SAS Travelogue Chapter 8
At sea off the coast of Morocco
February 5, 2009
We are currently just out of the harbor of Casablanca heading south towards Namibia. The sea is rough so there will be a lot of heavy sleeping by some and others will feel a bit or very woozy. The sickness bags are out everywhere just in case.
We just spent 3 days traveling around Morocco and I intend to report on this in the next chapter.
For this chapter, I want to write about the cocoon effect of taking long voyages has on travelers. Despite having fairly small cabins, it does not take long for passengers to develop a strong attachment to their cabins and to the ship itself. It becomes a comfortable environment where one's world is secure in the four walls of the cabin as well as in the public spaces which become more and more one's home away from home. As one starts to get to know more and more fellow passengers, other adults and students, the sense of community builds a fairly tight bond to the ship and shipboard life. One of the features of this cocoon effect is that one feels some apprehension to leave the ship when one arrives in a new port. All of a sudden, one is forced to leave this known environment to confront new and challenging situations. I presume prisoners in a jail develop similar feelings while locked up and when the time comes to leave the prison.
On board the ship, the routine is known, the classes take place at fixed times and the day is structured which already gives a sense of comfort. Meals happen, meetings take place one is not confronted with a world where all sorts of things can and do happen which were not in the daily program.
We have only been on voyage for 2 weeks and already this evening on returning from 3 days ashore, the students were commenting how happy they were to be getting back on board. They were saying that they were looking forward to being in their cabins and catching up with their fellow students they had not seen for 3 days!! And they only met their fellow students 2 weeks ago. It is interesting how such common and shared experiences can weld people together and create a shared world. I will be watching this effect in the course of this trip as I have watched it before. By the end of the voyage, very strong friendships have been built during the time in the cocoon.
Cheers
Alexander NIcolas Graf Keyserlingk,
Aboard the good ship Explorer
Somewhere going around the world in 104 days.
Time of my email Greenwich Mean Time
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1 comment:
Good observation about shared space and time. I remember my internship days fondly. Not because it was fun but because we all knew it would end at certain time and we had people we could share our joys and miseries with.
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