Date: 30.11.2020
Author: Lukas
Position: Atlantic Ocean
Nautical Position: 19°30,6N , 37° 47,4W
Etmal: 123,3 NM (Total: 4507 NM)

For this daily report I asked our Doctor Dominic a few questions about himself and his life here on board. He joined us in Madeira, so he’s been with us already for a couple of weeks. After that I will explain a natural phenomena that happened today.

How old are you and where are you from?

Dominic is 36 years old and he lives in Bristol, Engand. Although he lives there, he is very good in speaking German. That is, because Dominic was born in Hamburg and he lived there until he was 7 years old, so he lived in Germany first. After that he and his family moved to Manchester and lived there until he was 18. Then he moved again to study in London to become a doctor. Now he mainly lives in Bristol, but he also travels a lot.

What kind of doctor are you?

At home he works as a surgeon (Chirurg), but he is also interested in expedition medicine. For example, he once worked in a mountain rescuing team at the Kilimanjaro in Tansania.

How did you take notice of Ocean College?

Dominic told me that he had some contact with the doctor who joined last year’s Ocean College when they crossed the Atlantic back home. She recommended it to him and he liked the idea of Ocean College. As he had some free time during our Atlantic crossing, he decided to participate.

Do you also sail in your freetime?

Yes, but not very much. For example, he sailed around England or in the Mediterranean sea. But sailing is not his main interest.

Have you already been seasick?

Dom said that he hasn´t been seasick so far. Lucky man.

What are the things that you liked most, so far?

The funny thing here was that he didn’t have only one answer. Dom said that he really likes talking to the people here and having nice chats with other people. Furthermore, he likes especially the atmosphere we have here in the nature. He also loves working aloft and the things you can learn about the ship when you’re climbing up in the rigg (this is definitely true, in his free time our doctor is a born pelican monkey;). And one special thing that he likes here on board is singing shanties. A few days ago we had a little “shanty outbreak” where someone randomly started singing a shanty and after five minutes we’ve had almost 20 people who joined. Dom was one of the people that sang the loudest.

Squalls

One special natural phenomena that we experienced today was a “Squall”. Squalls are windy rain showers that bring almost immediate rainfall when they reach you. During our daily voyage crew meeting today some people often looked behind us and I already thought that they’ve spotted some dolphins or a whale. But then, exactly when we finished our meeting, everyone noticed what they really saw. Shortly before the Squall reached us, you could really see the wall of rain and the wind on the waves coming towards us. Within a few seconds it started raining very hard and everyone on deck got really exited. But the Squall didn’t hold on very long. After half an hour the rain and wind were over and the weather was almost as it was before.

Und zum Schluss möchte ich meiner Mutter für gestern noch alles Gute nachträglich zum Geburtstag ausrichten. 🙂