Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river

N 59 26.588 E 23 59.313 - 6 September 2008 - 8.43 am

Is there anything sadder than the house band in the night club on a ferry line? Do they think, wow, we got the gig for the Stockholm to Tallinn run, maybe it is time we just gave up on this music thing? I suppose they actually think, yes, we can pay our rent now. After their energetic set of classic oldies, setting the dance floor on fire, I stood and watched the videos they showed afterwards, Frankie and Relax. So trashy but I can see how it took months to get that bass sound just right.

Looking over the Baltic Sea now. It was nice to take an early walk around the ship as the sun was coming up. Pretty sea and very quiet. The deck was littered with beer cans and empty glasses. Friday night, the run to Estonia, seems like it is pretty much the party run. I do hope the party doesn't carry on too close to where we are staying this weekend and coming week. But I'm looking over the ocean waiting for the land to appear. Saw a gull flying over the water so we must be close.

Now onto the next phase of the journey. I'm a bit sad about the end of the camping phase. That a lot of nights there, 16 nights, I think, out of the almost 4 weeks we have been gone. Has it already been 4 weeks? It is going so fast. Without camping, what am I going to do with all my time? I was thinking about just ho0w much time there seems to be spent on basic living things and organizing and maintenance things. Going to bed, you have to wash the dishes, get everything sort of packed again and under cover in case it rains (or is windy and might blow away). We were quite lucky with the weather and only had a few nights of pouring rain. Even last night it was supposed to rain a lot but there was only a brief shower. Waking up in the morning, unpacking and getting the kitchen stuff set up, then cooking takes so much longer than normal. Packing up and moving is a lot of folding and stuffing things in bags and trying to cram everything into the bursting backpacks.

I still can't figure out what I wouldn't take next time. We did a blitz of last minute purchases the last few days in London, and none of them I regret at all. The stove was great. We let the guy in the outdoor shop talk us into the multi fuel one, as well as the set of stainless steel pans (instead of the aluminum ones, which after probably 30 meals over the blowtorch really would have been a melted ruined mess). I already had a pocket rocket stove, weighs about the weight of a sock, but the fuel cannisters seem so fussy and who knows where you can get them refilled. It was nice to have a cannister you can pour just about anything into, even diesel. We used white spirts which worked the best. One place we found kerosene, which was about half the price but was a bit fussy to get the stove lit and burned a bit weird.

The groundsheet purchase was great too, although a source of arguments. I wanted to use it for the porch and have something to sit and cook on. C wanted it under the tent. I thought that was a bit redundant, the tent already is a groundsheet. But admittedly in Myrdal, when we were camped basically on top of a bog, it did keep the tent drier inside and added an extra layer of warmth from the cold wet ground. In Finnhamn, we found an old huge groundsheet in the trash and cut it up and used that as an extra groundsheet, so we were finally covered there on both. The backpack covers, expensive for a little bit of fabric, but without our normal Ortleib panniers, waterproof, just chuck them outside the tent in the rain and it doesn't matter, the covers were priceless for wrapping the backpacks up at night.

Land ho! Lots of gulls now and a foggy looking landmass ahead. We should be there in another 90 minutes then. We should have an apartment in a few hours and we can start the process of washing everything a few times and hopefully be certain of being tick free for the first time in a while. An ant crawled out of my jacket just before dinner last night. One determined ant, who must have really wanted to get away from Sweden. Hopefully we haven't carried too many other buggers with us.

Ok, time for another walk on the deck to see the fast approaching Estonian coast.