Antwerp - FinlandDAY 3
- by Nikki and Pol
- Sunday, July 17, 2022
I slept like a log, but Nikki felt last night how the Timca changed course with much "rocking and creaking" to sail around the tip of Skagen. In the morning, in a sea that is remarkably calmer, we have the sun on our port side. As we enjoy the view of the nearby coasts of Sweden on the left and Denmark on the right from on and around the bridge, we pass the busy airport of Copenhagen. On the water there is a leisure crowd, with many sailing and motor boats. The Timca then seriously slows down as we approach the Øresund Bridge (The Bridge!), the combination bridge and tunnel that has connected Sweden and Denmark since 2000. Our 40m high ship could in theory sail under the 56m high bridge. But as usual, we chose the route through the tunnel, even though the Timca, with a draught of over 7 meters, was only one meter above the bottom on average. After these narrows, the speed increases again and the coasts of the Baltic Sea gradually disappear from sight.
This Sunday is a top day as far as on-board entertainment is concerned.
First of all there is the food, which starts at 7.30 with a Sunday breakfast (with croissants and an egg) and continues at 10 with a slice of excellent chocolate cake. At 12h we are called back to the mess room for lunch: vegetable soup with meatballs, steak with fries and rice and boiled carrots and lettuce, for dessert a large portion of ice cream with whipped cream on banana, accompanied by a glass of excellent Spanish wine (bought on board in tax-free waters for €5 a bottle). Dinner, at 17h30, is 'relatively' sober: a nice slice of salmon baked on the skin (which we have already smelled on the bridge) with roast slicesand lettuce. The revenge of the scales will be sweet.... Also very pleasant and entertaining: the often detailed conversations with fellow passengers. After breakfast we spend a long time at the table with Hennie and Martijn, and after lunch even longer with Arnout.
And then there is the contact with the crew.
On the bridge, Captain Paul and First Mate Joris are always happy to give explanations. In the evening we have a chat with the Russian 3rd mate Dimitri and the young Dutchman Joran, who finished his first year at the maritime school and is now sailing along as a vacation job as "deckhand" (what they used to call "Deck Boy"). A highlight is provided by 60-year-old cook Auke, who comes into the mess room after dinner to arrange payment for wine and beer and enthusiastically starts telling tall tales. About his grandfather, who was a captain on passenger ships and stayed away from home for eight years during World War II, from 1938 to 1946. About his own childhood in South Africa, where his father had a responsible job with the shipping company Hapag-Lloyd. About his first years at sea as a cook, when the crew consisted exclusively of Dutchmen. About the sailors of that time, often guys who had to choose between prison or seamanship, trees of peddling "with such arms" because the work was heavy as lead in those days, huge eaters (which would also explain today's portions) and, if they had been drinking, notorious brawlers.
"I once saw them hurl one of those Navy men vertically through a café window!"
About how his ship in Lagos (Nigeria) was once raided by pirates, who locked the entire crew in the engine room and looted everything that was loose. About his younger brother, the only non-Finn who is allowed to pilot large passenger ships in the port of Helsinki: he is married to a stunningly beautiful Russian-Finnish woman, and today Auke still wonders how he managed that and why he doesn't succeed. But also about how difficult it is to have a relationship when you are on a ship for eight months at a time, as we used to do... Tomorrow we will arrive in Hanko around 11 o'clock. At the moment, also because it is already dark, no land in sight.
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