Life is like sailing. You can use any wind to go in any direction. ~ Robert Brault.

So, why was I sailing?

Before marriage I had believed sailing on the high seas, is just the ultimate adventure any one can hope for. This view is still cherished by me. Yes I was missing my husband and wanted to see him. Still this wasn’t the only reason. Going off the grid amidst the ocean, living life with no social obligations allured me. One of the other reasons was I wanted to see this part of husband’s life, which didn’t revolve around his family. 

Company Rules

My husband works on LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) tankers. LPG tankers are ship designed to transport LPG, LNG or liquefied chemical gases in bulk. The gas is semi-refrigerated under a reduced temperature and pressure. Sometimes other gases such as ammonia, ethylene and polypropylene are also transported in liquefied form in LPG carriers.

In general, all shipping companies allow spouses and children of the mariners to accompany them. The rules vary from different shipping company to other. In most companies they allow only the top 4 dignitaries, i.e, Captain, chief Engineer, Chief Officer and First Assistant Engineer to bring their family on-board. There are some other rules too, such as, there can’t be more than three people carrying their wives, family members can only be on the ship for four months, mariners can’t bring family members on every consecutive sailing and some other rules. But these vary highly, as I said earlier, depending upon the company. There are also rules regarding children on-board. Some companies allow only children above 2 years old on ships. 

My Journey

This was the first time I was on sea. My journey started from Jaipur, leaving my in-laws place to join my husband on ship. After biding adieu to my lovely in-laws, I traveled to Delhi. In Delhi after completing all the official formalities and the medical check up, my adventure began.
I had flight from Delhi to Houston, with a stop at Dubai. It took me 24 hours, long tiring flight, to reach Houston. Although I was extremely jet lagged, I was ecstatic too. I was going to see my husband after more than a month.

A company agent came to pick me up at the Houston Airport. I was totally exhausted, the immigration queue at the airport was a killer. There were hundreds of people, all from different origin standing to get cleared. The agent drove me to the harbor where the ship was anchored.

And there were ships everywhere on the harbor, each of different color and sizes. As a Chief engineer my husband was busy with his “bunkering” and “maneuvering”. Two cadets came and helped me get on-board and took me to the Engine Control Room (to my husband). I was so stoked to see him, wanted to run and hug him, but there are ship etiquette people. Met the Captain, nice and friendly young chap. I don’t know why, I had expected captain to be old and fatherly kind of person (maybe too much of Netflix did this).

As many of you must have heard and known, life at sea is not a piece of cake. It is as difficult for the mariner as his family. Though with time the mariner gets accustomed to the rough seas, bad weather and all other difficulties. It took me some time to familiarize myself to this whole new world around me. Sometimes the calm of the sea becomes too monotonous, while other times the raging waves take your breath away. You need to lean on your partner’s judgement and intuition and let your feminist energy aside a bit. After all, he had been battling sea demons for a while now.

We started our journey from Houston, and sailed towards Panama. Yes, we did cross that famous Panama Canal. It was journey of 6 to 7 days. While on the way I could see only blue all around. The Blue sky, the blue water and the blues in my heart. After reaching Panama, I saw first strip of land. And that distant land looked like a different world altogether.

From panama we sailed towards Japan. The journey was quite rough this time. We were sailing through Pacific ocean. And ship was sailing at 10 knots, as it was whale inhabited area. Since it was the winter season it was quite cold too.

But I would say the daily schedule of eating helped me a lot. On ship you have a fixed time for meals. Yes I could eat any time and could carry my food to my cabin, but I preferred to follow the timings. At night staring at the open sky, gazing at the stars will make you praise the lord for such a beautiful creation.

To enjoy ship, you have to let go of yourself with the wild waves. Forget the worries and choose peace. There were few difficult days when the ship was rolling heavily. Being mentally strong helps you combat the sea sickness.