The weather this morning is dull but dry. I must admit, we have been blessed with good weather for the majority of the time spent on Iceland. I was expecting rain nearly every day, however, the lack of rain did mean that we have had to endure some very strong winds. To the extent where you are leaning the motorcycle in the opposite direction to normal for a bend. Crazy huh?
So, today I catch the ferry back to Denmark and will be on that for two long days.
The plan was to get to the ferry check-in early, so that I could board early and hopefully get a proper ratchet strap to tie the bike down with, rather one of the crap straps that I had to use coming out.
So, myself and the German biker at the hostel, set off at 7:30 am to ride all of 1 km to the queue. There were only about eight bikes before us so we were in the second row at the top of the blocked off street. We checked in with the man at the hut, got given our vehicle ticket and cabin key and then waited to board. After a while, more and more bikes appeared and I was relieved that I was up the front.
Then another, younger dock guy appeared, who seemed to ask for all the bikes to bunch up more. We couldn’t work out why because it was a closed off street and was plenty long enough. Then he started shouting in his Eastern European voice about how we should all be on the left. Then he changes that, bellowing commands to have smaller bikes on the left and bigger bikes on the right. Well, it was a bit late in saying that now, no one can move, especially as his first command was to bunch up.
Then finally came the time for the motorcycles to board and he let all the bikes on the left go first. This meant that despite getting there early, half the bikes already got in front, so by the time I boarded, once again all the ratchet straps had been taken and I was left with the crap straps. Several of us found these straps extremely awkward to use, but luckily the rider next to me showed me how he used the strap and then helped me tie my bike down. I then passed this information on to the German rider that I met at the hostel, who was also struggling with these crap straps. I feel an email will be sent to Smyril Line customer services.
I then went off to find my shared six berth cabin, which turned out to actually have nine beds in which the three top bunks were used for storage of spare mattresses. However, this did mean reduced height, to the extent that even short arse old me couldn’t sit on the bed upright without hitting my head on the bunk above.
Once settled, I sat at the back of the boat (in the cafeteria) and watched the cars, motor homes plus cargo being loaded. The interesting part for me was watching the dock workers shunt the lorry trailers about. All in between the other vehicles trying to board. We then left the harbour and Iceland behind, heading for Denmark, with just one stop at the Faroe Islands on the way.
I remember watching the ferry arrive, noticing how much smoke was coming from the engines, and the same going out. I wonder if these ferries are subject to emissions controls?
The cafeteria started to get busy, which also meant more noise, so I left in search of somewhere quieter. I was waiting to see how rough it would be in open waters before deciding whether to eat or not.
The sea remained fairly calm so after a while, and once the rush was over, I listened to my stomach, bought a pizza & Pepsi, then sat at the back of the cafeteria watching the wake of the boat, it was a thick fog outside and I expect this is partly why we were not going particularly fast, which was fine by me.
I went and sat in another area after eating, so that I could charge my phone. Once again, my attention got fixed on the water on the outside deck gently flowing side to side. I was also looking at how various parts of the boat were either welded or bolted together, then turned my attention to scrutinising the painting of these parts. It was obvious that some parts had been given so many coats of paint with little preparation. For example; the cooling fins of an electric motor on the life boat winch had so much paint over rust that there was very little gap to provide cooling. Give me a scraper, a file and possibly a Dremel tool and I would clean it up nicely, ready for a fresh coat of paint.
I also thought that it would be interesting to see the lowering of the life boats, (purely in a demonstration, not a real-life scenario!) just to see how it all works.
Whilst sitting in the cafeteria on another occasion, this time, looking out on the side, I noticed a couple of seagulls flying alongside. They were skimming the surface of the waves and eventually overtaking the boat. Come on captain, don’t get beaten by a couple of gulls!
There were basically three places I sat during my time on board. In the cafeteria, (either watching out back or out to the side), in a small seated area with phone charging points, or on the slightly more comfortable chairs nearby.
The seating area with the charge points was a popular place and could be hard to get a seat there. The trick that most people used was to sit in the nearby chairs and wait for someone to leave, then grab their seat. I managed to do this on one occasion, (when not dozing off and missing an opportunity), got my phone plugged in to charge, only for 10 minutes later to have the urge for a pee and hence lost my seat/charge point for another few hours.
And so, it was back to the cafeteria to console my loss with food!
I was looking in the duty-free shop on board and saw a funny t-shirt that I thought about getting for Karen. Problem was, as a typical bloke, I didn’t know which size, I looked around to see if I could see another woman near that was about her size, but I didn’t have the courage to ask her what size she was, so got something else for her (Karen, not the stranger!) instead.
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