Greetings form Århus! Two weeks of Imagining Godzilla tour behind us and it has definitely been eventful. Feels like we’ve already been sailing for months! But that’s how time changes at sea.
The planned route has been changing quite a lot with the beginning of summer being quite stormy, cold and rainy, with harsh winds blowing, and by some black magic a lot of the time they’ve been blowing against our route rather than helping us on. Here’s the actual route compared to the planned one!
Our trip started from Hanko a day late, since we had to wait out a gale wind coming down from the Bay of Bothnia and blocking our passage across the Baltic Sea to Kalmar, Sweden. We got on our way in the early morning on Sunday 22nd with a decision to cross a shorter and more sheltered route to Nynäshamn close to Stockholm. Even with the worst gusts of wind past, we still had quite rough seas to cross in hard gusty wind. The first artists on board were the Passepartout Duo, experimental musicians from Italy and USA. They were sailing for the first time ever and really got straight to the deep end and a full experience of the sea. We did some 30h of sailing, with the waves getting huge towards the end of the leg, Andy and Merja taking it in 2h shifts to steer the boat, and everyone on board more or less getting their share of seasickness.
Among the wind and rain, there were some calm and beautiful moments of sailing and the Duo got to test out their DIY hydrophones, recording underwater soundscapes next to Godzilla while it was gliding along the sea.
In Nynäshamn we were joined by artists Isabella Martin and Marek Tuszynski for the long sail down the Swedish coast with the intention of getting as close to Malmö as possible.
We ended up sailing all the way down to Simrishamn, approximately a 44h leg, with a brief stop in Kalmar in the middle of the night to get some petrol, since we had to be motoring quite a lot. Luckily also got a lot of nice sailing done.
Isabella got some data collecting done for her project Baltic Bodies, filming underwater in Nynäshamn harbor and recording soundscapes boith underwater and above along the way. Marek, an experienced sailor and a certified skipper, was enthusiastic to sail the Godzilla with Andy and Merja, and to get inspired for his plans of a project about the mapping of the oceans.
We had a change of crew in Simrishamn where artists Mia Tamme and Tonya Fucking Björkbom joined us. We started sailing early morning on the 28th June from Simrishamn with the idea to possibly get as far as Helsingborg. The sailing weather was amazing during the morning and it turned out Mia was an excellent sailor and super enthusiastic to join in sailing the Godzilla. We stopped to cross over at the Falsterbokanalen near Malmö. When we arrived it seemed a bit stranded and not functioning,
and we spend the better part of an hour having dinner and wondering if the bridge will open for us at the designated time. Nobody seemed to be working on a Saturday…or summer holidays… We did get through and had fantastic sailing through the Øresund Bridge connecting Malmö and Copenhagen. After a beautiful sunset the wind got harder and harder sooner than we had anticipated and Andy and Merja made a fast decision to head to harbor near Copenhagen to get shelter. We motored against the wind in growing waves, gusts of wind and rain to Skoveshaved harbor. Had we been sailing for longer we would’ve had an extremely rough and dangerous night.
After the rough night, Godzilla spent a few sunny days in Copenhagen where we were joined by the next artists Aga Pokrywka and Agnieszka Bulacik. Near the harbor, Tonya delivered an extempore performance where they explore a possibility of a sensual and playful relationship with the Sea.
Leaving Copenhagen towards Århus, we had the first beautiful summer day of the trip. There wasn’t much wind but beautiful skies and sweet sailing with the spinnaker up, going at about 4 knots speed. We stayed the night in anchor at Isefjord and arrived in Århus in the afternoon 2nd July.
On board Agnieszka was fascinated by the sea and sang a Belarussian lament together with Aga for the Baltic Sea in different spots during their journey. Aga filmed scenes for her upcoming film, a speculative documentary about an alternative history for humanity from microscopic and astronomical perspectives.
Getting near Århus, there were big commercial cruising ships passing by quite frequently and at one point we found ourselves sailing through his nasty, bubbly trail of foam and oil, that was the dirty water these cruising ships empty into the sea, without cleaning or filtering. Makes our efforts of collecting and storing our pee and dishwater on board, instead of throwing it overboard, like a literal drop in the ocean of an effort to try and keep the sea from becoming one big drain. It’s disturbing that this kind of activity is still allowed anywhere, and especially a sea as polluted and delicate as the Baltic Sea is.
ANIMAL OBSERVATIONS FROM ALONG THE WAY!!!
- A porpoise swimming next to the boat near Århus!!!!
- A demon hedgehog in Simrishamn!! Tonya saw the hedgehog in the early hours of morning eating a tiny baby seagull, who had been nesting next to our boat…
- A huuuuge and very walrus-like lonely seal bobbling its head above water close to Godzilla in the middle of the open sea!
- A very sleak and beautiful harbor mink in Skoveshaved, who had absolutely no fear of people or boats ( maybe minks are taking over harbors after the fur business collapse in Denmark??)
Cheers,
Iida
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