nice2beme

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;)

We had a real day off, even if the administrative stuff set up an isolation because of influenza. So, if you still think that we just had fun on the ship and didn’t face any challenges, watch the following video:

It was our third day of sailing and now it was obviously much warmer, we don’t need to wear jackets anymore, just t-shirts and shorts, some people started to take sunbathes. Soon we are going to reach the equator.

This day we experienced rain in the open ocean for the first time. That was incredibly breathtaking performance. I will keep this in my heart, cos this scenery is perfectly good for calming down. When I will worry about something I will try to recall that memory to get relaxed.

After the rain, the ocean had the deep blue-purple color which was mixing with the light blue foam produced by the ship. Sometimes it is very important to have some time to relax: watching the waves, enjoy the sound of the sailing ship, breath the freshness of the ocean.

What if you will go to the front deck of the ship at night? I was amazed and may be a bit scared at the same time, cos in the front of the ship you could see nothing but complete darkness… I just wonder what do the crew see from their cabin? How could they know the way? Of course, they have a navigation system, but at least I was supposed to see the light in the front like the cars have. There were only millions of stars in the sky, which shine like a diamonds and the music of the ocean. And I really wish many of you could experience it.

Tip of the day: the air in the cabin is dry, because you can’t open the window and fresh air you could get only from the air conditioner, so to protect your skin, your mouth and nose cavity you need to humiliate the air with some special devices – humidifiers. If you don’t have any – put a wet towel in the cabin or if it’s not too shaky you could bring a bowl with water to your room. Also, you can dry your washed clothes in your cabin. Everything which is wet will help you to humidify the air in your place.