The Voyage: Monday November 16

Position: 49°57'3.56"N 1°55'43.78"W

I woke up too late for breakfast and Speedy raised his eyebrows at me. What we'd learned about Speedy was this: he is a man of few words, and speaks mostly with his eyebrows. He did give us some coffee, though, but no more. Quite rightly: we had been told there was a strict programme that allowed them to look after us and then carry on with their other jobs. So it was our own fault.

The sea was quite rough, and when we went out on the deck to feel the wind and see the waves, we were told we shouldn't. The outside deck was closed until further notice. We were cooped up on one floor. 4 bedrooms and a living room. And a long narrow corridor.

We started writing our second letter, but that proved too much for some. Seasickness set in. It would be an exaggeration to say we dropped like flies, but one after the other went to lie down.

Some of us were still in the living room when the captain came in to invite us up on the bridge. It was great. It was bigger than I expected (certainly a lot bigger than the steering house on the Schönbrunn in Linz), and one of the officers explained some of the equipment to us. The boat was on auto pilot, so the crew on the bridge mainly watched the horizon and the radar screens for other ships.

Everyone ate lunch, which means no one was too sick to eat.

After lunch we opened the suitcase Marie, our designer, had sent out with us. Each of us was given a disposable camera and a letter that included instructions of how to use it. The letters said that we had to keep our mission secret, so I'm afraid I can't tell you what they were. I could only tell you mine, anyway, as I don't know the others. That's how secret it is.

The suitcase also held a number of random items that didn't come with instructions: a green plastic flask, a woolly hat, pyjama's, a pair of golden shoes, a jacket, a picture frame, some sort of furry cushion, a stone etnic sculpture in the shape of a penis and a box of starch that had spilled its contents all over everything else.
I took the penis sculpture.

It would be up to us to see how we could use it.

After all of that excitement, we all went to take a nap: some people were seasick, others had been up all night watching the boat pull out of the harbour.

At 4pm we were expected on the bridge for safety instructions. Kieran tried out the full body wet suit. He managed to put it on within the three minutes that are allotted to this procedure.

the suit

phase 1: legs are in

phase 2: head through the hole

phase 3: swing forward to flip flap over head

phase 4: zip and roll up flap

phase 5: grab the ends of rolled up flap

phase 6: clip ends of roll up flap to buckle on chest

Afterwards, some people went to lie down again. I have to add here that it was force 5, so the sea was really very rough.

I started my mission with the disposable camera and included the stone penis in my mission. After about 15 minutes I broke it.

Kjell did another round of interviews with us.

I recorded a video message to Marie apologising for breaking the penis.

Everyone appeared at dinner, which pleased Speedy and Mario, as it meant none of us were too sick to eat. Yet.

After dinner we watched Pirates of the Caribbean.