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June 6, 2015

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Home » District » Pudong

Polar delights and the deep blue sea

By Qu Zhi | June 6, 2015, Saturday | Print Edition

WAKING up in a world of ice and snow, Gong Huijia looked out the window and saw a polar bear roaming around. When recalling her voyage to the North Pole, the 32-year-old sailor can’t help but smile.

Last year, Gong boarded the Chinese icebreaker and polar research vessel Xuelong (Snow Dragon). As the only woman on the ship she went to the North Pole and Antarctica.

“It has been two months since I’ve been back and I’m still a little bit spaced out. The voyage was like a dream,” she tells Shanghai Daily.

Gong is also a lecturer at Shanghai Maritime University in Pudong New Area teaching ship communication. Now back at the school, the young teacher has more experiences to share with her students.

Before boarding Xuelong to the polar region, Gong worked on a merchant vessel, moving up in rank from an ordinary sailor to second officer.

“In six years, I only spent two Chinese New Year holidays with my family. A sailor needs a lot of experience but I have my studies (she is studying for a PhD) so I sailed as often as I could during the holidays,” she says.

She says the manual labor can be difficult and cleaning the engine room is particularly tough as it can be 40 degrees Celsius in the room. Gong remembers fainting on one occasion while working in the engine room.

“And when I woke up, my work still had to be done and I had to finish it myself. But as long as you love what you do, everything is worth it,” she says.

Ship journeys can last three or four months and for many the idea of being trapped on a ship without the Internet and nothing but the sea surrounding them may seem rather tedious.

“Many people ask me if I get bored. But the truth is never. I guess this is really the right job for me. Every time I gaze out at the sea I have a feeling of deep contentment. Like all the worries in life vanish in a moment,” Gong says.

In 2010, Gong applied for a job on the icebreaker Xuelong and four years later she finally got the chance.

Before going to the North Pole, Gong had a trial voyage on Xuelong to get familiar with the ship’s facilities and equipment.

“I already had many years of sailing experience so I thought it wouldn’t be much different,” Gong recalls.

But she was wrong. Sailing when the sea is covered by ice is more difficult than she first thought. The weather in the Arctic is often foggy, and sailors can only distinguish the thickness of the ice by its color. Thicker ice normally is darker.

“But with poor visibility it can be very tough to tell the color. Sailing on the sea ice is at times like sailing in a maze. After sailing for a while you realize you’ve reached a dead-end because the ice is too thick to break through,” she says.

With all the pressure, Gong says she was tense all the time.

“I slept lightly. Sometimes I woke up three or four times with a start,” she recalls.

Nonetheless, on her latest voyage to the South Pole, Gong says she was more relaxed.

“The cruise to Antarctica is much more dangerous compared to the North Pole. You see icebergs the same size as three football fields,” she says.

During the 163-day voyage, Gong was promoted to second chief and she says her main duties involved passage planning, as well as managing the equipment and facilities on the bridge.

“The whole crew had great attitudes. We jested that we were in the best resort. The vessel lurched like we were having a massage. The cabin is small but with grand sea views. In the steaming hot engine room, we pretended we were having a sauna,” she says in a cheerful tone.

To reach the South Pole the ship sailed across the “secret veil” of subpolar westerlies.

“The area is notorious among sailors due to the harsh weather, with frequent cyclones, violent storms and huge waves,” Gong says.

“During this part of the voyage I was sitting on a chair. Without noticing, all of sudden, I slid outside the room,” she says, noting how choppy the sea was that day.

She says those tough days are worth it because sailors get to see some extraordinary sights like the sea turning pink and the sky red at sunset. They also witnessed a tornado above the sea, magnificent auroras and got to shake hands with penguins.

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” she says.

Being a sailor was never a childhood dream, but she says more than a decade ago she saw a report about Shanghai Maritime University’s female students and decided to apply.

“I wanted to see a different world,” Gong says.

Later, she was enrolled and became one of a handful female students in the college. From diving and fire control knowledge to navigation, the more she learned the more fascinated she became.

“To be a great sailor you need to understand both astronomy and geography. Although we have advanced equipment to pinpoint our location, this knowledge is still important,” she says.

After having completed many voyages, Gong hopes one day she can take a round-the-world voyage.

“Although being a captain is still my dream and I will strive for it, right now I want to spend more time with my parents and my husband,” says Gong.

Pudong


 

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