After a few weeks at home, I received an offer I couldn’t refuse, especially since I had taken a liking to maritime medicine in recent years. For this I had to complete a whole series of courses and acquire certificates. My first experiences as a ship’s doctor on a medium-sized cruise liner were rather negative, so that I am now rather skeptical about mass tourism at sea and do not want to work there. My experiences on research and expedition ships have been quite different. The opportunity to work as a ship’s doctor on what is currently the world’s best polar class 6 expedition giga-yacht, equipped among other things with two helicopters, a submarine and a small fleet of zodiac boats, is something you only get once in a lifetime. So first it was off from Santa Maria via Lisbon and Paris to Jeddah to board the ship. In the coming months we will cruise in the Red Sea and make excursions on land and in or under water. Now you can argue whether the ship is a giga-yacht or a mini cruise ship. The key data of 166 m length, 176 seamen crew and a maximum of 200 passengers on trips to polar regions apply to both categories. In any case, it’s an exciting adventure that I’m happy to embark on.
