Halfway Home

Tjaba,

A lot has happened these past few days. The weather has gone from rainy to really windy, which has made sailing very interesting. On the last day of the Mareld camp, I took out a group of seven 10 year olds sailing, the wind blowing about 12 m/s (~25 mph). Dressed in a full rainsuit with my hood up and gloves on, I told them that they were going to get soaked as if they were going swimming. I thought it was appropriate to warn them, seeing as they were wearing shorts and scout shirts. But, none heeded my warning, as it seemed perfectly calm in Fladan. But as soon as we cleared Fladan, the boat started thrashing about by a combination of winds and waves. Water came pouring in, both from the waves crashing over the bow, and the water coming in the leeward side from the boat's heel. So after less than an hour, I wasn't surprised to hear the kids say they were cold and wanted to go back in. But since we were downwind of Fladan (which I admit was my fault, I should have thought about it more), we had to sail upwind. But the kids were so tired and cold that they didn't have the strength to control the sails and pull them in, and as a result, I couldn't sail upwind at all. I wish I could have left the helm to help them, but there was no way I could have let them steer, as I was constantly adjusting the boat's direction and mainsail to prevent water from flooding the boat. Ultimately, we weren't really sailing any more, and I was forced to drop the sails, wait for a tow, and have the anchor in my hands ready to drop in cased we started drifting too far. At the end of the day, I think around 5 other boats also needed towing back in, which helped me not feel as bad for not planning ahead. Lesson learned, and fortunately no one suffered too much, just a damaged ego.

Yesterday, everyone at Mareld left, and we had no bookings. We spent the day fixing all the boats, inspecting the riggings, and matching the sails. That evening, there was a staff meeting at Fladan, which was a suprise. The entire slipen (the place we store the boats during the winter) was decorated with lights, sails, tables, music, and food. I guess it was Vassaro thanking us for a hard week's work. The food was amazing, and I had crayfish for the first time. A little interesting, it looked like a miniature lobster, but tasted quite good. Crayfish parties are very popular in Sweden during the summer. I am now prepared if Anna takes me to one when I get back to Stockholm.

Today was back to a normal schedule. We took the Konfirmands sailing around the island of Garpen in the morning. For those of you who don't know, Konfirmands are exactly what they sound like: people being confirmed. Each year, Vassaro has two periods of Konfirmands, each lasting 4 weeks and having about fifty, 14-15 year scouts. During this time they learn about whatever Swedish protestants learn about, and are then confirmed at the very end. Its a *very* popular thing, and the waiting list for kids is years long. In fact, I would say almost have the staff here at Vassaro were once Konfirmands, which only goes to say how amazing their experience was. In the afternoon, our "Sea leader" was gone doing errands, and he put Anna and I in charge. Which means, for an hour, I was probably the first American Sea Leader at Vassaro. Pretty cool.

I think that's it for now. I moved houses today, so I guess I'm in the unofficial Fladan house now. I know for a fact there are mice in the walls. Hopefully none of my stuff gets chewed...

-Lukas