We learn… from other people

As we slowly inch towards the D-Day, we also move to the life we are going to live. Early yesterday morning, Singapore time 2:30 am, we said goodbye to M’s parents and sister, who had come to Singapore to see us off. All of a sudden, I realized that we are already in the mode of the life on the ship – the two of us alone again (this should not be strange – it is how we have been in Germany as well). Nevertheless, it is a blessing that we will start our journey from Singapore. We still have some family here and plenty of friends too in case of any emergency.

The best part of the whole trip, we started with absolutely no clue of anyone who has done this travel. As the word spread about our plan, many friends told us about people they knew who had traveled in freighter ships. AC told me about her colleague who wrote a book on it – I bought the book, in German and read it. M’s boss gave him a similar book, but luckily in English. Family members told us of their known ones who do this for a living. I took strength from these stories and from Dreamality team (my ex-boss and his wife) who had spent a year, just the two of them, in the middle of Pacific ocean on their sailing yacht.

As we prepared for the ship, while still in Germany, one of the most important aspect to take care was the health. That is how we met with more doctors already while in Germany and we hoped that would be sufficient. One of the first health issues to take care was my hand that had been playing up with some issues (being on computer/mobile every working hour, hand and back are two parts that need frequent attention). I found myself at my HausArzt (Family Doctor) one morning. He said it is better a Chiropractor takes a look. He recommended his own one.

When I met Dr. F, he planned a long drawn plan to work on my back. That would not be possible – I told him. I am going on a ship and wanted to at least get an idea is this something serious or can I wait until I am back. He disinterestedly told me

“There are doctors on a cruise – you do not need to worry. I will in any case take a look”

“Dr. it is not a cruise ship – I will be in a container ship and there are no doctors on board.”

The change in his demeanor as soon as I mentioned container ship made me even more excited. He owns a sail boat that is currently in the Baltic Sea. He took on the mission of educating me on everything I need to know about ship travel. We met 3 times before I left Germany. Each of the three times, he would first treat me while giving me theory lessons on ship travel and satiate his curiosity about what our trip would entail. After the therapy session, we walked to the computer where he took me through a 30 minute journey (and I wondered about his next appointments). He showed me different apps/websites where I could understand the wind, the routes and told me which apps I should install and get an understanding of before the trip. He gave me homework each time and ran a test next time to see whether I had done my homework…
The lessons he provided deserves a separate post and are very valuable in these days while we wait for the trip.

We then went back to the Haus Arzt to get the medical certification that we are healthy enough to board the ship and survive the journey. Dr. Z, also was very excited to hear of our trip. She had done the same journey when she was much younger but a shorter distance. She told us about her life on board, wrote out prescriptions for anti sea sickness tablets. On our second trip, I told her that my Chiropractor had mentioned a sea sickness plaster that we could get. It needed a prescription too – and she wrote out a prescription for that. She signed on our medical certificate and ran our annual tests. We were now medically cleared to travel.

Our final encounter with a doctor happened in Singapore. Before travelling to Singapore, M’s sister and I spent a few days in Philippines. She contracted a virus and I inherited it. With some strong medications, we managed to fight it down and travelled to Singapore. I developed a very had ear pain one the evening after we reached Singapore (New Year’s eve). Considering our trip, and that the ship promised us not to have a doctor on board (typical in container ships I believe), I decided to visit the doctor here – a GP as adviced by my Uncle and Aunt and friends in Singapore. It was my second time in life, visiting a doctor in a foreign country. As advised by the multiple Singapore residents, I googled the nearest doctor with the best rating. Dr P’s General Practitioner clinic had a 4.9 rating.

Dr. P immediately knew about freighter ship but was surprised, like many others including me, that freighter ships allowed passengers.

Yes Doctor, they allow upto 10 passengers. Even we did not know about this until we looked up.

He wrote out additional medications, reassured me that I had no infection, told me how to take care so I could avoid any infections and sent me packing with enough antibiotics and symptomatic medicines to add to our already bulging medicine bag.

So here I was, on 3-rd of January, still fighting my ear pain and dry cough – a result of the ear pain caused by a constricted tube between the nose and year. Having nothing better to distract me from this fight, I was looking through the wall of my facebook when I see the post of the Dreamality couple with pictures against the Marina Bay Sands. Excitedly, I message them back. I always felt sad that I could not make it to Brussels to hear their stories of the Pacific boat and here was a golden opportunity to meet them after 10 years.

So it was that we met for breakfast yesterday and got some of the best advice as always, about handling the trip and about the transitions we are to make. We listened to their stories of how they went from one island to another, met the local communities there, and the reception they received. Even as I had followed their journey 2 years back, I had thought I would never be able to travel by ocean. This trip will not have those components I love, that Dreamality was able to do, of being able to stop anywhere we want, meet new local people and engage with them, however, I will be at least able to related to the aspect of being in the ocean and how that feels. Yes, the ship is a completely different animal than the boat – yet, I hope the impact is at least part of what they had.

Was so good to meet Bau and Karine as always…

As we went our separate ways, one to the east of Singapore, to New Zealand and the other to the west to South America, I have several thoughts to reflect on and several experiences to carry with me and see how this all turns out.

In the meantime, we established our first contact with the Port Agent on Friday when he said that the ship will be here on 6-th January morning and we will be picked up on 6-th evening at 18:00. Later that evening, I checked marinetraffic and saw the ship has sailed from Hongkong – however, it would be expected in Singapore only at 20:00 on January 6-th. I warned M that it looks like our ship will be delayed – and true to the marine traffic schedule, LF, our Port Agent has emailed us now that we will be picked up for transfer to the ship on 7-th January 12 pm.