By the Ocean we Unite: Day 10, 11 and 12
It was only a matter of time
Day 10, 11 and 12
How does life at sea just disappear? I can sea how people go ‘mad at sea’ when they’re gone for a long time. And it’s also strange how I have less to do on this trip than I did in the Atlantic, yet it’s become harder to do these blogs than it was then. Life just passes by, partly I think because it makes you tired. I’m sitting in the home of a a Danish Tv presenter (for Strictly come dancing) and we arrived in Copenhagen on Friday. I haven’t needed any daytime snoozes on land, but on the ship, I can easily fit in (and need) 3. I’d love to know the physiological reason for this. Luckily, having practiced so well on my Atlantic crossing, napping is the easiest thing ever. Sometimes I feel like I’ve been asleep for ages and it’s minutes, over times I feel fast asleep and someone asks a question and I’m awake instantly. In Roskilde, we were invited to the Viking museum (don’t ask about what adventure challenge ideas I have conjured up as a result of that) and then headed to the university for some detailed eduction on what the research team are doing there and some things we learnt from them. It reminded me of my days at uni studying Molecular Biology, analysing results, and thinking about the ‘why’ and what were possible solutions. The day after, it was an early start for our journey to Copenhagen. All pretty plain sailing, and no running the boat aground on our way out! We did another plastic trawl and found only 2 piece of microplastic this time. Huub, the very lovely captain, and Karl, the equally lovely guy in charge (seriously couldn’t ask for better people to be looking after us) decided we would take a quick detour to the Swedish island we passed because it was Dace’s (one of the ladies onboard) dream to go there. Some mad historical story about the guy who inhabited it back in the day, had really captured her imagination. Dace, who has now left, is doing some incredible project called the Greenland chronicles. I really understood what she was trying to achieve as it is very similar to my hugely ambitious ‘what’s next’, but instead of adventure, it’s using art, including making paint out of the plastic we collected in Skagen. The sky lit up, once, twice, three times, over in the distance, closer, over our heads - the thunderstorm moving across Europe, it seems, with little rain and high winds. An impressive display of nature, and an even more impressive manoeuvre by Huub, to exit the harbour the following morning. Exiting the 70ft boat through a winding harbour entrance, directly into a 30knot wind was quite nerve wracking to say the least but the crossing to Copenhagen was surprising uneventful despite the strong winds. We arrived in Copenhagen around midday, had a quick soup and boat quiz and then head off for a tour of the UN. Until Monday afternoon, (tomorrow) we are in Copenhagen and free. Then there is an event at back at the UN, and Tuesday morning we split. I’m back on the bike (and needing it after being stationary on a boat for 10 days!!). Until then xx