17/05/2010 - Norway Day

Norway day has arrived!  Another warm and sunny day was greeted by everyone wishing each other “Happy Norway day”! (or variations that include “happy Norwegian day” or Happy Norwegian National day!”).  As the wind had died pretty much completely there was a little sail handling required to furl and I found myself on the t’gallants with the same incredible view as before,.. blue as far as the eye can see! 

Once mustered, we settled into our daily routine of domestics, followed by tasks such as lookout, helm or “WT tasks” like sanding, painting, rustbusting etc…  all was pretty standard until lunch when our watch was assembled to plan for the Norway day parade,.. at 16.30 I had to present myself in the bat-cave to be made up…. Apparently since we didn’t have a Norwegian on our watch I was going to be come Johanna (Yohanna) for the afternoon.  At 16.30 on the dot the operation began,… I was going to be beautiful,.. well sort of! 

Once made up and, let’s face it, looking more like Eddie Izzard than Johanna, we mustered to rehearse the song, the parade etc… and at 17h we were called up with everyone else to the well-deck.  I was quite the star as the only drag act and everyone had a good laugh!!  We paraded round, sang our song about Norway (to the tune of “A few of my favourite things” – The Sound of Music)

Onesies and Fjords and reindeer to please

Blonde braids that flow down your back to your knees,

National costume a wonder to see

These are a few of my favourite things

Vikings and sweaters and large men named Thor

Represent Norway (excluding the whores)

Pickled fish snacks are a treat all the more

These are a few of my favourite things

When the vodka’s gone

Or the agua Vit

Is it a W or a V

I simply remember why Norway’s so great

And then I don’t feel sooo baaaad!

 

and played a traditional Norwegian game of “balance the potato on the spoon whilst answering Norwegian general knowledge questions!”  unfortunately our watch lost and a tug of war between the Bat-cave and the fo’c’sle head was to decide the winner,.. now I was “female” it was decided I was an honorary member of the bat cave and invited to join in their team,… they did need it!!  However, despite my showing a bit of leg to put them off we were pulled across the line and admitted defeat!  All in good humour,.. I also noticed that they were filming the event… not sure if that is a good thing or not!

After a traditional Norwegian dinner of potato salad and hotdogs (?) I tried to remove the makeup,.. bloody Meredith had put it on with waterproof mascara!!  I spent the rest of the evening receiving positive comments about the intensity of my eyes!!

Evening watch was fairly routine as no sails were set and we passed the time solving riddles, one in particular from Sophie perplexed us for a few hours.  “A man walks into a restaurant, orders Albatross soup, takes one sip, turns and jumps to his death from the window,.. what happened?”  The answer is quite frankly absurd!

I asked Mike where we were and was informed that we are now 200 miles due east of Bermuda with approx 1500 miles still to go to Colón in Panama,…  another 2 weeks at least!

I couldn’t wait to get to bed and sleep!

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