Night driving! Another harrowing adventure on the high seas.
This time we were not sailing, we had a motor. That was good. having to be concerned with getting the wind to move the boat would be quite distracting to the goal of this trip: night navigation.
The craft for our journey into the inky blackness of the Nordic night was a 50 foot fishing boat. Built in the 1930's. And it has an inside, in fact it has 2 insides! The wheel house sits in the middle of the boat; it has an actual wheel, with wooden handles sticking out the sides and everything, and a few small rooms extend behind this wheel which became our Navigation Rooms. The working space here was minimal. if you pack it in, you could squeeze 3 people in the wheel house, and maybe 4 in the Navigation Rooms, breathing would be difficult like this, and all 7 would have to get out to let the guy in the back out. We had 3 inside most of the time, and that was about right.
The rest of the people, 7 minus 3 is....um....4, yea, the other 4 would usually endure the driving of the first 3 in the front of the boat, down under the deck in the 'living quarters'. Here again, space was limited. There were 3 bunks, each about the size of me, the one I had was a bit smaller. And I mean the size of me. I could place my feet flat on one end, and my head hit the other, it was wider then my shoulders, but not my much, and when I turned over, my shoulder hit the ceiling. It was a bit claustrophobic. Think 'US Submarine' and your getting close. We had 3 of those in the wall, a small table and enough room to seat 7. And when 7 were seated the room was completely full. Totally full. Nobody else would fit, unless they sat on the ladder, but that's cheating.
Øystain and I were up first. Part of our 'homework' before embarking on this journey was to make a plan. And did we ever make a plan. We had our nav points picked, our headings measured, and our Time Till Next Turn calculated down to the second. We were so ready.
We took over the helm just after we cleared the harbor, and headed for our first light house. That was easy. Steering was not so easy, but I was sure it would get easy with some practice. Then we hit upon our first nav point change, and we couldn't find the next lighthouse. It was only about 10 miles away, and we figured we could easily see it. We learn something here. So we go to our Plan B: Aim North and Miss the Land. That goes pretty well. Soon, our missing lighthouse did show up, and we jump back on to our Plan A, and steer a straight line for it, keeping the light between red and white. That doesn't really work either. Steering is much more difficult then it looks. This boat drives like a Cadillac; keeping it on a straight enough course to stay on this red-white line as we bounce through the waves is nearly impossible. And we had this lighthouse in front of us. I try to imagine what it would be like on the last 2/3Rd's of our trip where our wonderfully laid out plan calls for steering a straight line for 15 miles guided by a lighthouse behind us. Yea, I start looking for a plan D.
The other guys take over soon after these Navigational Revelations, and Øystain and I retire to the comfy confine of our cabin. I sit down and toss my feet up on the wall, and remark, 'This ain't a bad way to travel.'. Øystain's laughter broke me out of my deeply reflective state, 'Would you have said that 4 months ago?' waving an arm across the old, cramped, decrepit and slightly smelly cabin. Perhaps this school has had an effect on my outlook....
We nearly make our destination a bit after midnight, and stop for the night at harbor. The next morning Øystain goes shopping to find some potato chips to go with with the Coke we got at the last gas station.. that would have been perfect navigation food.. and the rest of us go out for a walk heading for the same store..and go the wrong way. It was very nice walk through the 'town' that calls this island home. It really is a different world out here, people live on this little island, with one store. We've seen islands with no store.
Our work at the Sheep Island takes us a few hours, including 20 minutes to shoo off the sheep. Our mission on this journey was to deliver a new male sheep, to keep the genetic pool stirred up. We tossed him off the boat, literally. I and literally mean literally. Not how most people say 'literally' but mean 'figuratively' but think that saying 'literally' makes the point stronger. 2 people grab him by the fur, and one guy on the shore takes his rope, and they toss him over the side of the boat, and onto the rocky shore. I am surprised how cat-like a sheep can be, he lands with no problems. But I don't think anyone told him about his fate. He then stands around baying at us...do sheep bay?..whatever sheep do, he's doing it. Seems like he was pissed at being tossed around like that, I think he took it personally. If only he had known we had taken him to an island resort that was filled with a herd of beautiful women, I think he would have had a different tone to his voice.
While waiting until darkness fell, we did some test driving. And we didn't have much time, darkness 'round these parts creaps in 'round 3:30. Tossing a buoy in the water gave us a marker to aim for, and we tried to bring the boat up and stop just touching it. Remember the Cadillac analogy? Think Cadillac on ice. This thing is much harder to move around. Actually moving is OK, it's stopping motion in this frictionless world once it starts that's tough. Damn Issac Newton and his Laws. I actually got the hang of it after the second run, my first pass was bad enough to not tell anymore about, and the second one is great, I manag to stop with the buoy in the right place, but the boat had this rotation thing going that I didn't really know how to get rid off...I mean, I was there and the buoy wasn't moving from the boat, but the world kept drifting right on me. Good thing we were practicing on a buoy and not a dock.
A quick mutiny resulted in us not going back to the school, but instead going straight into Trondheim. The other students were getting up at 6:30am to take a bus to get to the City for a Folkehøgskole Day in the city. We got up at nine, ate and fell out of the boat and we were there. I love that. The trip in was also notable. Waves. Wind. Pirates. Well, OK, no Pirates. The waves were big enough to get our boat to bounce at we did our 7 knots, throwing the bow of the boat (with the living quarters) first up over the wave, then down the backside and into the face of the next wave jarring the ship with the impact and throwing water over the bow covering our windows. It's really quite a sight when you're driving. We slow down when that happens, 'cause the boat is wooden and from the 30s. This section was plagued with the worst conditions we had. Not that 'plagued' or 'worst' are really good words here, it wasn't all that bad, no Perfect Storm. But a few of us began to get queasy stomaches from all the up and down and side to side. Incidentally, the cabin with the bunks is located in the front of the boat, which is why it's so narrow, and why it's called 'The Elevator' by some Danish folk. This is the part the goes the most up and down when you start hitting waves. I can atest to the acuracy of that name.
Øystain and I got to drive us the last have of the way into the City, so we got our fair share of the waves breaking over the bow...ok not really 'breaking' over the bow..more like sea spray... but it was enough to cover the windows and make looking hard. And as hard as driving was on the flat, it was 10 times that now. Imagine that Cadillac on ice, now make that ice wavy with 3 foot hills. Now imaging steering one way, and sliding down the face of a hill another direction. Over-steer was the word for the day. Under Damped Feedback is also good. Positive Feedback and Exponentially Growing Oscillation are also very descriptive of my driving.
Driving the waves was very good, and I now know that I don't want to be a fisherman. 'But you already have a career' I often hear when sharing these kinds of realizations. Thats not that point, the point it that 'I don't want to be a fisherman' irrespective of what career I have or don't have. Driving for a few hours in mild weather is kind of fun, but for a living in the storms.. not for me.
Our journey was coming to an end. We had made it There and Back Again (maybe I should right a book ?) and the rough water was behind us. The radar said no trouble. Radar ? Yes, we had one. Didn't use use it until we were done navigating and just going to Trondheim. It's cool, I may get one for my car. As we pull away from the rough waters, the lights of the city begin to become visible in the night sky. Approaching cities from the water is the best. As we motor in, the light grows in intensity and then the lights begin to separate out and we seethe outline of the city, and then the roads become visible, and soon we can see the major landmarks and building. It is spectacular. The city is on a hill, and it's lit up with the inviting glow of orange street lights. It's very scenic and romantic, despite the wording of that last sentence. There is a marina within the city that we all have seen, the bus/train station is a rocks throw from it. And now we sail into it, at night. We had a bridge open for us! I've never had that happen before, and we motored into the peacefully and serene waters of the city. It was about 10pm, and everything was quite, extra quite for us after the noisy and jarring boat ride. This short 10 minute marina trip into Trondheim is one of my more beautifully memories I have. You'll just have to trust me, words will not do it justice.
Then we tied up, cleaned up, and headed for Pizza. Very good stuff. And really quite good times hanging out with the sailing group off of a boat. We retired or our bunks soon after, and I slept well. Posted by byron at December 07, 2002 08:33 AM