Speech

August is tomorrow, July has gone by so quickly. John and Baron both spoke a bit at the end of the day, John about everyone working hard and being positive and Baron about how we are all growing strong as a family.

Cart lifting

Another lazy day off, not that there’s nothing to do here, just not a whole lot and the festival is pretty cool. Did a lot of shopping though. Even borrowed a cart from the grocery store to take the stuff back.

Crowded

Another long day of tours, after dinner I hung out with people on deck and waited for the time to pass.

Vikings

We had a very relaxing day off, slept in till 10, used the internet, got fair food and hung out at the Viking fair.

B and C

I have become spotted. While making lunch some oil splattered on my wrist and now I have some small brown burns, nothing that bad, I’m the spotted Caz now. Tours were from 1 to 9, a little ridicules, same 8-hour work day, just felt really long. We had 6 thousand people come on the boat. After work a handful of us made a trek to the grocery store, it was a fair walk but amazing prices and a great selection. There’s also a produce stall that’s close to the boat. I picked up a few things for myself, all that started with the letter C, chocolate, cheese and crackers.

Bremerhaven, Germany

Today was a very long day yet the morning flew by. We were only anchored for about two hours before we got underway, we arrived in Bremerhaven before noon, but we weren’t docked yet. We waited at least three hours to get to the lock and finally through it, I kept having to hold dinner back.

Canals come with ice cream

We made it to the canal this morning and had a nice smooth ride through. The past few days have been grey and rocky, it was nice to have it calm while I was frying corn dogs. When we got to the last lock the pilots were able to get us ice cream cones! We gave them sweatshirts in return.

Drew's Birthday

We spent most of the day anchored, the wind was so bad last night that we weren’t able to go anywhere, more of going backwards. It was nice that things were more calm for baking Drew’s birthday cake, but while making dinner we got underway and more rocking proceeded.

Tired

I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning and as the day went on I just got more and more tired. By the time I cooked dinner it had become a chore and I was two people’s worth of tired.

Burial at sea

Some days I just don’t have a whole lot to say. More clouds, foghorn blaring in the morning and a dead bird on the stern, Mitch tried to give it a proper burial but it didn’t weigh enough, it was stuck under the flag on a board so he had to jiggle it out.

Baker

Today was a good day on the inside even though it was gross outside, rainy and cloudy. The refrigerator was about to explode from leftovers so I put those out for lunch and spent the day making bread.

Richard's Birthday

We got underway at 4 am with C watch getting us off the dock. When I woke up to make breakfast around 6 the sun was already bright and sunny and we were among the small island on our way out of Stockholm. Today was Richard’s birthday, so all day everyone was really excited about having cake. Tenley always makes the cards for people’s birthdays and she did an amazing one for Richard, the front was just a drawing of his face, but it was his camera face. Richard’s camera face is hilarious; eyes wide open and mouth open in a big smile. She was having a hard time drawing it and Jesse came along and made the eyes more slanty and that did the trick.

Big winner

Finally our last days of tours here in Stockholm; John said that in our time here we earned a quarter of what we earned all of last season. We figured we did well because it’s the summer, school is out, tourism is high and all the other museums around here cost about the same price.

Shopping

Robin finally got to see the Vasa this morning; he said if he didn’t see it he’d keep the boat here. While he was gone we got fuel and opened up for tours, we did so well on tours this weekend that we are even going to stay yet another day. We’ll really have to boogie woogie to get to Germany.

I went shopping finally and after having looked at two other small stores this last one seemed the best choice. John and I walked all over the place trying to get to it. We thought we were on the ground floor so we’d have to go up one to the 2^nd flood or something to get to it, but that wasn’t the case. The lift was broken so we took some stairs outside, crossed over a bridge back to the building and then a bunch more stares to find the grocery store in the basement. When we were done shopping and went out we came out by busses and the train, at the water level, so up some more stairs, under some bridges and secret pathways to get back to the other side of the street where the boat was. Everything is so expensive here so I didn’t get as much as I normally do and the produce selection was very small, I hope Germany has better prices or at least a closer produce market.

More tours

We thought that we were going to leave tomorrow, but we can’t leave until Tuesday after we get fuel.

Vasa

The Vasa was amazing. You walk in and there is this huge boat in front of you, it sank in 1628 shortly after it was built, in 1961 after 333 years under the sea it was salvaged from the brackish water. We spent about three hours exploring the boat and the exhibits, there were 6 floors constructed around the ship so you could walk around and see it at different levels. The stern was ornately carved and when it was built it was painted with vivid colors.

Tours

Tours were really good today, very full, which was great because the owner is here.

Art museums

We roamed the city in the morning, had breakfast and by noon some museums were finally open. At the café for breakfast John and Baron had salmon quiche, Jesse had a sandwich and I had a slice of royal king cake, like lemon meringue pie but a softer custard and toasted almonds on the meringue. We went to the Medieval museum, in the 1970’s they were going to build a parking structure there but found remains of old houses so built a museum around it. They had a boat from the 1520’s and a little city built up around with older artifacts, even some original Jew’s harps, they had replicas in the gift shop and Jesse and Baron got one.

Then we went to the National Museum that was filled with the old artists. There were 6 Rembrants, a handful of Gaugain and Cezan, my favorite was a portrait of Marie Antoinette with her two children.

Stockholm, Sweden

For awhile we weren’t sure if we were going to anchor out or go into Stockholm tonight, we ended up going in. The way in was beautiful, like the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence Seaway on the way to the Great Lakes; lots of small islands with houses that everyone wants to life in. We docked in the center of town, old town that is really an island at 2100.

Discovery

We’re getting closer. Last night my net that I kept hard salami in collapsed, and in the processes of it getting cleaned up the people on watch also found a bag of onions, must have been from when Marcia was here.

To Stockholm

Finally got off the dock this morning, I made one more quick trip to the produce market to get dill, radishes, chanterelles and a watermelon. I made fish cakes for lunch, finally found a way that the crew actually like the fish

Not underway

Today was odd; we were going to get off the dock in the evening so we ran tours differently. We ran underway watches so that one watch wouldn’t complain that they worked all day. That part of the day was okay; the fact that some members of the crew were late for capstan and one didn’t show up till after dinner, made it so we couldn’t leave.

Malbork Castle

Richard and I went to the castle in Malbork today, it was well worth it. The train ride seemed a little long and for awhile we weren’t sure we were ever going to get there. Just minutes outside of Gdansk was beautiful county side, fields of cabbages and mustard seed, cows, and lots of very flat land. The castle was built around 13 something and is entirely made of brick, it was damaged by WWII like most things around here but has been mostly put back together. The only room still damaged was the church, there were pictures from the 1890’s and it looked splendid. There were a few fragments of things left behind, tiles from the carpet like floor, benches, frescoes and the alter. It was a beautiful castle and a really nice day.

Jesse and I went to dinner with Doug again, Jesse had wild boar that was amazing.

Learning

Had a great day off. Jesse and I walked around town, went amber shopping, and checked out the maritime museum and the medieval crane. For lunch we went to the produce market and got apricots, cherries and raspberries, Jesse also got some meat chunks on skewers with mushrooms. After a break and a bit of time on the internet Madzia showed up, it’s always nice to meet people after you’ve talked to them on the internet for over a year. At 8 we went to an organ concert in the world’s largest brick cathedral with Rich, Chris and Tenley, it was pretty amazing. After we walked over to a very exclusive bar, or so we were told, it was nautical themed and there where sea shanties in Polish, we could tell what two of them were and sang along in English.

No shopping :(

Another day at work. We had tours and boy were they ever slow. Tenley made a bunch of new sings that should be universal to let people know what direction to go and where they can’t go.

Defrosting

I haven’t been much of a deck hand for the past few months and the past two days I have helped out a lot with moving the boat; I’ve lost a lot of muscle. Today was cloudy and grey, everyone worked inside, cleaning up information signs we put outside the boat and the line locker. I defrosted a freezer, mainly to see what I had and I knew things were stuck, ended up moving it to another freezer completely and putting the paint in the oldest freezer we have.

Gdansk, Poland and Feast

We arrived in Gdansk, Poland after lunch, and after the boat was put to bed we got stood down. Doug, Jesse and I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things for our Fourth of July picnic. It was intense carrying things back, two watermelons, ribs, sausage, charcoal and zucchini. I put everything in the oven to make sure it was cooked all through, Chris started the BBQ and once that was going Dan put things on the grill and sauce-ed them.

It was a really great evening. There was even a cheese platter to start the night and apple rhubarb crisp with clotted cream ice cream to finish.

the 4th

Being underway we weren’t really able to celebrate the 4^th of July, but I did make BBQ chicken for lunch. If we are on the dock tomorrow we’ll do something then, along with three rig debts that are owed.

Today was really over cast and chilly outside but really hot in the galley.

Weather

It’s warming up, yet still really cloudy and somewhat rainy, making it humid.

Norway

The rolling has slowed down and we can see Norway off our port side.