Another "Life Lesson" Along With Your Tour of the Galeon

  Our passage from England to the festival in Netherlands was very rough. About half our watch was seasick, including most of the new people (what an introduction!) The other half, who had their sea legs, were hopping around with the motion of the deck — my own was a cross between a drunkard’s stumble and a toddler’s wobble. But as long as we were moving weirdly anyway, we made the most of it and started dancing the macarena. (Except me, I was holding the wheel half to keep the ship on course and half to keep from falling.) Later a local newspaper interviewed several of us about the ship and the trip, including one whose memories of the passage were a rotation of sleep, barf, work, and repeat. But my memories of the same trip were laughing with my shipmates at midnight. Same ship, same passage, very different memories. It’s all personal. Sure, bodies don’t always cooperate and my sick crew mates had little choice in the matter. But the rest of us could have grumbled, or we could have laughed and danced in the rain. It’s how you frame it.

(Life lessons along with your tour of El Galeon, no extra charge.) 
 

Dancing on the quarterdeck, during this passage which was calmer than the outbound one.

Laughing at the helm, despite the rain.

Recapping the macarena during the crew party in Delfzijl.

An oldie but goodie -- going around the top of Nova Scotia in 2017. This was my longest passage on the Galeon (12 days) and the coldest I've ever been in summertime -- during one night watch it was 35 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind was 35 knots on the nose. 

The newspaper article mentioned. I don't read Dutch but I could make out the "pirate ship" and "Delfzijl" in the headline. One of our Dutch crew translated for us as we sat around the galley table.