In the morning, I left for Schiphol Airport—not necessarily at the crack of dawn, but around nine-thirty. The plan is to fly to Sardinia with a layover in Milan, and then take a short bus ride to the port of Cagliari. At this point, I didn’t really have any idea of the further plans, other than that I would eventually end up back in the Netherlands after about three weeks, specifically in Harlingen.
In Milan, I have a layover of over three hours, so I’m going through some final work emails when I get a text message letting me know that we’ll be leaving that same evening as soon as I’m on board.
So now I just have to hope extra hard that the Italians handle my luggage carefully, because a delay is not really an option anymore. Although I put a few extra pairs of underwear in my carry-on just in case, that’s still a bit sparse for three weeks.
Fortunately, everything arrives in Cagliari and I’m at the harbor pretty quickly, where I soon spot the beautiful three-masted Barquentine, docked between a large coaster and a small tugboat.
I have to wait a little while for the rest of the crew, who are taking one last opportunity to eat in Italy, but once on board, I quickly find my spot.
While I’m unpacking my things in my cabin, I can already feel by the ship’s movements that we’ve cast off. The captain isn’t wasting any time, and by the time I come upstairs, we’re just passing the harbor entrance.
It turns out I have the dog watch, together with Sietze, my classmate from maritime school, and mate Ali. Although the captain assured me I could skip the first watch after such a long travel day, I’m actually just too excited to get started with the sailing, despite my lack of sleep. So, after a short nap, I head straight into my watch.
It immediately becomes clear again why I love this sailing so much. A clear sky and the contours of Sardinia lead me through the first watch, and even though the wind is coming from the same direction we need to go, I feel intensely happy to be at sea again.
