A Deep Dive into Deep Cleans

Ship: Regina Maris
Date: 29th of December 2024
Position: Caribbean Sea
Geographical Position: 12°55.077N 064°22.597W
Etmal: 145nm
Total: 5628nm

Sunday – the day of rest. At least, that’s how we define the last day of the week at home. But on the Regina Maris, that’s only half true.

Here, we have our so-called Deep Cleans as the main event. While that means no school for us, I wouldn’t describe most of our faces as happy and joyful when woken up by the words “Deep Clean!” But what exactly happens on a typical Sunday here? In this daily report, I’m going to answer that question, which surely interests many of the moms and dads here.

Dear parents, please do me the favor of not telling your child that I told you this, but after six months on board, we’re all going to be experts at cleaning absolutely any- and everything.

The Morning

Lucky us, breakfast was served an hour later than usual, so most of us were able to sleep an hour more. For me, that meant four instead of three hours of sleep.

Quick backstory as to why I didn’t get much sleep: My watch lasts until 1am (Charlie 2) but Chris, Matthias and I decided to stay awake just a little longer to eat some pasta. The boys wouldn’t admit it, but we’ve grown quite close as a trio during our watch together, so this type of “after-watch party” isn’t unusual for us.

Our meeting shouldn’t have lasted too long, as always, but after a big bowl of Spirelli, Chris decided he was still hungry and went to get his chocolate muesli. While he and I were eating, dear old Marilen from the Alpha 1 watch came to get some of the precious Nutella. Unfortunately for her, the three of us were sitting on the benches where it was stored and refused to get up. After all, the Nutella belongs to us all!

What happened next was straight out of a fever dream: We got to watch her try everything to make us stand up. She was nice, then rude; she threatened us, called us names. But the highlight was her throwing her slice of bread with butter at Matthias. Of course, we couldn’t let her have the Nutella after all that, so we hid it somewhere else. How vigilant of us!

After our little mission, we could finally go to sleep peacefully, knowing that Marilen was raging outside and no Nutella would disappear that night.

The Deep Clean

Four hours later, it was time to get up for the “fun” part of the day: The Cleaning Roulette. That’s how we get our tasks. Everyone has to draw a card from Marie’s “card deck of death.” On each card, it says one specific thing you have to clean.

The tasks are:

• 2x Food Store
• 2x Engine Room
• 7x Deck
• 4x Messroom
• 4x Heads & Showers Cabins
• 2x Toilets Messroom
• 1x Wheelhouse
• 2x Hallway Crew + Drystore
• 2x Hallway Crew
• 2x Hallway Cabins
• 2x Windows
• 1x Lamps
• 1–2x Joker

Also, the three people who are on Galley duty also have to clean the Galley – makes sense, right?

I’ve sorted the tasks from worst to best:

Food Store takes the crown as the most disgusting, dirty, clammy and uncomfortable place to clean. For that, you have to crawl under the wheelhouse, the most horrid place on the ship, pull out all the food containers and clean it with a water-chlorine mixture.

The Engine Room is almost as bad due to the heat and loud sounds, but Hannes and Malte do it happily (thank God) since they can shower afterwards.

Deck and Messroom are bigger pieces of work since both get dirty easily. Toilets and Showers? Well, that depends on whether you like it or not. For me, it isn’t too challenging because my watch has to clean them every day anyway, so I’m an expert by now.

Cleaning the Wheelhouse is fairly easy as long as it isn’t too messy in there.

Moving on, the hallways are a luxury many would love to get.

The Crew Hallway with the Drystore has the most work because you have to reorganize the Drystore and clean the new washing machine as well. I prefer the hallway of our cabins since it’s pretty simple and quick to do.

Windows and Lamps are commonly acknowledged as the easiest jobs, but the best and most desired card is the Joker. Whoever gets it can take the day off and relax while the others work.

So far, I’ve been rather lucky: I’ve had to clean the Deck, the Galley, the Messroom, the Hallway with the Drystore and the Hallway of our cabins. But today was even better: I got the Windows!

After a little cheer, I began my job of the day with the glass cleaner in my hand and a smile on my face. As expected, it didn’t take too long, so I was able to give Marie my card back pretty early.

That means the second part of the Deep Clean starts: Cleaning our cabins. If you ask me, that’s not too big of a deal. I try to keep my cabin organized throughout the week, so it never takes me too long to do my part of making the room tidy.

As with every other job, Marie (the big one) has to check your work and give her okay for you to be officially “done.” Once my cabin got her thumbs-up, I was finally able to relax – or so I thought.

Because after that, a war started…

Help, my teacher attacked me!

Sundays aren’t just Sundays. Most people are done with their work in the early afternoon, which still gives us a few hours to fill. For some that means studying or socialising, others prefer to relax if not sleep. Today, I was about to choose the latter, but then something – or someone – interrupted me.

Through my open window, there came little droplets of water. And then more. And more. Was it raining?

No, it was Niklas with a Waterpistol! He was smiling like a devil while he was making me (and my bed!) wet. Droplet by droplet, I figured that I couldn’t let him have his fun without fighting back, so I got my water bottle and filled it to the brim. Next thing I know, I made my way up onto the Main Deck with my weapon of choice in my hand and a thirst for revenge. Then, total destruction began.

What started as a little playfight between the two of us ended with me being drenched to the core by not just Niklas, but also Janno and Christian. Those two decided to also get their water bottles and join the ongoing battle.

Their meanest strategy was blocking my escape route so that Niklas could empty his cooled, 1.5l bottle directly onto my whole back or to wait for me to come out of the Messroom from the Poopdeck to pour another Liter of water directly onto my unsuspecting head. Needless to say I was getting more and more pissed off, but a truce (at least between me and Christian) was brought by a very annoyed Marie.

After a little more ganging up on Janno, because why not, we shook our hands and layed our weapons aside for greater good. I would love to tell you that I came out of the fight as one of the winning parties, but truthfully, no one was as drenched as me. At least I got to shower today (kind of)!

Of course, that doesn’t happen each Sunday. Normally, we have a so- called „Silent Hour“ in the evening, which describes one hour of the day where no one is allowed to speak, play music or do anything that makes a sound. In those 60 minutes, we’re supposed to spend time with ourselves, reflect and enjoy the rarest thing on board: Complete, utter Silence.

I appreciate this part of the week a lot, since it really gives you the opportunity to calm down and get lost in your thoughts. Also, itˋs a perfect way to end our Sundays and to conclude the past week.

So what do we learn? Cleaning isn’t all that bad. It makes sure that we still feel comfortable in our new home and teaches us a lot about house keeping, something that will be of importance to all of us. But with each passing Sunday, we also learn something about ourselves. In my opinion, Cleaning can be meditative and calming, but also fun with the right music and/or company.

The Silent Hour concludes what I would consider a day of rest, even if it looks different from a day of rest at home. In the end, we can go to sleep with a good feeling about ourselves and our ship, with a clean mind and home, ready to take on another week on the Regina Maris.

Bemerkungen:

Chris: Der Schwarz / Tauschmarkt unter den Aufgaben ist insane. Da fragt man sich, was ist mehr wert? Die Aufgabe machen müssen? Eine Tafel Schokolade? Von der Bank gehen, in der das Nutella ist? Philosophische Fragen hier…

Johannes: Viel Spaß euch beim Skifahren! ❤️

Felipa: Omama alles Gute zum Geburtstag, feiert schön und hab‘ einen schönen Tag ❤️ Bea, Mama, Papa, ich hoffe, dass eure Reise schön ist bisher und ihr schon viel erlebt habt. Bussi Flipsi

Anneke: Ich wünsche euch ganz viel Spaß an Silvester! Ich hebe ein Glas in die Luft und stoße mit an, auch wenn es ein paar Stunden später sein wird;) Wir sehen uns im neuen Jahr wieder. Een kus en een dikke kroel, tot de maan en weer terug, Anneke

Marie: Übrigens: Chris‘ Müsli ist dasselbe von meinem Praktikum in Belgien 😆