30. April 2024 Adriaan, our second officer

Last minute kommt noch ein Interview mit Adriaan, unserem Second Officer, der von Kuba bis Texel an Bord war.

Adriaan, our second officer © Jan
Beitragsbild: Unser Schiff an der Pier auf Texel © Peggy

 
What’s your name, how old are you and where are you from?
Okay, so my name is Adriaan. I'm from the Netherlands. I'm 30 years old.
 
Do you have a pet?
Yeah, Koda, my dog. Koda is from a farm close to Kiel. She's a Jack Russell terrier and she is just over one year old.
 
How did you come to sailing?
Well, family. My parents and grandparents all grew up sailing as a hobby. And for us it was always holidays to go sailing somewhere on a boat in the Netherlands, mostly on lakes. And then throughout the years the boats kept getting bigger and the travels further away. And one day it turned out that it became my job.
 
When did you actually start sailing on traditional sailing ships?
The first longer trip on a traditional sailing ship was in October 2013, on the Tres Hombres with Arjen von der Veen as captain. And then the second time I sailed with Arjen as captain, 10 years later, is now here on the Gulden Leeuw.
 
Did you get an apprenticeship or did sailing just happend to you?
I got an apprenticeship later. So it just happened. I started as a trainee on the Tres Hombres, around 7 months, like you guys. And then we went to England with the Tres Hombres and I asked around a little bit in the crew if there was a job to get somehow, and they got me in touch with a boat in England and I met up with them there. After the journey with the Tres Hombres was done, I was home for one and a half, two weeks, and then my first job started as a deckhand on a traditional sailing boat in England.

So you started as a deckhand and then worked your way up?
Yeah, so I was a deckhand and then I got some more experience and then somebody said, ”Okay, it's time to go to school and get some more paperwork, so you can become an officer.“ I became officer and now I’m still your officer or captain.
 
How did you come to the Gulden Leeuw?
Throughout the Class Afloat actually. During Class Afloat, the school was responsible for hiring  the maritime crew. The ship was only doing the captain and first officer, the rest was international hired throughout the school. And I saw an advert that they were looking for crew, applied on Facebook and got a job as second officer for the first time in 2018. I really enjoyed it, so then I started coming back through the years. I sail the short bits, two months, to make sure that the main crew can go on holiday. Second time with High seas was in Panama, third time in Cuba. It's kind of whenever High Seas is in the Panama-Cuba area I’m here. First time in a while I actually sailed back with the Gulden Leeuw.
 
So what's your favourite ship that you work on?
Favourite ship to work on? Gulden Leeuw. Because of the nice people.
 
And favourite ship for sailing?
For sailing? Tres Hombres!
 
What’s one crazy stories that you can tell?
This is getting published, right? On the Tres hombres, we were crossing from east to west and we had some days without wind. So there's no motor, you have to just float around a little bit. And as we were floating around, we got visited by a group of humpback whales. We were just sitting around there and I was just looking in the water and all of a sudden I was like, ”That looks big.“ And there was like a whale coming beneath us. They were going really close underneath the boat and just played around a little bit. Then they were gone and we went swimming. But there was one girl, a trainee, it was her birthday. And so we were swimming and I'm standing on the boat and as we were looking at her swimming in the water, you could see the whales coming back underneath her. They were around her, so we quickly threw some goggles in the water. Like, ”Quick, quick, quick, put them on.“ And she put them on and she was like, ”What?“ We were like, ”Look underneath you!“ And she just goes underwater, the whale was directly under her. And she was the only one that saw them in the water, on her birthday. She was freaking out a little bit, but really out of excitement.
 
What's your favourite position?
I've been first officer. I've been second officer. I've been captain.
 
And you've been deckhand?
Deckhand, not on board here.
 
What's your favourite position on this boat?
You know, I really like to change it up a little bit. As the captain you can be in charge, so you can do things your way. That's what I like about it. Then it's also nice if you're working as a captain a lot, you can sometimes come as an officer and not have always the end responsibility. Then it's nice to come as an officer. You might as well come as a second officer. So you have even less responsibilities. You can do the watches and have a bit more fun, and do some other stuff. So I like to change it up a little bit.
 
What's one thing that you like about the job of being the second officer?
Not having as much responsibility. You have responsibility in the watches, but not like the end responsibility. Because then if it gets too tricky, you can be like ”Oh, we’re dragging anchor.“ Call the captain. Somebody else can make the end decisions. And you’re just the assistant in alarms, that’s nice.
 
What's your motto?
A motto I recently came across is: ”I’ve never done it, so I probably can“
 
Anything else you want to say?
„Immer eine handbreit Wasser unter dem Kiel!“ 
Yeah, we don’t have it here in Texel

---- 
 
Das Interview wurde von mir ein wenig gekürzt und zusammengefasst.
 
Ansonsten viele Grüße von uns allen nach Hause, wir freuen uns auf euch.
Man sieht sich in Bremerhaven,
Anni