Channel Fever

…You don’t have to open the medical books for it, you won’t find it in it.
This disease usually happens to the seafarer.

If you have been swarming around the world’s seas for a long time, you are longing more and more for home.
This disease strikes you when you sailing home.

You enter ‘The Channel’ towards the ‘Strait of Calais’ and then reach the North Sea.
The home port of IJmuiden is another day to sail.

Nearby.

The marconist starts looking for Dutch channels and as soon as a Dutch song sounds, the fever is further increased.
It is contagious, it ignites everyone on board.
The desires for home, wife, children, girlfriend, partner or the café are growing more and more.
Some of them, via the marconist, already call home.
Just a little more sailing and then for the shore.
You are already looking forward to it.

But then opposite orders come in: turn around, hand over the towage to another tug and move the course to the other side of the ocean.
The fever quickly diminishes, but the disappointment increases.

Unfortunately, it happened to me too.
We were so close by.