Race One - Belfast, Northern Ireland to Alesund, Norway

This sail was anything but dull!  It was one of the most varied passages I've had on board, hard to believe it was only 9 days long!  As the title says, this leg was one of the tall ships races for the summer.  Racing means sailing, not motoring, and sailing more aggressively than we might do otherwise.  We started off with a gentle sail out to the start line and a couple hours at anchor to avoid crossing the line too early.  Then once the race began we had strong winds, largeish seas and lots of seasick people.  While the winds lasted we kept up good speed, getting over 12 knots and holding 11 knots for an entire 4 hour watch. As the race went on the winds died down at bit, till they were almost gone at the end.  The exciting thing was that we amongst the leaders for most of the race and finished in second place!  As we crossed the line everyone was on deck, we cheered and blew the horn and congratulated ourselves on a job well done.  Of the three Norwegian tall ships Sorlandet is considered the "little sister" so it was quite a nice feeling to be second overall and ahead of the other Norwegian ships.  We also won the award for most international crew so quite an exciting time to be on board.

Crossing the finish line

As we left Belfast a bagpiper in a boat came by and serenaded us!

At the end of the race we were in the Arctic Ocean which may account for the cool weather we've been having.  Since we finished the race early and didn't have to be in Alesund right away we were able to take a trip into the Geirangerfjord.  Absolutely stunning!  Spent a day going down the fjord, a day at anchor and then another day leaving.  At anchor a bunch of us went swimming! Although we missed the "official" swim call Nadia & I did our own swim call during our afternoon break.  Yes, it was cold!  And now I can say I've swum above the 62nd parallel.

It was another full crew, 88 people on board as well as a new cook, Kerry, who joined us in Belfast.  Needless to say galley was not dull this leg.  Two of the people who joined for this sail were Sture's (captain) father and daughter.  They sailed with us last year as well, from Edinburgh to Kristiansand for the Class Afloat graduation.  This summer they were here a bit longer and I got to know them both more.  Ariel is 7 and is just starting to learn English at school, I am trying to learn a little Norwegian and having her around was a great opportunity to practice and learn some new words and phrases. She was quite patient most of the time though she was quite aghast at my attempt to roll my Rs and once pointed out that I clearly hadn't studied my "homework" (we drew pictures and labeled them in Norsk) when I asked her (again) the word for shoe.  Ariel happily tried many jobs around the ship and she came to the galley a few times to help bake treats for afternoon coffee. She also kept me busy knitting.  When she arrived I was knitting a hippopotamus for Maria, one of the volunteers on board, and Ariel was quite interested to see how it would look when finished so asked me daily if I would knit.  Once that hippo was finished I offered to make her one as well, warning her that it probably wouldn't be done before she left but I could leave it for her dad to take home on his next rotation.  Of course this was eagerly agreed to and it turned out I did have time to finish "Ida" before Ariel left.  So now my Norwegian vocabulary includes the words for hippopotamus (literally translated it's river horse) and knitting.

The rare Norwegian hippopotamus.  His name is Bruce.

Evening knit session on deck.

Baking with Ariel.

Alesund was another festival, smaller then Belfast which was nice as it didn't take half an hour of walking just to leave the festival grounds!  We had a couple deck parties and I was back to shrimp master for a couple days.  Other then walking around town I didn't really take the chance to see anything, but used my off time to catch up on organizing pictures, e-mails, Skyping and spending time with the crew.

Geirangerfjord in Photos

The Festivals Begin! Belfast, Northern Ireland

The sail to Belfast was rather busy! We were 89 people on board and it took everyone a couple days to get into the routines of life at sea and get the new trainees set in the ways of the ship. Happily as the sail progressed things did get better and my days felt merely busy, not purely survival. 

En route we had an afternoon stop over in Stavanger to pick up some trainees and then we were off to Belfast. Winds weren't favourable and as we were on a tight time schedule we had to motor a lot of the way. We did getan afternoon's sailing in which was lovely. 

During the sail the weather continued to be chilly but as I work inside and keep moving I'm generally in just a T-shirt while the deck crew are in sweaters, jackets and lots of layers.  Makes a change from usual when I am the warmly dressed one!

Saw a couple dolphins on the sail which is always nice. We also heard this strange thumping noise one day which turned out to be coming from an oil rig!  

As well as the challenge of having all new trainees the #galleygirls have the added challenge of new trainee galley crew every 4 hours. So each day we have 9 new people to train and organize. Keeps us busy for sure!

Celebrated Canada Day at sea by hoising the Canadian flag, sporting maple leaf (temporary) tattoos and any other Canada garb we could find. 

In port we've had some time off as people eating on board are fewer. That's been nice. Went into town and visited Marks & Spencer as well as Tesco. Got a few different teas to try and rhubarb yogurt. Haven't explored the festival much but it seems to be much the same as any festival, carnival rides, variety of food booths, family activities etc. 

Next up a 10 day sail to ålesund, Norway and race #1!

Week 14 - End of Daysail Season

This week we wrapped up daysail season. Three in a row evening sails culminating in a triple 50th birthday celebration. 

End of daysails means most of my shrimp peeling is done (we have a few events during tall ships festivals that we will be needing shrimp for). 130 kilos later I figured I'd earned some "shrimpilettes". (#galleygirl has too much off time?)

A few late starts meant that I had the chance to do some mornig runs. I found out the giant hill I've tackled (successfully) is called the Will Hill (well it's called something in Norwegian that means that). A very fitting name. Here is the view from the top. 

One morning run was quite warm and I finished with a super short swim! Must be summer!

I've been teaching one of my shipmates to knit. It's going well, she's done one mitten and working on her second. 

On Sunday we had our annual galley dinner out at a lovely harbourview restaurant. It was lovely to take our time over a delcious dinner that we didn't have to prepare!

I got a new plant from a shipmate and it's surviving quite well so far. Nice addition to the cabin! 

The last couple days have been full of things we need to do before welcoming 70 trainees - organising, putting things away, making lists and checking them twice etc. Ready or not here they come! Next installment coming from Belfast!

Week 13 - The Same and Different

This was another week of day sail arrangements. Of course no two weeks are exactly the same, this is what was different this week:

Nadia and I began the project of returning all the refundable cans and bottles from day sails. We each walked two garbage bags full up to the grocery store and fed them into the self-serve machine which we managed to jam a number of times before finishing. 

On one of the nice weather days we had a BBQ quayside. It was a great night to sit outside and enjoy a meal in the fresh air. 

I went back to the library and got out a couple more books. Not sure if I'll like them both but the beauty of the library is of course that if I don't like them I just return them!

I added a top to the tea cozy I knit a few weeks back and am now considering starting a sweater after noticing a deal running at local craft store where you could get the yarn and pattern for a sweater for 299NOK (about $45). One thing I love about Kristiansand is there are about 4 or 5 stores selling yarn and knitting supplies within easy walking distance of the ship. 

One of our arrangements started with the Jr Sorlandet Shanty Choir singing a few songs. Well I didn't realise quite how Jr they were going to be - they turned out to be preschool/kindergarten age! They did really well and clearly enjoyed the song where they got to "haul" on a rope. 

There were a few days with no arrangements this week and we used that time to do some organising and preparing. 

A few crew changes and additions this week. We're up to 20 now and more to come this next week before we leave for Tall Ships Festivals. 

And of course some things stay the same: beautiful fjords, shrimp to peel, runs to go on, letters to write, etc. 

Week 12 - Southern Norway Take 2

A lot of the same ports this week: Kristiansand, Arendal, Lillesand. More events on board, more shrimp peeling! 

Friday and Saturday were very busy - on Friday we had an evening sail with buffet dinner for 120 and then Saturday we had a lunchtime sail with finger food for another 120. Luckily we are now practised at the buffet game and while it's a super busy day we kind of have the hang of it and know the flow of things to do. The finger food went pretty well as well. Got to use up some of our toothpick supply! ;) 

Thankfully Sunday we didn't have any events and the crew worked a shorter day than usual. Nadia and I did some deep cleaning which was very satisfying and still had time to run, shower, do laundry and clean our cabin! 

The next 2 weeks we'll be in Kristiansand doing more events and getting ready for tall ships races so things are busy and about to get busier!

Week 11 - Around Southern Norway

This week we were in 4 different ports: Kristiansand, Arendal, Grimstad and Lillesand. This area of Norway sure is beautiful! We weren't anywhere for long but I had the chance to go and explore a bit. 

In Arendal:

In Grimstad:

Second largest wooden church in Norway:

In Lillesand:

A little free library made from an old charthouse. 

In Grimstad Luca, one of our mess girls from last summer stopped by the ship and when Nadia & I had our break she gave us a guided tour of Grimstad, where she lives. Grimstad, we were told, is known for bicycles, a couple authors, shipbuilding (they like to think) an having a lot of hairdressers per capita. Also having the second largest wooden church in Norway. 

In Lillesand we had a rather interesting docking spot, kinda had to come in sideways to get the yards between bits of the crane. 

In all these ports we have various arrangements with companies who hire the ship for a day or evening sail. There is usually food involved, usually our "famous" fish soup. My contribution to the soup is peeling shrimp. So far I've peeled over 70 kg. The excitement of life on a tall ship!

One arrangement was with a school, maybe grades 4-8. They weren't sail training, just having an afternoon on board as a field trip. Mostly they seemed to enjoy hanging out in hammocks in the banjer, I don't think it would've mattered to them if we'd just stayed in port the whole time! Easy to keep them happy though! 

I've now passed the half way day of this voyage. I have a feeling the last half is going to be a lot busier than the first and before I know it summer will be over and I'll be headed home. Which is lovely but doesn't include views like this: