Some­whe­re in the midd­le of nowhe­re bet­ween Ice­land and Jan May­en

Thu
18 Jun
2015

We left Isaf­jör­dur on Mon­day evening, and today it is … let me think … Thurs­day. Had the wind been a bit more fri­end­ly, we should see Jan May­en now, but as it was, we still have about 150 nau­ti­cal miles bet­ween us and the island. The wind was not too strong (that was the good news), but exact­ly against us (that was the bad news). That did not make us fas­ter or life on board more com­for­ta­ble.

So 3 days will soon have gone. On the first day, the fee­ling of latent sea­sick­ness was never far away, and I was hap­py that I had alre­a­dy got some warm-up exer­cise on SV Anti­gua some weeks ago. Others who did not enjoy this advan­ta­ge, have … – no, no fur­ther details.

The wind has cal­med down con­sider­a­b­ly last night, and our speed has increased. Jan May­en is get­ting clo­ser and sea sick­ness seems to be a mat­ter of the past for the moment. Break­fast is cer­tain­ly enjoy­ing increased popu­la­ri­ty today.

As nobo­dy can tell when peo­p­le are able and wil­ling to eat some­thing, the­re are no set times for meals here at sea. When­ever you feel hun­gry, you go and get some­thing. Bread and Müs­li are always available, and in the after­noon Sig­gi is pre­pa­ring some­thing hot, which in the last two days invol­ved pas­ta and red sau­ce, a hear­ty mee­ting of Ita­ly and Mexi­co, good stuff. But as ever­y­bo­dy comes (or not) when he or she feels like it, you don’t real­ly meet peo­p­le the­se days. Some lea­ve their bunks only when they real­ly can’t avo­id it. Shared acti­vi­ties around the table are not an opti­on, emer­gen­cy exits need to be available for almost ever­yo­ne at any time. You don’t want to play cards with a bucket on the table, serious­ly. So at the moment ever­y­bo­dy is living a life on his own, enjoy­ing or suf­fe­ring, rea­ding, lis­tening to some music or a con­ver­sa­ti­on here and the­re. Sail­or Franz (we know him from Arc­ti­ca II, last August) spends most of the time on the stee­ring wheel. Other than that, the who­le spec­trum is repre­sen­ted. From a young Ame­ri­can cou­ple who didn’t know that Jan May­en exis­ted until they met Sig­gi a cou­ple of years ago to a Ger­man who has a map of Jan May­en on the wall sin­ce he was 12. So for some a long-time dream will come true now.

Enough for now. Con­side­ring that not much has hap­pen­ed so far, I have actual­ly writ­ten a lot.

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

I won’t take the lap­top ashore on Jan May­en, so most likely the­re will be silence for a good week. We will see. Fin­gers crossed.

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