With the winds still blowing from the west, Sea Stallion remains sitting idle in harbour near Lindesnes. Having been on land for days the crew is growing increasingly frustrated. They are, however, gaining an insight into the weeks and months of waiting that a real Viking crew must have endured a millennium ago, although our Vikings seem somewhat more placid than their ancestors. With the North Sea crossing imminent, and to alleviate the boredom, Carsten the skipper of Sea Stallion, decided it was a good opportunity to practice some safety exercises with the support ship, Cable One. Young Danish crew member, Hans Jacob agreed: 'it’s a good way to pass the time. We’ve been here for almost a week now and we need distractions, and lots of them'.
Waiting for rescuers in the icy sea
Cable One is normally a diving and cable repair vessel, so this voyage is a novel challenge for her captain and crew. Many on Sea Stallion were sceptical about the need for a support ship at first, but when the weather turned bad and several crew members developed the first signs of hypothermia, even the doubters had to admit they had proved their worth. The guys on board are now jokingly known as the ‘heroes of Cable One’ much to their embarrassment and amusement. Nathan, the producer, and I are based on Cable One and she has been our home now for over a week now. We have been editing and uploading content to this website from her wheel-house, which now doubles as our office.
If the worst does happen, and Sea Stallion capsizes or is swamped with water and goes down, the crew and captain of Cable One must be ready to risk their lives in a rescue attempt. In today’s exercise the Cable One steamed out into the icy waters of the Fjord and half of Sea Stallion’s crew jumped in. Dylan, an experienced sailor, told me: 'The good thing about training is that you learn what can go wrong, a lot of unforeseen things can happen, so it’s good to have a plan. If the ship goes down in a North Sea gale you can never have done enough training, or planning'.
Cable One takes its catch onboard
Feeling brave I also donned my survival suit and jumped in, with our underwater camera, to film the rescues at close quarters. Even on a sunny day in a dry survival suit, I soon became very cold and was thankful to finally be dragged onto the RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat). Surviving in the North Sea for a couple of hours would be seriously tough, even in a life raft, so we are all glad Cable One will be on hand if something does go wrong. Lars, the captain of Cable One, explained: 'The most important job of Cable One is to make people feel safe. If all we have to do is stay in the background and do nothing then that will have been a perfect voyage from my point of view'.
Over at the Viking camp the regular cooking team of Sojvej and Lars are having a night off, and so Louise and some of the younger crew members have finally got their wish - to make a Thai Curry, using the coconut milk Louise insisted was put onboard. Hopefully tomorrow will bring a change in the wind, or this modern band of Vikings might just start imitating their ancestors…
