After the sampling we headed south to reach the next position. However, the weather turned worse during the day; first heavy rain, and later big waves. Despite that the windy weather made the sampling impossible and made several people seasick, this weather gave us a great chance to see this boat using its full potential, as the boat was heeling over.
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It was a beautiful Swedish sunny Saturday the 9th of August when the crew for leg 3 of this Baltic Sea Expedition gathered in the harbour of Sandhamn in the archipelago of Stockholm. We were all excited when approaching this magnificent sailing boat, the Sea Dragon, that was about to be our home for the next seven days. The aim of this trip is to set sail for the northern parts of the Gulf of Bottnia in the Baltic Sea and take samples of the water along the way.
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Jessika Hagberg (Örebro University) and Louise Hedenskog (Thorén Business School, Örebro) throw the manta trawl in the water between Sweden and Germany in the southern part of the Baltic Sea. This excercise is repeated twice a day and trawling takes an hour each time most days of the expedition.
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It was good to get sailing again, up the coast a few miles from Gothenburg towards a rocky cove near Marstrand, effortless motion in the flat water as the afternoon sea breeze built, followed by a swim in the oddly warm sea.
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We disembarked Sea Dragon three days ago, and waved goodbye to the most beautiful of homes. Since then, I have woken religiously in the middle of the night and it’s taken me a good while to realise that no, I am no longer at sea. And with this comes a deep thwack of regret.
Read MoreWe could be the last people on earth, if it weren’t for the fact that we are passing through the oil fields of the North Sea, and strange alien like constructions breach the horizon where a few days ago we hoped to see whales. The first rig I saw was named ‘Heather’. Orbited by the lights of protective supply ships, fire spurted from her innards, like dragons nesting.
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Last night at about 7:30 pm, when we most needed a boost, the whales heard our plea and we were joined by a pod of over 25 pilot whales and a group of dolphins. For about an hour, they followed alongside the boat, coming right up next to us and swimming around the bow. When we finally sped up at the end, they steamed after us jumping through the waves trying to catch up. For me, and for many others on the crew, it was totally magical. I had expected it to be amazing, but not quite to the extent that it was.
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I am excited to envisage on paper the experience of being on the ocean, with no land in sight. It’s a new thing for me, to embark on this kind of expedition, and I want to try to get the feeling down in pencil and paint – the raw wilderness surrounding us on all sides.
Read MoreCaptain Eric says he almost caught us a tuna, but everyone was in such a coma from the intense labor of daily life on a sailing yacht that we did not hear his cries for help, and the fish got away right at the moment of truth.
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We are here in Key West! Our sail lasted only three days, a short passage. The storm helped push us along; in fact, we clocked out at an all time high of 13.3 knots! I have never had so much fun puking, and would do it all again in a heart beat (may try a different nausea medication though).
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