Hello everyone!
Sorry for only getting in touch now. The trip on the cargo ship was lovely. We arrived at Eurogate at 7 am on 28 October and then back at CTT at around 10 am. We stayed in Hamburg for one more night after that. On the 16th, we boarded at around 4 pm and cast off the next day at 1.30 pm. We didn’t reach the NOK until the evening and, unfortunately, didn’t see any of it; by the time we were on our return journey, it was already dark again. The first stop in Estonia was cancelled because there were no goods on board for that port. So we sailed non-stop to Kotka in Finland. The journey took 3.5 days, but we had lovely weather. In Kotka, we disembarked (a woman from Geneva was still on board). The town isn’t particularly big. We walked up a tower and enjoyed a panoramic view. After three hours, we were back on the ship. At 11 pm we set off again towards Helsinki, where in the morning we circled round for about five hours before entering the harbour because the berth was occupied. In the evening they unloaded a few more containers and stopped at 10 pm. The next morning it rained heavily, so we decided to stay on the ship in that dreadful weather and, unfortunately, didn’t see anything of Helsinki. At 9 pm, we set off straight back to Bremerhaven. Gdańsk was also cancelled. As we sailed out of the Elbe into the North Sea, the wind grew stronger and stronger and the waves got bigger and bigger (thanks to Storm Joshua). I had no idea we’d have to take such a wide detour around the Wadden Sea. And now for the best bit! Because of the heavy swell, just going down for lunch was an adventure in itself. Once downstairs, fetching our lunch was a balancing act. At the table, you had to hold on to your soup bowl, otherwise it would have slid off the table. Even the officers had a hard time eating. All the unoccupied chairs were sliding about. Things were making quite a racket in the galley too. When we went back to our cabin afterwards, it was like mountain climbing. Using both hands, we worked our way up five storeys, clinging to the banister. Even our other shoes had slid from the coat rack to the door. All in all, it was pure adventure. We arrived in Bremerhaven at around 3.30 pm, but didn’t disembark because there were only two hours of daylight left. From 6 pm onwards, it rained heavily and stormed again. In the light from the loading crane, you could see the rain sweeping horizontally past us. Whilst loading, the crane operator had a real struggle to set the containers down in the storm. At midnight, we set off back, and were gently rocked to sleep. The next morning, the ship circled 20 hours off Heligoland because the Port of Hamburg was closed. The captain said the waves were up to 7 metres high. The spray was blowing all the way up to the bridge. My friend and I will NEVER forget this voyage. The woman from Geneva who was on board had already been on many voyages on container ships, as she told us. She’s crossed the Pacific and the Atlantic, been to Australia and Asia, and visited almost every corner of the world. The Alexander B was the smallest of them all; the others were all about 300 metres long. The food was good too, although one evening they served squid rings and they sat heavily in my stomach the next day – after that, everything was fine again.
Greetings from Ulm