A Lesson In History, Part 1

The year 2009 is nearing the end. I guess its about time we turn back the pendulum, no? So here goes, long story made short.

 September 3-8, 2008
Copenhagen, Danmark
Nyhavn port


I had gone to see it the night before, I could barely make out the blue letters on what I would later learn was called the stern. It seemed so unreal, so massive compared to all the other sailing ships I'd seen before, huge, and taller than it was long, with two masts. A man was patrolling the deck, fixing things here and there. I was scared. The Fryderyk Chopin. My house for the next year. My school for the next year. My job for the next year. My life for the next year. It was strangely compelling, epic, mysterious, threatening.


The next morning, I asked my mother to shave my head. I dragged my massive dufflebag through the streets, I looked for others, but there was none. Tourists stared. I was a tourist too.


I met a young man with a CREW sweater. He was walking towards the ship, so I assumed he was a crew member. He was a student. I felt awkward, but he told me he was from Ontario. His name was Geoff. He's at UBC or UVic now, I dunno. He's a good guy.


A man grabbed my bag, so I mistook him for the director when he helped me on board. He was Gabi's father. My room was the first down the stairs. A tiny three man room, as wide as a double bed. I made the most of the space, I picked the top bunk. My roommates were Morgen and Scott. I've always wondered what they think of me. Anyway, when we were done, I walked back to the Kongens Nytorv square with my mother. We went our separate ways. I went back to the ship and sulked as everyone else was off for a meal with their parents. Some would see us off on Saturday morning.


We trained for the rest of the week, tied knots, climbed, learned about lines, how to throw the heaving lines, and so on. I was introduced to my team; Scott, Morgen, Cathy, Gabi and Alice. Together we were Watch 4. There's a polish superstition about setting sail on a friday, and so we waited until 12:00 am Saturday before leaving. By then, it had started to drizzle. It was by far our worst procedure. We fumbled and struggled and the professional crew had to help us with everything. After we had left the crowd of tired parents on the rainy Copenhagen dock, we rushed to bed. Watch 4's first shift was at two in the morning. I was tired but excited. It rained for the entire two hours that we were on deck. Michal explained the tasks. Watch for other boats. Green means starboard, Red means port. white lights high for the bow, low for the stern. When we got out of the busy copenhagen port area, the captain decided to set a sail. Thus I was the first to man the helm, and my teammates set the first sail, they were on portside, so it must have been the main stay. And then our watch was over. Wet, we made our way into our beds. I was still pretty excited. Looking back, I don't really know what I was stressing over. Life on a boat is fundamentally peaceful.