Öckerö gymnasium

Admiring the beautiful nature of Iceland

After yesterday’s stunning impressions of whales, dolphins, puffin birds, sea Lions and the majestic snow-covered mountains of Iceland, we woke up to a calm day, running on the main engine and some sails, that pretty much only served a symbolic purpose.

It was time for our first day-watch. After a quick oat-meal breakfast, that we almost missed, we got dressed and ready for the first dayshift with our new shift leader, Klara, and our captain, Hans from the Netherlands. Even though this day was one of the warmer ones; one t-shirt, one thin long-sleeved sweatshirt, two hoodies, and a thick sailing jacket, was the perfect amount of clothes to keep your torso warm (it was 12 degrees in the air, and 7 degrees in the water). As soon as the shift started the wind turned straight toward us in a split-second, making the sails serve a new purpose, putting Gunilla in reverse…

We waited a minute to make sure that the wind wasn’t just temporary, and then when we were sure that the wind had actually turned, we took down all the sails and climbed up the mast to tie them up. To lift an entire sail, pack it into a convenient roll, and tie it up by yourself, quickly made me regret not taking of my pair of hoodies. At the end of the shift, we wished the next group a pleasant shift and went for lunch.

As we ate lunch, we admired the spectacular nature that could almost be compared to the Grand Canyon filled with water, but greener. Massive plateaus with pointy snow-covered mountain tops in the horizon and a slight mist of fog just above the water line, made it look like a movie scene.

So now, to wrap up another normal day, just as I was writing on this blog post, there was a whale sighting not so far away from us. I grabbed my camera and ran up on deck. I can just say one thing. There where whales, plenty of whales. Closest one was no more than 15 m away, which made some beautiful shots to look at the rest of the day.

Name: Erik Nauwerck

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Öckerö seglande gymnasieskola
Björnhuvudsvägen 45
475 31 Öckerö

Telefon: 031-97 62 00
e-post: kommun@ockero.se