Transatlantic Crossing | 5 Things To Know Being Aboard

5 Things to Know Being Aboard A Catamaran and Learn Why

1. Learn to identify where the wind comes from (I don´t talk about learning how to sail faster 😉 )

2. Never, ever put anything unless toilet paper into the toilet

3. Don´t underestimate the power of a rope | I am not superwoman

4. Don´t tell a French to throw a caught (alive) fish back into the ocean

5. Do not leave your window open while sailing

(6. For women only: Use hair ties ⟶ see Number 1)

                 Priceless view from the catamaran captured in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean

1.

Obviously it helps to sail faster or not, however you prefer it. But the more important aspect of identifying the wind direction is you will save yourself a lot of trouble. I learned that the hard way. If you have to throw up – and yes, there comes the time once or twize or more often – the best thing to do is leaning over the stern of the vessel. Hopefully you took advice number 6 and have a “Happy Feeding the Fish”.

If you don´t check where the wind comes from or just hurry to any side you probably will throw up on yourself.

With long hair and no hair tie by the hand be sure someone´s following you holding your long hair out of your face (unless you want to save food for later. Yikes!).

                 A rougher day but not as bad as I thought it would be – my worst case scenario was “The Perfect Storm”

2.

If you never used a toilet on a vessel before and I am not talking about cruise ships you should know how the toilets work. They are like the toilets in the airplane with knives inside to cut it in pieces. You can use toilet paper but nothing else.

If you throw in wet toilet paper or a tissue the person in charge of the technical stuff on the ship will try to kill you because he has to clean up all the mess and you probably can guess what he has to dig through and shovel away to clean the whole system again.

3. Don´t try to be Superwoman – you will loose the fight. While Crossing the Atlantic Ocean I tried to keep hold of a rope attached to one of the big sails. The wind blew in and it ripped the rope out of my hands. I was luckily smart enough to let go as soon as my hand felt hot. Unfortunately the end of the rope – tied with a knot – hit my arm. Ten years later you can still see a little scar. Watch your every step and action on a boat. In the middle of the Atlantic there is no chance a helicopter can reach you or a doctor can help you. You can only trust in the First Aid of a crew member. Be careful!

 White Marlin  

 4. You can only eat a certain amount of fish. So what to do if you catch another one (a 2 meter/6.5 feet long White Marlin) as seen in the picture above? Well. Let him go and save him a happy life in the sea. If you tell a French guy to do so you might feel like telling a kid to bring back it´s Birthday present. I think you understand what I mean.

5.

Don´t let your window open while sailing. Did you ever forget to close the watertub? If so you can imagine what happens when you forget to close the window on a vessel. You won´t have a lot of water on the floor in your kitchen or bathroom within seconds. On a boat you will. One wave and you have your own, private jacuzzi full of cold and salty water in your cabin. (Gladly that never happened to me.)

There are a lot more things to consider and to learn while Crossing an Ocean but those were the 5 most important things for me to learn and to remember.

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zuletzt aktualisiert am May 19, 2020