh…. wow! Its interesting to know. How many Indians did you meet?
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There were 12 Indians on board from different places of your country. There was one Bollywood dancer with us, so energetic and talanted.
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Bollywood dancer? wow! that sounds interesting. 🙂
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All of it appears so vibrant and alive. And you look so sexy with that influenza mask 🙂
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And you will certainly get the chance to swim in more oceans
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Exactly! that was my first time in the Pacific Ocean! It is the warmest place I’ve ever been)
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Ahhhah, thank you) It was a bit boring during influenza preventive measures, so we had to entertain ourselves somehow)
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It’s not only fun as I see, but pretty challenging, you have got beautiful pictures and videos!
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Thank you, dear! yeah, there were challenges and a piece of work to do there. Now +250 people know more about our lovely country!
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Yeah, I know that you had to work there a lot and you were successful, you spread an important word about Ukraine! I believe that we are a great nation and should be proud of ourselves! You did a great job, thank you!
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Thank you, Ann. Your words are really inspiring!
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It sounds like a great adventure on board so far. Even the sea sickness and influenza didn’t sound like it got anyone down. It is so interesting to read that everyone is trying to live a normal, daily life as possible on board. The exercise part got me smiling – what lovely sun shining down 😀
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Thank you for sharing your thoughts here ❤ that was really a unique experience. I will share more soon, sometimes we were needed to invent something to entertain ourselves, especially during influenza!
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I love being at sea, sorry about the flu.
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I love the sea too ❤ It has such an incredible inspiration for me.
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