Tom Döhler
Alright. We’ve had our fair share of rocky anchorages over the last year of cruising. But this – this was something else. Bini was still moored “safely” in Rhodes Marina. The marina is actually quite nice, but has one massive problem: it’s missing a breakwater. That means that in any sort of northerly wind a massive swell gets pushed into the marina and makes the boats rock and roll like you would not believe. This is especially annoying when you are going on a long and important trip the next day, just like the two of us were. Camilla and I had to get up at 04:30 to catch a plane to Munich, where we would be interviewing for jobs. We literally gave up trying to sleep at 03:30 with Bini rocking violently from toe rail to toe rail, instead we just lay there waiting for the alarm to go off. Getting off the boat was a challenge too in these conditions, as we had to pull the boat so far from the wall that we needed to hop in the dinghy and climb ashore if we wanted to leave the boat. Oh well, we made it to the airport and caught a few hours of sleep on the way to Munich. It felt weird being in a big city again after such a long time sailing between the tiny Greek islands. On one hand it’s nice to just be able to walk into a Starbucks and order a skinny-frappe-latte-chino, on the other hand it felt weird having so many people around us all day long. We managed to find a tiny French restaurant to have some lunch before the long interview day. We powered through the rest of the day and managed to make our way onto the train that would bring us to Berlin in the evening, four and a half hours later.
The train was one of those modern ICE trains, going at the mind boggling speed of 260 kilometres and hour. It still felt like it was taking days to get to Berlin, and the seats were not really all that comfy so sleeping was difficult. Anyway, if there is one thing that sailing has taught me then it’s that you will sleep if you are tired enough. I must have been quite tired then, as I startled myself awake with my own snoring a couple of times, despite the horrible seats. The trip from the train station to the hotel was a total blur, we must have both been walking around like total zombies.
We felt better after a nice nights sleep in the hotel, oh what a difference it makes if your bed is not rocking side to side! Our batteries got recharged even more after a healthy breakfast in the hotel, after which I went on to a final interview in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton. Now if I’ve ever been in a posh hotel lobby, this had to be it. Marble everywhere, lush sofa’s and chilled music in the background, people wearing Armani suits – quite a difference to the experience of the last six months. Camilla came out to join me for a drink in the hotel lobby after the interview, we couldn’t help but feel like imposters, sitting there and sipping our latte’s. We enjoyed the experience while it lasted, and headed for a Thai restaurant around the corner for some lunch. During lunch the sky went grey and a horrible thunderstorm went through, with clouds and rain and everything. We hadn’t seen rain for at least 6 months, and were definitely not prepared for this kind of weather. A quick run to the taxi stand and we were on our way to the airport, where we managed to buy a few books to entertain us on the flight back to Rhodes.
