Newsletter for the Rotary Club of Western Endeavour - Issue No.: 1115 Issue Date: 14 Apr, 2024

On Wednesday 7 June 2006, a group of exchange students arrived in Oldenburg to catch our bus up to a northern coastal town called Kiel. It was from there that we would jump on board our 120yr old sailing ship and attempt to sail from Germany to Denmark. Originally I had thought the trip would take a day max. and that if we would have to stay overnight somewhere we would dock and stay in a hotel...WRONG!

It took a good 3 days before we hit Copenhagen and two of those nights were spent working through the night because we didn't have enough time to anchor! So the group was split into 3 duty groups and we had 2 shifts each between 3pm and 12pm right through the night. one night I had to work 6-9pm then again from 4-8am! it was hell! But each group had 6 people so it wasnt so bad...in fact some nights were quite funny!

So what duties did we have to do I hear you ask?...well I spent most of my duties steering the boat(yes the direction of the boat was in my hands!!!) and keeping an eye out for other ships, boats and buoys. All this went on very uneventfully for two days and we were all getting really bored cos there was no wind and we were virtually floating to Copenhagen at what seemed like a metre an hour! and then on the last day when we were due to dock the fun began!

I didn't mention this but the boat had no showers...so after three days with no shower, we all smelt pretty bad. The Captain decided we would take a 2hr shower break in Sweden. So at about 10am on the Saturday after we set off, we docked in beautiful Sweden for a quick shower and relax.

At 11.30am we set sail again in what was to be the last leg of our trip. Then the fun began. It started at about 12pm when we hit a massive fog. We couldn't see further than about 20m in front or around the boat and guess who got caught steering the bloody thing...yep ME!!!! what was the crew thinking!? But I managed to keep everyone alive. I steered us perfectly through 4 sets of buoys and then past a massive cargo ship which looked like it was only about 50m away! VERY SCARY!!!