Reading about the sea in navy magazines as a kid stoked Chen Yecheng's interest in all things maritime, ships and boats in particular.

The 20-year-old student was lucky to join the Gotheborg, a Swedish sailing ship, on February 26 in Cape Town, South Africa, on a journey that took him across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and ended up in Fremantle, Australia, on May 13.

As part of the celebrations between Sweden and China, the replica of the 18th-century East Indiaman trading ship started the journey last October tracing the same route as the historical trade vessels followed 260 years ago. Two students from Shanghai, Zhu Huifang, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Chen, from Shanghai Maritime University, were picked as the only Chinese sailors aboard the Gotheborg where the other 55 apprentice sailors were mainly from Scandinavia.

Tanned and strong, the two young people say they had an extraordinary experience aboard the Gotheborg. There were boring daily duties, seasickness, difficulties in communicating, shabby living conditions and strange Scandinavian food, but the experience of sailing the high seas more than made up.

"On the ship, there were no real beds, but hammocks," says Zhu who suffered from severe seasickness at the beginning. "I missed the bed in my university dormitory so much at that time. Now I'm back, but I miss my hammock on the ship."
Zhu admits that though modern life is convenient, it is also not without its worries. "When I was on ship, I never worried about anything. Daily life was very simple. After eight hours of work, I just relaxed, we lived like farmers." Back to life in Shanghai, Zhu is worried about studying, finding an internship and job hunting.

"On the first day of our life aboard, we were both shocked by the training," recalls Zhu. They had to learn many basic skills, such as climbing up the masts to the top platform -- almost a mission impossible for them. Though they thought they were good athletes among their peers in China, they were surprised at the strength and flexibility of the other Swedish sailors.

"Almost all Swedes can ski and rock-climb," says Zhu, whose body was covered with bruises at the very beginning. "But after just two weeks, we had no problem with the climbing." Practice makes perfect, Zhu points at her firm arm and says, "you see, I have more muscles now."

Their biggest obsession aboard was the terrible food -- Chen lost more than 10 kilograms. "They ate too much cheese and a lot of it smelled too strong for me. They only provided bread at breakfast and it was cold," Chen recalls.

When he starts talking about the food, Chen's face slumps remembering how little he enjoyed it. "It was too bad. I couldn't swallow it. So even if I was starving, I still didn't touch the food."

They found a little relief when two journalists from CCTV, aboard to report on the epic voyage, invited them to eat something they'd cooked. "Actually, what they had was no more than instant noodles but one or two bites of it was sometimes more than I'd eat for the rest of the day," says Chen.

For the duo, there were moments of loneliness as most of the people aboard spoke Swedish, especially when any emergency arose, although the working language was English.

"I can understand why -- they were all Swedish. They would find it easier to communicate in Swedish when something was very urgent," says Chen. "But at that time, we really felt that we were useless, because we could do nothing to help."

However, there was something that made them feel proud -- Zhu was asked to teach the officers and sailors Chinese. "I was happy to hear some of them say 'thank you' or 'I love Chinese friends' in Chinese," says Zhu who used to teach Chinese in Shanghai. She was also invited to design a Chinese logo for the Gotheborg which featured a dragon.

"Many people in my family are painters. I started drawing at an early age but still spent a lot of time figuring out the image of the dragon," Zhu chuckles.

As a student majoring in navigation, Chen's experience on the Gotheborg has solidified his dream of working at sea.

"For those who have never been sailing on a ship, they will never understand what life is like at sea," says Chen."Now my classmates are kind of envious."

After returning to school, Chen is even more interested in his major. "I think I have a better understanding when the teacher talks about rules at sea, such as ISM, STCW78/95 and climatic phenomena," he says, adding that his dream is to be a chief officer on a ship. "I have not yet seen enough sunrises and sunsets. I need to experience more at sea."

Following Chen and Zhu, another two Chinese sailors from Beijing boarded the Gotheborg in Australia and sail to Indonesia. Another four sailors will be chosen from Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, and Shanghai for the last two legs: from Indonesia to Guangzhou and from Guangzhou to Shanghai. The ship will stop in Guangzhou for a month and sets off in early August for Shanghai.

After nearly 240 years, the Gotheborg has been rebuilt and now is a magnificent wooden sailing ship on her maiden voyage to Guangzhou and Shanghai in China.

Editor: Donald