Bon Voyage

26^th January 2013

It took us 3-4 days to finish packing for the ship. After a few delays n cancellations, we were scheduled to leave on 26th Jan at 3:15 am on a Lufthansa fight. I still can't believe I managed to pack 4 months into 1 suitcase!

After a long line at Immigration (an even longer line for Shriyansh) we sat down at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for some coffee n hot chocolate.  

Our route was Mumbai - Frankfurt - Amsterdam.

27th January 2013

Amsterdam - Rotterdam

On arriving at Amsterdam, we were received by a man who held up a sign that read 'Vopak - British Kestrel'.  He drove us to the Immigration office in Rotterdam which was 45 minutes away from Schiphol Airport. On the drive to Rotterdam, I experienced my first snowfall :)

From the Immigration office we headed to the port where our boat 'Blue Whale' awaited our arrival. The sea was rough, but the boatmen said they'll try. Mid-way to the ship they contacted the Master. They were not expecting us that day because of the weather conditions. Halfway through we turned the boat around and returned. They contacted the local agents to arrange for a hotel stay for us till the weather gets better.

We had to drop in at the Immigration office again. It was a long process that took an hour. I sat in the car as I was really weak after the boat ride. After that we headed to our hotel, Hotel Carlton Oasis which was a little outside Rotterdam. There was a Film Festival going on in Rotterdam at that time because of which most hotels were booked, so they had to put us up here.

We checked in and put our bags in the room and quickly headed down to the restaurant to grab something to eat. It was past 4 pm and we were really hungry. We ordered a Carlton large burger and a sandwich. They were both huge and came with a lot of fries. Mid-way through our meal a person came to our table. He was sent by the agent and was there to take us to the ship. We left our food; didn't want to eat much knowing how rough the boat ride was going to be. We went up to our room to get our bags and checked out (in less than an hour)

We had to stop at the Immigration office again. The lady there was surprised to see us again. She was really sweet and was very worried whether I would be able to get onto the ship in such rough weather. She even checked to see if she had any anti-seasickness pills.

We went to the docks and boarded the Blue Whale again. We tried to sleep our way through to avoid falling sick again (I couldn't). An hour later, we reached British Kestrel. They had lowered the gangway and our boat tried to get itself as close to the ship as possible. There was a man standing at the bottom of the gangway to catch us as we jumped. The sea was very rough and the water was very, very cold. I had a life jacket on but wasn't wearing an Immersion Suit as the size they had was too big for me. The boat was wet and slippery but Shriyansh was holding on to me real tight. Once the boatman told us to go ahead, I jumped onto the gangway. Shriyansh followed and we climbed our way on top. I was still feeling weak and dizzy, and the wind was very strong and cold. Once we were inside the accommodation it was a lot better.

It was around 8 pm when we boarded the ship. We weren't very hungry and were very tired so I crashed on the bed immediately. Shriyansh had to go up for some work but was back soon :)

After a long and tiring day, we were finally on-board British Kestrel, our home for the next 4 months..