Whalekillers

This year we were supposed sailing from Bergen to Gdansk in Poland. Unfortunately, just after we left Egersund in southern Norway, we got a leak in one of our bottom valves.

Thanks to Joachim’s heroic effort with vulcanizing tape, a bucket and our beloved pumping toilet, we didn’t sink right away and were able to return to port.

A quick visit to the local store and a couple of hundred meters of vulcanizing tape later, the leak was more or less stabilized and we were able to look for a boat yard and make the necessary repairs. Due to this delay and the not so optimal wind direction, we had to resign on our ambition to reach Gdansk in Poland and settle with a closer goal – Bornholm .

An interesting feature we discovered on our trip were the local microclimates in the Baltic Sea . On an apparently sunny day, a single rain clouds appear in the horizon, closes up – and then in less than a minute unleashes it’s wrath with gusts of up to 40-50knots and heavy rain. Then the cloud disappears just as quickly as it appeared. Another characteristic of the Baltic sea was the not so large, but steep waves due to the shallow waters. We found them rather annoying, because they slowed our progress and the hull took some heavy pounding. But it was not like other waves we’ve experienced in the north sea which are huge and causes an adrenalin rush when tossing you around. No these waves were only annoying and noisy.

One of the highlights of our trip was definitely surfing under Øresundsbroen in the middle of the night with a strong breeze from behind. With all the lights it looked like a Christmas tree, and the multitude of floating light beacons made the fairway look like a landing strip for jumbo -jets.

All in all a nice trip, but a little bit too nice to our liking. Would have been perfect for a family trip with small children and a dog named Fido, but not a very interesting route for us that are more into some action and adventure.

This year's team consisted of :

Cedric Davidsen (skipper)
Joachim Liseth (ship's cook)
Magali van Linden (Belgium)
Sophie Leloup van Edelsberg (Belgium)

		Poland 2005
		This year we were supposed sailing from Bergen to Gdansk in Poland. Unfortunately, just after we left Egersund in southern Norway, we got a leak in one of our bottom valves. Thanks to Joachim’s heroic effort with vulcanizing tape, a bucket and our beloved pumping toilet, we didn’t sink right away and were able to return to port. A quick visit to the local store and a couple of hundred meters of vulcanizing tape later, the leak was more or less stabilized and we were able to look for a boat yard and make the necessary repairs. Due to this delay and the not so optimal wind direction, we had to resign on our ambition to reach Gdansk in Poland and settle with a closer goal – Bornholm . An interesting feature we discovered on our trip were the local microclimates in the Baltic Sea . On an apparently sunny day, a single rain clouds appear in the horizon, closes up – and then in less than a minute unleashes it’s wrath with gusts of up to 40-50knots and heavy rain. Then the cloud disappears just as quickly as it appeared. Another characteristic of the Baltic sea was the not so large, but steep waves due to the shallow waters. We found them rather annoying, because they slowed our progress and the hull took some heavy pounding. But it was not like other waves we’ve experienced in the north sea which are huge and causes an adrenalin rush when tossing you around. No these waves were only annoying and noisy. One of the highlights of our trip was definitely surfing under Øresundsbroen in the middle of the night with a strong breeze from behind. With all the lights it looked like a Christmas tree, and the multitude of floating light beacons made the fairway look like a landing strip for jumbo -jets. All in all a nice trip, but a little bit too nice to our liking. Would have been perfect for a family trip with small children and a dog named Fido, but not a very interesting route for us that are more into some action and adventure. This year's team consisted of : Cedric Davidsen (skipper) Joachim Liseth (ship's cook) Magali van Linden (Belgium) Sophie Leloup van Edelsberg (Belgium)