Friday 13th...

This morning I woke up with a pleasant voice streaming out of the loud speakers: "Good morning everyone, it's a beautiful morning, Friday 13th, but nothing bad will happen....". I turned around, fell asleep again, overslept and missed breafast. However, by luck I was on the bridge right in time to run communication tests before KV Svalbard left the first of today's port of refuge, Rechercherfjorden.

Around lunch time KV Svalbard's helicopter picked up two representatives from Store Norske (SNSK) in Svea, Nils Bjerg Tokheim and Rolv Enger. Nils is marketing manager at SNSK and Rolf is port captain, with 40 years experience from sea. Actually, it's mandatory for every large vessel sailing into Svea to be assisted by two tug boats. One tug boat is measuring sea currents, while the other keeps a slack line connected to the vessel, ready to tow it away if it's "taken" by the current. Akselsundet is at the inlet of Van Mijen fjorden, where the Aksel island (Akseløya) is stretching from one side of the fjord to the other. Leaving two "openings" at each side, with heavy currents giving heavy navigational challenges. Still, there has never been any large accidents, thanks to SNSK who takes responsibility for safety at sea. Thanks to Nils and Rolv for assisting us in the evaluation work on ports of refuge!

There has been some action today as well. Around dinner time KV Svalbard received a request for assitance from a couple of grounded sailors. Their sail boat had dropped the anchor, and drifted towards land. They could not get off without assistance. Their voices seemed rather relieved when we overheard the conversations on VHF :-) By the way, they had observed polar bear.....I wonder when we will see them...? Are they hiding?

The last but not least happening of today was cold and surprising. We went through a dubvious rituale in order to get acknowledged as arctic sea sailors!!!! The criteria is to have crossed the 80 degrees north line. Dark ship, dark men, sea water from the Barents Sea....however, we are still alive, everyone of us, and we also received a certificate which I guarantee I will bring with me if there is a next time at KV Svalbard. Pictures will be put on the blog when they are available.

By the way: Ingrid has been in Croatia, not Rakel...Sorry :-)

Here are some other pictures from today: