Day 6

Warning, this is a long blog post.

Basically, it is the day where I board the ferry to Iceland, but it was a day of problems and stress for me.

If you want to read on to find out more, grab yourself a drink, and sit in a comfy chair, or just skip this and wait for the next one.

Despite only having fives hours sleep, I was wide awake early, so finished the blog post for day 5.

Now the previous evening, I had been looking at some emails from Smyril Line, (that’s the ferry operator to Iceland). On one email, I noticed it said that, if they have room, it maybe possible to upgrade your cabin. Now when I booked my place on the ferry, the only option was to share a six berth cabin, not something I would choose to do. So,I was intrigued by the cabin upgrade option but neither the email or the website gave any further information on how to do this. I was guessing you could only do it once on board. However, further reading of the website did explain the various booking options, going on to say something about, for those in the six berth cabins, luggage storage space was available to rent and gave the sizes options, which were not very large.

This got me thinking, whilst looking at the photo of the cabin. From what I could see in the photo, there was indeed no room for luggage other than on your allotted bed. So my idea of taking the yellow bag off my bike as I did on my way from the UK to Holland, didn’t look like a viable option. I’d have more room in my tent than this cabin.

So, I had to have a re-think and came up with just taking a smaller bag with the bare minimum of stuff, bearing in mind that I will also have all my riding gear.

Reading further options, it also said, that there is an option to get bed linen. What, I have to pay for that as an extra too? This is like Ryan Air, where everything is an extra. I checked my booking and didn’t see that I had this, so best pack my sleeping bag liner too, I thought.

I started to pack up my stuff, but with the reshuffle of things in different bags, I could no longer fit it all in the yellow bag. I got everything on the bike but it was not right and riding down the road I had something uncomfortable in my back. Good job it was only a ten minute ride to the ferry.

For some reason, I was a bag of nerves this morning and nothing was going quite right.

The sun was out and it was quite warm already, problem being, I had to wear all my layers as I had no room to pack any away.

I arrive at the ferry port and joined the queue for check-in, and here another issue presents itself. Well, what I really mean , is that this issue that has been with me since day 1, just became a problem.

Since the original setup of my bike and the setup of my new suspension, I ended up packing a bit more than first anticipated. This has meant the bike now seats a fraction lower and my attempt at winding a bit more preload on the rear suspension the day before departure when I discovered this issue, failed. Now for riding the bike this is not an issue, however, when it comes to putting the bike on or off the side stand, it often means I have to lean the bike to the right (when my short legs allow) in order to get the stand down or up, and some occasions, moving the bike to find flatter ground, i.e: 90 degrees to the slope, often helps. So, back to my problem at the queue. With the slope of the lane, being high to my left and sloping down so my right side is lower, meant that I couldn’t put the bike on the side stand (which is on the left for you non-motorcyclists reading this), and this meant I couldn’t get off the bike, so there I sat, stuck on my own bike, feeling like a right wally! And I couldn’t just turn my bike 90 degrees and face the different way to everyone else could I? I would then look and feel like a right wally!

Of course, I didn’t let on to my predicament to any of the other motorcyclists around, I just sat there typing up these notes, hence a long post today, and it ain’t finished yet.

We all waited for quite some time in the queue and the sun was beaming down on the back of my neck. The one layer that I could leave off at the start of today, was the neck buff, and now I had to dig it out of my pocket, whilst sitting on the bike, and put this on to prevent the worst of the looming sun burn.

Eventually, we are called to board, with the motorbikes being first on. To start with it was a normal ferry procedure where we rode up the ramp, along the deck, (although there was a u- turn to do, which I managed just fine keeping my feet up, but others seemed to struggle with this manoeuvre, probably because they don’t practice it enough!) and were then shown where to park. My bike being small, was selected to go on the end of a row near a walk way. But, when it came to strapping your own bike down, they did not have normal ratchet straps. What they provided were some strange contraptions and there was no ferry personal available to help. It seemed like most people were having the same issue, that is, except for those smart arses that had brought their own ratchet straps! I used a combination of three straps in the end, but was not confident that the bike would not fall over or the next bike on the left falling into mine. If it was a case of dominoes, my poor little bike would be crushed. With the heat and the stress, I gave up not giving two hoots and so walked away in aim of hoping to find my cabin with less stress.

My cabin was on deck two, way down in the bowls of the boat. When I got there, two of the six beds were taken, and the cabin already smelt of sweat. My allotted bunk ‘D’ was an upper bunk and I was pleased to see that there was indeed some storage space in the way of a small shelf, to which I put my bike gear on.

My bed for the next two nights.

Once I got changed, I went up to deck 9, the outside deck to get some fresh air. I then went to deck 5 to get a bottle of water and write some more of this incredibly long post!

We set sail about an hour and a quarter late, but a least the sea was calm.

A short while later, I heard the captain announce that the weather today was good but we could expect it to be wet tomorrow. Not sure if this meant it would be rough though as well.

Back in my cabin, I decided that upgrading to a single use cabin was a bit too extreme for my limited budget, however, this still left one upgrade option which I purchased for approximately €20, and that was the bed linen upgrade. In this package I got, a bottom sheet, a duvet with cover, a pillow with cover and a towel.

Post upgrade.

Not bad heh? I’m living it up now!

At 3pm, with the water calm, I, along with my grumbling stomach, decided it would probably be a good time to eat. So, I decided as the cafeteria was almost empty and so the kitchen was not busy, that I should order a ham pizza with no cheese, plus a can of coke to go with it. When it was ready, it looked great, with a good covering of ham and not too much tomato sauce.

Without the cheese it was not too greasy and with the coke, I felt this was a good combination for sea travel and me.

The sea at 21:30 was like a milll pond, so I had a walk around the boat trying go get my bearings. Though, those that know me, this wasn’t going to became easy task, as just like when I go shopping, I come out of the shop and inevitably turn the opposite direction to the way we was going. And no change here, I kept ending up in the same place, meaning my exploration of the boat seemed to be limited to a small area where I went around and around!

Oh, well I thought, let’s just try finding my cabin again and turn in for the day.