After my first two long sailing summers on the Baltic Sea, I flew to New Zealand in late 2010 to sail from Auckland to Hamburg with the 17-meter deep-sea yacht of the Berlin ASV. Here I was not alone on board, but part of a mostly ten-headed crew. The most important change was therefore the briefing of my sailors: What is diabetes? How do others recognize hypoglycaemia? What to do in an emergency?
The first stage from New Zealand to Ushuaia / Tierra del Fuego presented an immense challenge to the ship and crew: 5500 nautical miles of South Pacific without land in sight, 5 weeks non-stop at sea, the entire crew involved in a 24-hour watch system, storms beyond Orkang Range – and at the end of Mount Everest the sailors: Cape Horn. The experiences gathered on my Baltic Sea cruises formed the basis for the fact that I had dared me and my diabetes these hardships at all.
Was something to optimize too?
Yes, for example, the prevention of seasickness. Scopolamine patches, which are stuck behind the ears, stabilize the body’s own balance system. A second important change concerned the blood sugar measurement: I no longer determine my blood sugar with individual measuring strips, but with a measuring device, which can be comfortably operated with only one hand and 50 measurements per test cassette allowed – even in storm, even in the rain, too with links.