Auckland to Easter Island 2007

SOMEWHERE UNDER THE RAINBOW…
Voyage Crew Siv Jansson's experience of an epic ocean journey.

We leave Auckland on the 26th of March, amidst a rousing send-off from friends and family on Princes Wharf. I have absolutely no sense of what to expect. We are delayed in the first couple of days by some ‘teething troubles’ on the ship and also a bout of bad weather that hits within a day of departure.

I suppose I have to mention the seasickness, since the first week was dominated by it. We hit some very rough water around New Zealand, and while I’m told that the sight of 6 or 7 metre waves was exhilarating, I have to confess to not seeing much of them as I was lying in my bunk feeling that death was a preferable option. However, recovery was aided by Jon, our resident Stugeron dealer, and it was a wonderful moment when I could stand on deck without feeling that I wanted to throw myself over the side.

Once out of New Zealand waters (finally), the scenery is – well, ocean, ocean, and more ocean. There’s no question that this is a challenging trip. Five weeks ocean sailing is demanding not only in physical terms but in testing one’s ability to co-exist amicably with a group of people in a small space with no escape. You have to be prepared to take this on and adapt to it, as there’s nowhere to get off! You can contemplate the sea in every mood, and it’s magnificent, and awe-inspiring, but it is also relentless and unforgiving and, at its most mundane, just bloody monotonous. So it’s not easy, particularly if (like me) you have no experience of this kind of sailing. Having said that, you can find out a lot about yourself in taking on something like this, and that can only be positive.

On this trip, the ship sails (or motors) 24 hours a day, which means that there is little or no ‘downtime’ to chill out and relax all together, since there is always a group of people on watch and always another group preparing to go on watch. However, once a week there is some sort of event, dressing-up or themed, and periodically there are games and competitions. The limerick competition earned a number of people a tot of rum; while the murder game brought out some disturbingly psychotic characteristics in some members of both voyage and permanent crew.

On April 11th we reach the halfway point, celebrated with a party on deck and a cabaret provided by everyone on board. Jim’s Sextent (no, I’m not going to explain) drew the biggest laughs.

Throughout the voyage, I am constantly aware of the sheer space surrounding us, above, below, and on either side. Coming from a crowded city like London this is one of the most appealing aspects of the journey, but also one of its most scary. Purser Ali reminds me one evening that there is a relatively thin membrane between myself in my bunk and the several thousand tons of ocean just the other side of the wooden wall. This is a sobering thought, particularly at night!

The challenge and the beauty of a trip of this is the reduction to the most simple things in life. Forget your mobile phones, your internet connections, or any contact with the outside world (we couldn’t even pick up the radio): You’re on your own in a very big expanse of water, and I often thought about this tiny speck in the mass of ocean, particularly in stormy weather. Yet the very absence of ‘modernity’ as we understand it gives the experience a kind of purity as well. This might sound odd, or uncomfortable, but it’s strangely liberating as well and very interesting to note how we can adapt to life without the comfort of those things we usually deem essential. My biggest sense of loss was in not knowing the Premiership football scores. As a manic and obsessive Manchester United fan, this was probably the hardest thing of all for me to endure, and resulted in many furtive attempts to find the BBC World Service on my little portable radio (unsuccessful, unfortunately).

At the beginning of the fifth week, we learn that, due to unhelpful (or non-existent) winds, we are likely to be at least one day late into Easter Island. Those of us on tight schedules and complicated flights immediately contemplate the best way to make the most of the time we have there. Fortunately, those on board who have been there before can offer some help with this.

It’s strange, considering the trip as we come to the end of it. I still feel totally ignorant about sailing, yet, paradoxically, I’m also aware that there are things I now know how to do that I didn’t even know existed before. I can’t put my hand on my heart and say it has always been fun. It hasn’t. But there has been lots of good conversation, plenty of laughs, some congenial late-night drinking, and most importantly of all, the opportunity to experience something which very few people ever will. Not that many people ever go to Easter Island, let alone sail there across the South Pacific, and I do feel a sense of the specialness of that. None of my friends back in the city can believe that I’ve actually done this at all, and occasionally even I’ve had to pinch myself and ask what the hell I’m doing here.

But there are truly magical moments: the double (almost triple) rainbow which sits as if we are going to sail under it; the sight of a whale or some dolphins, especially the whale who swam alongside us for about twenty minutes; clear moonlight on the water; sunlight dappling the waves. Even getting soaked five times by the South Pacific during one night watch becomes – well, I won’t exactly say a fond memory, but a memory! I must also name check the cooks, Ali, Emma, and Kath, who made delicious meals throughout the voyage and coped admirably and patiently with the pernickety dietary requirements of yours truly.

Final impressions? The overarching sense with which I leave is how you become so much more aware of the mood and tone of the natural world around you – the sea, the sky, the wind - partly because it’s simply there in front of you the whole time, and partly because your ability to traverse it depends on your ability to observe it. So, to conclude, sometimes I loved it, sometimes I hated it, I’ll never forget it, and I don’t regret for one minute doing it.

Siv

Photos - thanks to Tom,Darren, Siv.
See the full Picture gallery here.

See VIDEO of this voyage here

NEW: See Ali G's Picture Diary here

Soren Larsen will be visiting these destinations again -