Tuesday 30 October 2012

From a passengers viewpoint

A unique Experience

Today is our last day on the open sea which is almost unbelievable as it means that we are meanwhile sixteen days on the way since we left Las Palmas. When we entered the ship on October 14th everything seemed to be so far away and now we will reach Buenos Aires within less than 36 hours. Everybody of the passengers had a certain purpose to go onto this journey; ones wanted to have this infinite view from one side of the horizon to the other, others to relax from all the stress in the daily life. Some wanted to make the special experience of a long trip across the sea and some simply wanted a comfortable way to get to South America. As different as our expectations was the way to get used to life onboard. But finally nobody was able to evade the rhythm of the ship with its gentle moving up and down in the waves. We got to know each other very fast and easy and in only a few days our group of Couples and alone riding became more and more a temporary family. As we are in total only 27 passengers we were able to do things that cannot be done on a normal cruise. We had a sightseeing tour through the ship and after that we know now that the Fram with her mixture of Greenlandic and Scandinavian art is a sculpture in a whole! We also have seen the “heart and brain” of the ship which in the Chief machinist’s eyes is the same anyway – the engine room. The officers during our visits at the bridge had a different view – but only a little bit. Between our lectures, cooking lessons and sport competitions we were happy to recover for some time when taking a bath in the sun or nap in the shades (unfortunately sometimes also the other way around) to be fit again for the evening when we had so much fun together with the crew. Everybody found his favorite place on board either inside or outside and slowly but surely the days went on. Suddenly we had to realize that is really day 16 on board. Tomorrow we will reach the Rio de la Plata and we will see the first piece of land since we left the Canary Islands. Who will be the first to discover the coast? What will be the first thing to be seen – maybe a tree?
Some things may have developed a little different than initial expected but we all have made a unique experience and we are still curious what the last day will bring us. Probably the crew welfare committee is already preparing one or the other surprise for the last evening. For all these efforts we say “Tusen takk”, “Thank You” and “Salamat at Paalam” to the whole crew of MV Fram! Maybe one day we will meet again for a “crossing” when we need some time to relax or a comfortable way to get to Europe or with no special purpose at all.
Martin 

Here you can see Martin sitting in his chair on deck 5. The picture is painted by Dorothy Deringer. She painted her own diary with all these unbelievable nice pictures. And the best of all: She gave us a nice exhibition of her art the day before. Thank you Dorothy, you are wonderful and thank you Martin for writing the blog today; of course you are wonderful too!