Yes it is Winter

Today it was rough and much more like what I expected from the Barent’s Sea. The swell was up to 5 meters (over 15 ft), and the wind was averaging about 25 knots. The temperature without the windchill was hovering just above freezing. Plus a lot of out work was on the boat deck, which is high and fully exposed.

I thought this was a good picture, of me the boat, and the mountains in the background. I've got at least 3 or 4 layers on underneath my coveralls!

2 days ago it was cold, but clear and you could see the new snow on the mountains in the distance.

If you click on this picture and look closely enough, you can see the snow from this morning. This is a view off the back deck - that thing going diagonally across is one of our cables that we were deploying.

Summer or Winter?

First before starting I must note that 2 days ago my Swedish phrase of the day was Sommaren är här, which means the summer is here. How ironic given this morning’s snow.

I was hoping to equate my experience this far in the Barent’s Sea (North of the North sea off of Norway) to the TV show “Deadliest Catch”, however its only half been that way. On the supply boat that we took out last Tuesday it was rocking and rolling, big time. Then yesterday I went out on the work boat (think small motor boat) and I got sick. I have always prided myself on not getting sick, but this was bad. At one point I was sitting and trying to look at the ocean and I couldn’t focus, so my eyes kind of glazed over until I fell asleep. Then I managed to throw up twice. We left around 4am and got back at 9:30 am - those were 5 ½ very long hours. However, then I started to think, why? Because I had also felt a bit queasy on the supply vessel coming over. And there was one link – both days I had eaten an apple, not too long before feeling queasy.

Today around 6:30am the weather got calm enough to go out and I was put in the crew – 4 people usually go out. I was both excited (I hadn’t eaten an apple and wanted to test my theory) and horrified at the same time – what if it wasn’t the apple. So we donned our dry suits and off we went and it was great! No problems, no falling asleep, and beautiful sun.

Ah, and did I mention that it snowed this morning around 4 am while we were working on the back deck? Most of the days the temperature has been hovering around freezing, with the wind blowing and dropping the temperatures even further. And all we’ve been doing since getting on board is backdeck work, so I’ve been out side constantly. Luckily, I put on a lot of clothes under my coveralls.

And yes, it is not dark here. I am working the “night” shift from midnight to noon, but I have renamed it the midnight sun shift.