Words Of A Sailing Soul ~ By a proud mariner’s wife

Recently, I got an amazing opportunity to sail with my husband and see a sailor’s life closely for few months. For a working woman, it is a good break to let go of all the pressure for a while, relax on a ship and sail across oceans.  I am sharing my experience from the diary I maintained during my voyage. Although there are a hundred things to tell but I can't pour everything, so sharing some of my memorable sailing escapades, details about Sailors and the life onboard.

It's been 15 days of sailing for me. I am currently sailing somewhere in the South China Sea, on the way to USA. I boarded the ship from Singapore and sailed to Indonesia. These few days at sea have taught me many things about my husband's profession. You can't relate to things in a better way until you experience it. This job is definitely full of risks, needs a person with a brave heart, and there is no certainty of anything. The feeling you get when you look outside from your window and see only the mighty ocean and it's ever changing colours, the waves dancing in whichever way they want, few islands that are seen in between, neighbour ships that cross by, countless variety of fishes, the adorable dolphins and a group of seagulls engrossed in catching flying fishes. And finally, your day is made when you spot a pair of sprouting whales next to your ship, cruising like a king and proudly hovering over the waves. The pleasure of witnessing such rare sights is totally indescribable. 

Have you ever seen rain clouds so beautiful and close to you, looks like you just need to jump to touch them? And the magnificent sight, when it starts pouring down at different parts in the mid-sea and you are still standing under the sun's light thinking about when the rains will reach here.  Every day is a surprise for me. I stand on the bridge area and stare at the ocean for long. The same ocean that looks marvelous in the daytime turns into a stunning painting during sunrise and sunset, and suddenly at night nothing looks more dangerous and frightful but the ocean.

My favorite spot in the ship is the bridge. It is a complete delight when you stand at the edge of the ship, face the ocean, feel the wind, adore the clouds floated across a brilliant blue sky and get lost while watching the waves go and come, such an enchanting experience it is.  As I said, every day is a new experience; one such beautiful start of the day was when I saw a bizarre form of the ocean. It looked like some whipped cream has been poured all over and we are sailing on it. The sea was calm and the thick creamy layers here and there looked so smooth and silky.  I adored this very beautiful morning even more, when I saw the bunch of clouds touching the horizon and making it difficult to differentiate where the ocean ends and the sky starts. Only a sailing soul can see the real beauty and grace of an ocean. It is very moody, it can turn suddenly into a fascinating thing you have ever seen and within minutes it can get highly ferocious to let you down with its extreme aggression.

 It‘s been a month now for me at Sea. I am yet not fully satisfied with my journey and I know I can't be because there is always a new ocean outside, a new day with an unexpectedly different weather and something new for me to observe and think about. Talking about the people here, everyone holds an important role at the ship. Just 23-25 crew in total. Here it is 23 and one is me, the supernumerary. That's my rank here. One most important thing that everyone follows here with utmost sincerity is time.  Punctuality in everything you do, whether it is meals time, sleeping hours or the work time. There are three departments in total, the deck, the engine and the galley. The crew is responsible for most of the physical work starting from cleaning to maintaining the ship as instructed by the officers.  I have developed a good bonding with the people here. Everyone remains busy with their respective tasks but when they get time, we chat and talk about plenty things. It is really wonderful to know new people, their life, and thoughts.

When a Sailor's wife is on board, it is a wonderful chance for her to explore her husband's work life, which is definitely not a cakewalk as per my experience. I have always got good comments about being a sailor's wife. Expensive gifts, money isn't an issue, good amount of holidays, just six months of work, foreign tours, and the wife can also go and sail. I have met people who don't feel any hesitance to point out all these things ten times on your face. Yes, these are some obvious perks of being in this profession but these perks come with many challenges too. And in Merchant Navy officer's life, challenges are extreme, not only for the sailor but for the wife too. It is a very hectic job with the various risk involved, sometimes duty calls are such that they don't get to sleep properly for next 4-5 days, adhering to international sea laws that are very strict to believe and a small mistake cost them a hell lot more than a mere apology. Many of us dream a sailor as a man dressed in a clean and neat uniform passing orders and navigating the ship with the steering wheel while sipping a good brand beer!  Good dream! That's not how it is here.

The boiler suit and safety shoes, the long hours of tank cleaning and physical work, a great deal of paperwork and keeping track of each machine, equipment, movement of the ship, weather updates, latitudes and longitude marking and umpteen things I can't really describe in few words.  I believe I have mentioned the work very briefly here. There is a lot of work and limited luxury for these brave sailing souls. The crew works for least 9 months in one contract and the officers for 5 or 6. In these working months, what they miss is family, occasions like anniversaries, birthdays of loved ones, festivals, New Year, many a times marriages of close relatives and sadly, sometimes their baby's arrival too, and all this can never be compensated with the high salaries they earn. 

Not only the sailor but the family, especially the wife, suffers equally. There is no fixed date of sign off. You can't really depend on a single date and the contract might extend because of many reasons so when your wife asks when are you coming, you have no fixed date or port to tell her. But I see, not enough people are aware of the sacrifices we make and then we are just complimented for the luxuries and glamor that glitters. The grass is always greener the other side!

Today it is two months of being a sailing soul. I explored many famous cities in USA and loved them thoroughly. Some crew members were signed off from the ship yesterday as their contract is over now and new people have joined in to fill in the positions. It was so overwhelming to see those happy faces ready to jump off the ship to go home. They were excited and have plans to do various things at land. A homecoming that is memorable each time they experience it. One of the crew members had to leave in between the contract because of the sudden demise of his mother. It is a nightmare that you lose your loved one when you are at sea and can't event be there to say that last goodbye. It definitely kills. People here have told me various such instances when one of their colleagues was not able to go home during such sad situations. You can ask, what's such emergency that some sudden arrangements can't be made to send the person home asap, but sometimes, unfortunately, there is no such way, especially when you are far from the port area somewhere in the mid- sea and there are so many rules to abide by.  No one but a seaman knows how it feels.

Let's talk about the food here. The biggest entertainment on a ship is the food. Yes, the food. Sailors, in general, are food lovers and like to try new cuisines. In the ship, you get a great variety of nonvegetarian dishes, especially seafood. Every day's menu was decided by the chefs and they adhered to the rules.  

I spent a lot of time in Galley with the cooks and saw them making Lobsters, seashells, various kinds of fish dishes, prawns and a lot more yummy stuff like cakes, pudding, kheer and other sweet dishes. Never in my life had I seen such vast variety of fishes. I relished the  amazing chicken biryani with raita and papad every Sunday. Sunday means Biryani day and for me, it was the reminder that today is Sunday. The other things that were popular there are ice-cream, burgers, pav bhaji, pizza and once a week south Indian food like Dosa and idli sambhar with chutney. I always wait for the pizza day to come. Food is every day's occasion here and we daily talk about famous cuisines to try to and the rare dishes that we all have tried till now. 

Altogether, I strongly feel a Merchant Navy professional's wife should go with her man at least once, to sail and experience life at sea. It is a journey to remember, though depending upon the ships it might vary a bit.  I have a lot to tell to my family & friends about my voyage and this write-up serves my purpose in a better way. I have learned a lot reading through other women's sailing stories and I feel glad to share mine and hope it will bring forward an understandable idea about sailor's life onboard. I am also sharing some pictures that I clicked during my voyage. 

My best regards to all the Sailors, their families, and readers. May you all Rise and Shine.