I had given up on the dream; crossing the North Sea, skimming the waves on the Sea Stallion. The weak wind and the lazy swell we had in the beginning of yesterday is not the what the Sea Stallion was built for.
As the sprinter she is she craves wind
That came at the end of the day. In a short while we accelerated from boring 2-3 knots to 8-9 knots. From a depressed feeling of us almost not moving with this sloppy sail above us. To the intoxicating feeling of sitting on the wash strake in windward side with a firm grip on the shrouds, trimming the ship - that is with our wight trying to counterbalance most of the leering caused by the wind, when a fresh to a hard breeze is suddenly slowed by a sail of 112 square metres.
On board we sing, tell stupid jokes and dance to keep warm, all while the Sea Stallion is skimming the waves.
In the evening a motor boat is sighted in the horizon a couple of points to port side. It is heading right for us. When it is pretty close, we can hear on the radio midships, that it is John Robertson in ´Island Fox´ - the Scottish escort ship who is to take over after ´Cable One.´
With them they bring Werne, the photograph of the Viking Ship Museum, who is filming as much as he can, when the two ships are side by side. There is also a three man big tv-crew from BBC. The deep humming from the motor boat and the wind's singing on the Sea Stallion makes conversation impossible, but there is a lot of waving and taking photographs. I can see from their enthusiastic faces and body language that the Sea Stallion looks beautiful to night.
The BBC-crew comes on board. A very smiling soundman, a concentrated cameraman with the biggest camera I've ever seen on his shoulders and a tv-host with long, dark and dripping wet hair. I can see, that the tv-host is only dressed in a thin shirt behind the thin yellow waterproof clothes, and the other two are dressed even more badly. They are not even wearing waterproof clothes. And rain is pouring down upon the ship.
Here I am with three layers of woolen clothes under the rescue suit from Viking and with both a woolen cap and a sou´wester on my head... and think back, smiling, on the first time I went to sea with a completely wrong gear. You only do that once. Except for the clothes for shore leave the equipment for a summer sail resembles most of all the equipment for a vacation of skiing.
”Oh… what a nasty weather out here,” the tv-host says, ”don’t you feel miserable?”. But we don't. We are sailing. And we are sailing fast. We are having a very good time!
As the poorly dressed tv-crew are getting wetter and wetter and get their interviews the Orkney Islands are sighted starbord side. At the same time the mobile phone connects to a transmitter on land and three lovely text-messages from the girlfriend back home. And at three o'clock in the night we put in to the quay in the main city, Kirkwall.
The rain is pouring down again. And have done so for hours. Everything and everyone are drenched, as we are accomodated in the sail club.
Next morning I have astern duty af the mandatory oatmeal porridge. As I do the dishes and cups in a bucket, the BBC-crew reappear.
"Hi... is that Viking dishwashing machine?" asks the tv-host asks. I laugh and replies, that you can call it that if you like. "Okay... tell me how are you feeling today?"
”I am thrilled. It’s absolutely great to be here in Kirkwall. We had a perfect sailing last night”.
”Good to hear but isn’t that easy to say now that you are ashore warm and dry? You all looked quite miserable to me in the North Sea last night”.
”We did? Well it might be that we looked miserable but I can asure you that we had a great time. We had good wind and were doing 8-10 knots and the rain just helped to keep us awake. Couldn’t be much better”.
After a few more questions the tv-crew leaves and enters the quay to get a few more comments.
It is the 18. day of our long voyage. Midships we pool our our laundry. Two piles; one with woolen clothes and everything else in the other. Søren leaves for the laundry. Carli is moving the provisions. Preben finds an internet-café, we have to send home our diaries and logs. Louise is preparing the next day's talk about the Sea Stallion in the yacht club. Jakob is preparing the vegetables for the supper. There is a thousand things to take of on a ship, when you´re ashore.
At 18 pm we all go to the quay to wave 'Cable One' goodbye. Or 'Kawel Jen' as we call it in a heavy West-jutlandic accent. I have to turn my back to the splendid Jutlanders as they unfast the ship. So no-one can see the lump in my throat and my moist eyes. I will miss the fine people on board, the dry humour and the loving care.
I hear the cook, Jens, and Dylan say to each other, that the crew of 'Cable One' were relaxed and highly professional at the same time. And that is just what they were: Relaxed and highly professional.
I decide I will get the names and adresses of all the crew. Then I can ask Ole Sohn and the publishing company to send them all a copy of my book on the Sea Stallion and the expedition to Dublin, when the book is out in the fall. I don't know if I will be on board when the Sea Stallion is going to sail from Dublin to Roskilde in 2008. But I know that I hope that 'Cable One' will join as escort ship again.