With 8.3 knots, we flew over the water

Skibladner II Exchange@sea
Navigating the Fjords of Solutions
8 to 19 July 2024

Copenhagen (Denmark) to Middelfart (Denmark )
Nationalities: Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden

Monday 8^th of July

Although embarkation was officially set at 16.00 hours, everyone was keen to get to know each other and the ship, so a lot of people arrived earlier. Since we came from so many different places, our first conversation was about reaching the ship and various transport opportunities in our countries.

When everyone was on board, we started with the safety briefing and getting to know each other better. We also received our watch schedule. After dinner it was time to leave the dock, we had reserved the bridge for 18.50, meaning the bridge would open just for us at this time. Time to hurry!!!

Skibladner II received a lot of attention sailing out of Copenhagen. We had to be careful in reciprocating this enthusiasm, as we learned that waving with two hands can be interpreted as asking for help.

Within 30 minutes we arrived at the open waters. It was time to set sail! It was amazing to be able to already do this together, after only meeting each other 4 hours before. As soon as all the sails were up, we started following our 3 x 4 hours watch system, meaning that we had three watches, each of which would last 4 hours. Starting at 8, 12 and 4. Apart from these sailing watches, we also have work watches. Every watch comes with its challenges and rewards . We steadily entered the night under sail with an average speed of 4.5 knots, a calm sea and no clouds to be discovered.

Tuesday 9^th of July

Skibladner continued the journey off to Ebelfort. Everyone is in their watches, bringing a nice structure and calmness into the boat. In all our meals you will find something typically Danish. All produced by ourselves. The dough of the Danish Rye Bread and Danish Buns is made by watch number 1, the second watch puts it in the oven, and the third watch serves the bread. We also do all the cleaning.

During the watches, most of the discussions come up. We talk a lot about cultural differences. Interesting to find out, for example, is the way people are living. All the Swedish are living on their own and studying outside their hometown, while all the Danish people are either living together or still with their parents as, according to them, it is impossible to live on their own because of the high rental prices and shortage of housing. The Dutchies, regardless of their age, all live on their own and have a side job. Having a side job is not common for the Swedish people, all their studies are very demanding with a lot of contact hours. This leaves them with no time to have a job whatsoever.

It was a medium wind, with all different kinds of weather. Sunrise, cloudy, rain, we’ve seen it all! The sailing watch was dominated by the knots training. We all learnt three different knots from our watch leader or more experienced trainees. As soon as everyone knew the basics, we held a little knotting contest.

At the end of the day, we arrived close to Ebeltoft. Unfortunately, there was no space in the harbour yet. This meant that we had to anchor and do our anchor watches. It also meant that we had the opportunity to try out our fishing skills. Charlie had brought his fishing equipment, and guess what, we had an instant hit! Since we didn’t expect this, and nobody was yet prepared to kill the fish, we decided to let it go. To be continued!

Wednesday 10^th of July

We started the day with many trainees, mentors and crew going for a cold morning swim from the side of the ship at the anchor spot before breakfast. The people who didn’t want to swim were on the lookout for stinging jellyfish; they were telling the swimmers when and where to swim. The Danes taught the others about the local marine wildlife and the difference between stinging and non-stinging jellyfish.

As we sailed into the harbour after breakfast, we met up with the Swedish ship Ingo, who welcomed us with singing and accordion music. We settled into the harbour and had a well-deserved rest and finally (!) a shower. After this, we met up with the Ingo crew to learn the song they sang while we were sailing in. We ended up singing Danish, Swedish and Dutch songs together. There was even some traditional dancing!

After the little party, the mentors from both ships held a meeting to develop a bonding, team building, and exercise program for the afternoon, which ended up being quite full:

– Plastic research and The Ocean Movement introduction,
– Sustainability quiz,
– Local Beach clean-up and swimming,
– Swedish fika across the ships,
– Volleyball and football contest,
– Watching the match between England and the Netherlands together.

Thursday 11^th of July

The morning on both ships started with a swim in the harbour and a quick breakfast. After this, there was a bit of time left to visit the museum about the Fregatten Jylland next to the harbour. It was very impressive to visit the enormous wooden steamship! Afterwards it was time to set sail again. We went into our sailing watches and started preparing the ship.

Since we didn’t have a straight way to go, we had to do a lot of tacking. First, everyone from each watch got an explanation about what their positions would be, and what they had to do. After this, we got to practice it in real life! We had perfect learning opportunities throughout the day since we had good winds with almost no waves, and the perfect weather to practice! We had a couple of tackings during the day so we learned quickly. Around 16.00 hours we arrived at the island of Samso. We decided to have some free time to wait until the Ingo joined us on the island. They were unfortunately delayed since one of their trainees had to go to the hospital to get a check-up after she twisted her ankle during the football tournament the previous night. After dinner we went to the beach and did a small clean-up. We welcomed Ingo around 19.30 hours by standing on the pier and singing the song that we learned from them the day before. Talk about a special welcome!

We let them have a little debrief and some time to get changed. After that, we started with a board game and dancing night together on the beach. We played games in smaller groups, with added dance breaks, during which we shared the most interesting and well-known songs from our countries. We made sure that the songs were perfectly suitable for dancing . In this way, we learned some nice ‘’local’’ pirate songs that everyone could join and sing out loud!

Friday 12^th of July

National Danish Day! We started the day with breakfast and after this, it was time to hoist the Danish flag and sing the Danish anthem. We were very lucky to have a good singer on our side.

Following that, we started sailing. We used the butterfly technique, and unfortunately had to use the engine as well. When the wind became stronger, we hoisted the top sail. This was very special, since it was the first time ever this sail was hoisted on Skibladner – it was brand new! It was a great learning opportunity for everyone. We started talking about the differences between various ships.

Since Skibladner has limited storage space, we have to buy provisions in almost every port. So as soon as we came to port, it was time to send some people to the supermarket and let the others take care of cleaning the ship.

It was of course still our typical Danish day so all the food was related to this. Time to make Danish frikadelle and a typical pasta salad. The shopping group brought the ingredients for the aeblekage. When dinner was served, we talked about the Danish school system and politics. It was interesting to find that, despite how close we live to each other, there are still plenty of differences to find between the countries.

At around 20.00 we finally got to taste the aebklekage for dessert. After delicious dinner we all went together to the karaoke bar to sing some songs together with the Ingo group. At the end of the night, we had something wild happening as because of the waves and wind we started bumping into the ship that was next to us. This meant that some people had to get up and help with securing the ship and the fenders a bit. After this was done we could get back to sleep safe and sound.

Saturday 13^th of July

We left the port at 8.30. We had relatively calm weather and were able to set some sails on our way to Assens, where we went directly to showers. They were over 3 kilometres away from our mooring spot, so decided to row the dinghy over there. It was so much fun that we ended up doing many trips back and forth.

Following our dinghy and shower adventure we played traditional Swedish Midsummer games as it was the Swedish night at the Ingo. Afterwards we gathered around the small lighthouse on the shore and danced around it like they do for Midsummer. We sang and danced traditional Swedish songs and dances. Other people cheered on from the sidelines on their ships, so the entire port enjoyed the festivities. We ended the day with a nice dessert, or to say fika on Ingo where we had kladdkaka with cream.

Sunday 14^th of July

It was Swedish National Day! The previous day a lot of shopping was done to make sure that all the food would be all about Sweden. But first: breakfast and setting sails. The day would become a bit rough, but perfect for sailing. Whenever ashore people would say this is bad weather, people sailing would be saying the opposite. The more stormy it gets, the more interesting sailing opportunities arise. The sailing ultimately entailed a lot of tacking, surfing on the waves and deck surfing by jumping. Although the sailing was rough, there luckily was some time to work with the scientist from The Ocean Movement. We successfully collected one water sample with the mantra trawl.

Everyone was slightly relieved when we entered the port of Sonderborg. In Sonderborg, it was the end parade of the ring riding tournament with many dressed up horses and riders. The band played ‘Oh When the Saints’ just for Skibladner II and Ingo.

Because of the weather, the Swedish group had even more difficult circumstances in which they had to cook their local dishes. Nevertheless, they did not disappoint at all! Dinner consisted of raggmunk with warm saft and blueberry crumble pie for dessert.

We watched the European Cup in a pub and discussed football with the locals. We played card games in the pub during and after the game.  There were talks about different dialects throughout Sweden and Denmark, as Soeborg has a very strong dialect, being so close to the German border, and has quite a different culture than in Copenhagen where the ship is from.

Monday 15^th of July

Today we set our speed record, with 8.3 knots we flew over the water . We had strong wind, and tacked once, mostly going straight into our destination. Because of the rough sea and strong wind, there was some seasickness. Luckily everyone was helping out and stepping in where needed. Because of the high speed, we arrived earlier than expected in the harbour of Marstal. This gave us some time to discover the beautiful island, visit the traditional sailor city, and do some second-hand shopping and book swapping.  Other people took the opportunity to go for a kayaking trip or to climb on the mast of the Ingo.

In the late afternoon, we had the final part of the quiz organised by The Ocean Movement.  The quiz turned out to be a starting point for discussions about the environment and the things we could do to save it. It was nice to see that everyone was involved: the crew, mentors and trainees. The environmental discussions lasted during dinner and our swim in shallow water with the beautiful sunset in the background.

After this, we all went together to a nearby sports field where we played Danish rundbold. Although the teams got mixed very well, one team was the obvious winner. We ended the sports night with a couple of games of football and volleyball.

Tuesday 16^th of July

Today we had a Dutch Day! In the morning we visited the Maritime Museum of Marstal. From the outside, the museum didn’t look that promising. From the inside, however, it covered an enormous number of topics and presented the history of shipyards in Marstal. It also touched upon the different important figures in the maritime history of Denmark. We also had experts among us! Tim and Teo have maritime education and were able to share a lot of fascinating facts. This made the visit even more interesting!

After the museum, it was unfortunately time to say goodbye to the Ingo. Because of the wind, they had to go back up north earlier than expected. All trainees, crew, and locals waved the Ingo goodbye. This was, of course, accompanied by singing one last song together.

Afterwards we did some shopping: quite a difficult job when you do not speak the language and neither understand the currency nor know the local ingredients. A bit later than expected we arrived back on the ship, so it was time to set course to Svendborg.

We sailed through a small passage with a lot of shallow water where we saw lots of swans. The wind was coming from different directions so we had to adjust the sails often. The weather was changing all the time.

As it was the Dutch national day, our fika was a typical Dutch Instagram- and Tik Tok-famous crompouce. A mix of the famous Dutch compound and a croissant. For dinner we had kapsalon and we talked about religions in our countries and their role in each society.

The journey is almost coming to an end. All the hard days working, getting up early and doing fun activities in the evening are taking their toll.  We all could use some wellness so as soon as we finished the delicious Dutch dinner, we started with some stretching and meditation exercises. After this, we listened to Dutch music and did a Dutch game of flunky ball.

Wednesday 17^th of July

Today was the most active sailing day! As soon as we left Svendborg we started with some strong winds. All together we did a lot of tacking and got very experienced in that. Our crew would be ready for a race! We managed to only have one big shower towards the end of the journey.

As the end is soon approaching and we have 1,5 days of sailing left, we started the murder game. A couple of trainees prepared by writing down the names of all the participants, writing the locations and organising all the murder weapons.

For fika, we had the Swedish kanelbulle. We had to give one away since we hit a kid while getting out the mooring line. He was fine, but we gave him some dessert to make up for it. The dinner was a typical Danish dish with (again) potatoes. After dinner, some more cleaning and shopping had to be done. After all our duties of the day had been finalised, we ultimately came to the point of getting a training from the one and only jujitsu master! We are very lucky to have a jujitsu champion in the group and he taught us a lot.

Tonight is our final night on land and the voyage is ending soon. We did some reflection and evaluation. Everyone wrote a letter to themselves, which will be sent to us in six months as a reminder of our personal growth and achievements during the journey. We also took this opportunity to leave notes for other trainees. We made a toast and had a well-deserved ice cream all together.

Thursday 18^th of July

Our final full day on board the Skibladner II. Early in the morning, we had to move the ship since our neighbours were on a tight schedule. Then we took a group picture.

We left a bit later to do some final shopping. In the meantime, some murders have been committed. The murder game was on!

Around 10.00 we left for our final destination Middelfart. We quickly were able to set sail and had to tack a couple of times in the first hours of our voyage. After this everyone who was off duty went to bed or chilled on deck. We had to save our energy since our final night would be under sail, meaning that we had our 24-hour watches for the last time.

We have been continuing our fika tradition and had a nice coffee break including a chocolate and banana cake at 16.00 hours. Following that, we had our final dinner together and got super lucky with the best weather conditions and the most beautiful sunset since we started this amazing journey! Accompanied by the beautiful sunset we packed the sails for one last time, played games, and danced to our favourite songs. It was a special and beautiful final night, also with a sad undertone. What a nice journey we have had and what a nice group of friends we’ve made.

Earlier than expected, around 01.00 after midnight, we arrived in a harbour close to Middelfart. We spent the night here and left early in the morning to sail into Middelfart. After some final words from the crew it was time to leave the ship, give everyone a very big hug, and travel home.