I flew into Frankfurt to get a connecting flight into Cairo, I was nervous at first as I have never flown alone but things went smoothly from start to finish and at 0500 on the 16th May we finally got to our hotel. My anticipation to start took a heavy blow at first as we had to spend a long hot day inside a vastly empty hotel. However, at 0300 hours I was awoken to find my agent waiting outside to take us to the port.
I had imagined me boarding the Maersk Shanghai many times, the scenario went like, she was in port alongside all we had to do was walk up the ramp and that was that. However, as our agent dropped us off at the port and made us walk along a strange dust road at 0400 hours in the morning I realised when we on the wrong side of the canal to be boarding. This is when I realised the start of my first trip would kick off with a boarding at “sea”, not really at sea we were a few hundred metres from the shore. As we watched ship by ship go by onboard our old wooden pilot boat, I got more and more anxious to step from one boat to another at sea carrying my very heavy suitcase, to be honest it wasn’t something I had much experience of doing before. Despite my last-minute panic attack, I have managed to make it on board alive and have settled into my cabin already. All this before 6 o’clock in the morning!! Do not miss school or exams at all, this is the life.
First impressions you can tell the vessel is still relatively new everything looks to be in a good condition except my bedsheets. I spoke with an engineer shortly after boarding and he says to have some time off and this is hectic time for the crew, I am fine with that as I haven’t had much sleep the last few days so I am away to find new sheets and get some rest.
121 days to go!
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