Turn the page 6 of 16 Gbg - Newcastle..

Keeping on the boat theme we move a couple of girlfriends and years forwards.

This time I had booked a trip to Newcastle as my girlfriend had decided to study.Long distance relationships are as easy as Sudoko on magic mushrooms.
This time I was travelling with her best mate at that time. Everything started off well and we headed from Gbg via Norway and then into Gods Wrath, the North Sea.

I come from a family of fisherman , not sure if this is the reason as to why I'm never seasick or if its just my poor balance, but lets just say I'm happy whether or not its genetic or not.

For everything went Balder. Up and down, side to side, up and down...
The restaurants closed. People disappeared. I've never seen such an empty ship so early in the evening. I sat and ate a chocolate pudding and drank a Champis looking at the empty tables covered in food and drink that had fallen over. L* had gone to our berth (with window, never again would I face rum, sodomy and the lash..).
I went to the cabin and she lay there looking like the Green Goblin. She refused to move from her bunk. By this time I was laughing at the fact that you could count the air time the boat was getting on the up and then the seconds we were falling on the down. I had been out to look around at the boats and escape routes, this is always my routine on a boat.
You could feel the engines struggling and vibrating hard , it felt and sounded like the propellers were coming out of the water.
The worst (or best :-) feeling was when we were hit by the side at the same time we we're going up or down..it felt like we would simply capsize at any point.
All of sudden the Captain (or someone) made an announcement on the tannoy. I actually started wondering if this was it, the ultimate adventure, boats sinking and we're gonna have to save the woman and children first! and the band played on...
But no, we had turned around. The 1 hour forwards into Moby Dick territory had taken 3 hours to get back towards Norway. The North Sea had said no to our passage and it was luck that we weren't having to pay the ferryman with coins for our eyes! (dramatic huh!)

We returned to Gbg and were offered to stay over at Novotel for a night and then driven home or driven to Landvetter where a plane was made available to fly us to Newcastle .
L* stayed. She wouldn't test fate and get on a plane and was obviously shook up.
I had promised my girlfriend I would be there , and a promise is a promise. So tired but happy to be back on dry land I headed towards landvetter and made the trip.
No drama. Not sure how many times that its been the case that a boat has had to turn back.

One thing I will never forget though was the sheer power of the sea.
It treated the thousands of tons boat as if it was nothing.Just a paper cup.

Respect, 'cos if you don't you lose the fight.We threw in the towel thank God.

áyè