19 June 2006
Sports on board
by Hiba, onboard the Rainbow Warrior
Have you ever thought of the amount of space we have got when living on a ship, or when waiting to defend the Mediterranean?A small cabin that we share with one or three others, lots of tight corridors and stairways, which you slip on easily when the boat is rocking; the “mess”, a “social” room with banks and tables in which you can eat, meet or just rest and hide from the sun; the kitchen, our cook’s sacred space, and not to be messed around with; the radio room, our only thread of communication to the outside world (thank god for that!); the engine rooms full of machines and loud noises, that could easily make you go deaf (I don’t know how the engineers on board handle all that noise all day!); and most important of all, the bridge, the center of our ship, and what will become Nils’ sports center.
Lots of rooms but very little wide-open space, and only water
around us.
Why Nils' sports center? Well, despite the little space we have got on board of our ship, Nils, the second mate, has managed a way to do his daily jogging. For 3 continuous hours, non-stop, he walks in circles on the deck around the bridge (and note, that it is only a 5 by 5 metre room).
I was sitting there on the deck, trying to nurse my starting seasickness, and here was Nils, with his big happy smile, passing before my eyes every almost 40 seconds, just like a clock ticking. I was getting dizzier and dizzier by the minute. I could actually hear him approaching every time with his loud music coming out of his earphones, and a mechanical step that felt eternally ongoing. So I did the counts: there are 10 800 seconds in 3 hours, which means he did around 270 roundsÂ… I leave it up to your math skills to calculate the distance he walks everyday.
“It’s good! You also relax and hear music… When I’m in the city I walk 4-5 hours, but here, it’s okay, I just go in circles…”, he said. Would you have done it?
I donÂ’t know how creative one can get about doing daily sports on board... if you come up with any ideas, let me know, Nils might be doing it next.
Why Nils' sports center? Well, despite the little space we have got on board of our ship, Nils, the second mate, has managed a way to do his daily jogging. For 3 continuous hours, non-stop, he walks in circles on the deck around the bridge (and note, that it is only a 5 by 5 metre room).
I was sitting there on the deck, trying to nurse my starting seasickness, and here was Nils, with his big happy smile, passing before my eyes every almost 40 seconds, just like a clock ticking. I was getting dizzier and dizzier by the minute. I could actually hear him approaching every time with his loud music coming out of his earphones, and a mechanical step that felt eternally ongoing. So I did the counts: there are 10 800 seconds in 3 hours, which means he did around 270 roundsÂ… I leave it up to your math skills to calculate the distance he walks everyday.
“It’s good! You also relax and hear music… When I’m in the city I walk 4-5 hours, but here, it’s okay, I just go in circles…”, he said. Would you have done it?
I donÂ’t know how creative one can get about doing daily sports on board... if you come up with any ideas, let me know, Nils might be doing it next.
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