‘I am thinking about stopping sailing’
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Kees Wiersum (62) works as a captain in the tramp trade, on a heavy cargo vessel. He has been sailing for 43 years. Many may know him better as Zware (heavy) Kees, the pseudonym under which he has been writing columns for the Dutch magazine Schuttevaer since 2006. Recently, Kees returned to his alma mater: the Nova College in IJmuiden.
“I am now officially a teacher at the maritime college where I used to study. I had been involved as an external expert for a number of years. And now I also teach: seamanship to first-year students, twice a week. It is a nice transition from the sea to the shore. Before the coronavirus crisis erupted, I had agreed with my employer to have some extra leave in exchange for holiday pay. I wanted to take it easy. But due to the crew relief problems last year, this has unfortunately not happened yet. That is a setback. In any case, since the coronavirus crisis, I find sailing a calamity. We are not allowed to go ashore anywhere and the workload is enormous. It's only work and sleep. In the ports, we work at least 12-hour days, sometimes weeks on end. Then every day is Monday, a long Monday. I am pessimistic about sailing, definitely. But maybe I've had enough. Now that I am at the maritime college, I am considering sailing less or even stopping altogether. Of course I will lose some of my pension, but I have built up a pre-pension. If I add that to my income as a teacher and columnist, I can get through the few years until I retire. I do, however, look back positively on my years at sea. I have done one and a half million nautical miles, I have sailed around Cape Horn and around the north of Russia. Wonderful, I wouldn't have wanted to miss it.” ←