You can basically feel the tension on board when the wind is getting stronger the waves become meaner and the Lovis turns from a well behaving holiday-cruiser to a real all-weather sailing vessel. 70 tons of railwaytracks and concrete under the floor will keep our floating home upstraight no matter what kind of stomachtwisting storm will approach.
But when I look into the eyes of some of our crew I can read in their faces that they would love the Lovis to capsize, send an SOS to the next coastguard-helicopter to rescue them and bring them to save nonmoving land just to stop the mind-and-stomachboggling rolling motion.

First they get quiet, the colour of their faces is turning more or less to a whiter shade of pale with some kind of green nuance. If they are lucky that was it…

But normally the next step will be climbed within some minutes. Sitting on deck with at least 3 covers to keep them warm, swallowing pills against the seasickness and watching the horizont praying to neptune the movement to stop. Going under deck is now impossible for them and you can sometimes see a tear dropping from their staring eyes.
There is a (fairy)tale that singing helps to stop the growing sickness thats why I´m also sick, sick of hearing badly performed well known marine-folklore songs like “What shall we do with the drunken sailor…”.
But I should be lucky, I never had to care about where the next bucket is, check the wind to look for the best spot on board to feed the fishes or wonder if I can wear my sweater ever again….
Basically I tried everything to make my own experience with how to handle seasickness but I never succeeded. Sitting in the net during strong wind, staying under deck reading while storm, filming *#&$++* people or cleaning well filled bowls over the bulwalk. I really tried everything…
Then yesterday I was almost lucky, a bad hangover helped me to feel almost alike the shivering
casualties of the mean side-front-wave. I didn´t liked it but at the moment I really started to worry what I had for breakfast the sea became calm again. Goddammit….

All I can say is: sleep, eat well and always dress warm so you can enjoy this amazing trip on board of the most beautiful sailingvessel in the world…

(I will somehow have to build some kind of machine to shake my bed back in Hamburg in the way the Lovis is moving, the CD with the sounds that Danil recorded during the trip between Kaliningrad and Riga I already copied to my MP3-player.)

Bye bye MBS, bye bye lovely Lovis, bye bye baltic sea. Gonna miss it all and everyone.
Thank you for the experience.

Jan