We were goin from turkey to france during mid march. "Ok a beautiful month ahead - the begning of spring and well away from the freezing -42 of canada" was the total idea in my mind. And thus started the sail. One day gone second day gone... third day started i mean my 3rd day after sailing out of turkey with my navigational watch.Recieving a weather fax (as my usual practice, i noticed a low pressure depression south west of our course. the weater report analysis clearly indicated that we were heading into the storm, in the bay of biscay , a place known for rough weather and seas.
Slowly the wind started to grow stronger. Hour by hour wind kept growing stronger as we reached the bay of biscay.Then started the rolling and pitching of the ship (rolling means .... imagine a toothpaste box.... the movement of this box in semirotational way about the axis along its length... and pitching is the pounding of the box along the axis over its length errrr like the wheeling of a bike) and increased gradually.
Then came a point that the movements became so severe that things had to be tied to place and well secured to prevent damage. Infact the sleping part too was very difficult. all work on deck was suspended. people started becoming pale. cooking became difficult. but the fact being that people stopped eating food at their usual amount. a view from the navigation room (known as the "bridge" of a ship) clearly suggessted why. waves banging with huge force on the hull . Waves of height greater than 5 m. There was water all over the deck. After a sleepless night( you see things keep falling everywhere there is toomuch rocking and the jerk that comes when a ship goes head on into a swell of 6 mt is more than enough to throw a person off foot) unlike the first few hours that appeared like a roller coaster ride, but without an end point, this went on and on and became worser.
The next morning watch was pathetic. people were tierd, pale, with faces begging for mercy from the lord of the seas. a sight of the sea gushing on deck admist the rains and wind could scare the wits out of an inexperienced person. the ship was being manually steered with the officers on watch instructing the crew steering it as the auto pilot could not cope up with the drastic changes in the course due to the strong wind and moreover the swell. then in my watch i heard a thud suddenly and "oowaaaaaahhhhkk...." a sound came the man at the steering controll had disappeared .It then struck me that he was getting sea sick. i hopped over to the steering controll and desperately tried to bring back the ship under controll. and slowly she began to respond. But by then our heading had already changed by about 30 degrees. In 15 minutes the ship was brought on to her course but the rains had intesified. And then we were slowly poceeding along the course admist more "wuaaaaaaakss" from people. That was an experience i would defenitely not forget. that continued for 2 more days but the effect on the ship reduced when we had altered course so as to have the winds on our stern that is from beind.
Thats a sample
But one thing i learnt in this voyage was what a chain reaction is? You see"For every whuaaaaak that is seen on a ship by a person in rough wether there is an equal and defenite whuaaaak by the person who observed as long as he knows the art of motion sickness." Named as the PUKE's LAW
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