"Are you going to Scotland... are you going to Scotland, huh?"
Skipper is having a three months old baby on his arm on the "Havnehagen," a café in the harbour of Egersund. His neighbour from Orø and a couple of Norwegian friends have just arrived. And it is the baby of the Norwegian couple, skipper has on his arm.
A couple of witty people from the Sea Stallion thinks that the baby, with a brown woolen cap and woolen sweater, is hardly distinguishable from Søren, the mate midships. But probably Søren will stay on ship and the baby on land.
We been travelling for a couple of weeks now. Most of the time have been spent waiting in Spangereid, where Jarle Fjeldskår and Anne Tone Kåfjord for ten days welcomed us. What a fantastic hospitality!
As we arrived in Egersund yesterday, we were once again met with the warmest welcome imaginable; Lasse, a splendid fellow from Vendsyssel (part of Jutland), who've been living in Scotland for many years, saw us put in to the harbour of Egersund in pouring rain. He immediately contacted a friend who owns a large fishing ship. And a couple of hours later everything was ready on the 60 metres long fishing ship, and every crewmember could spend the night there under cover if they wanted to. And have their clothes dried before the sail across the North Sea.
Egersund is - measured in volume - the greatest fishing harbor in Norway, Lasse told us. Every year 400.000 tons of fish is landed here. Mostly trash fish for fish oil.
I chose, however, to stay on the quay and sleep in a tent. With three days of rain and wind on the North Sea waiting i might as well get used to getting a little cold and damp, I think.
But I will allow myself a little luxury before departure. Visit a Café and take a long hot shower... and then dress in the same woolen underwear, i wore yesterday... and the day before. Urrgh!
I am pretty impressed with the Ice Breaker woolen underwear, in which part of the crew including my self have invested. I originally took it for commercial-talk, when I read that the producer promised that the long underpants and the woolen vest doesn't need cleaning and doesn't smell for a month. But so far it is true. The underwear is warm, dry and doesn't smell... at least not much, even though we at times sweat a lot, when we work at the ship.
Spirits are still high on board. Yesterday I heard Henrik in one of the rum (section of the ship) compose a new verse for the Sea Stallion ballad:
"We only sail in rain. We only sail in rain. We only sail in rain... and then against the wind. And if you take a tow, then do not make a row...!"
Well, it is not perfect yet, but it will be. There will be plenty of time on the North Sea the next three days. And when considering the weather forecast - lots of rain and winds - I am sure that Henrik will find a lot of inspiration out there.
Egersund treated us well. Swedish Åsa and Johan went to the baker's yesterday. The baker gave the crewmembers seven plasticbags of bread and buns for free, and when the cooks went shopping they got 30 kilos of carrots, mushrooms and red pepper. All for free.
It looks like I will be able to write my diary during the sail across the North Sea; when I last night wrote for the website on ´Cable One,´ the BBC-journalist Nathan, who is following us all through the test sail, said he could send the diaries for me, when he was sending his television-items for BBC anyway.
Skipper gave us a short briefing after the oatporridge this morning: The eastern wind ought to be here already at 22 tonight. If the weather forecast this evening says the same, we will put to sea with the course set for the northern Scotland. Maybe a bit more north for tomorrow the wind will turn to northwest; the further we can go to northwest the better. The wind is 10 m/sec (a fresh breeze) or a little more, which is rather perfect.
We will sail wearing our survival suits from the beginning, skipper says, and must prepare for three nights at sea on the North Sea... and quite a bit of rain.
I´m excited. The trip across the North Sea will be the first real test of ship and crew. Later even bigger challenges are waiting in the waters north and west of Scotland. That makes me even more excited.