Sea Dragon set sail from Reykjevik at 8am on Monday. Its now 7pm on Tuesday… I think. It is difficult to keep track of days and times – without a watch I would be lost. The daylight stretches out over 24 hours, the sun sweeping a shallow curve below the horizon but peaking back up again pretty swiftly. Our schedule is 3 hours on watch, 6 hours off, and this is our timekeeper. With no night or day, no 9am alarm clock or evening trip to the pub, there is nothing to mark the hours but the watch on deck. This threatened, when we set sail, banked by rain and sheets of cloud, to be pretty miserable. But within a few hours of leaving the dock, the clouds cleared, the wind abated and the sun was shining.
The sea goes from deep blue, to silver to gold, depending on the sun. The sky has stayed clear. It feels altogether magical and, punctuated by volcanic islands and swooping seabirds, our watches are no hardship. Armed with sunglasses and cups of tea, it is possible to sit on deck for hours, basking in the sunlight. The only difficulty is forcing ourselves to sleep – none of us want to retreat back down to our bunks when the weather is so glorious.
This should be perfect whale watching conditions, and yet so far they have eluded us. We are keeping our eyes peeled, but apart from a few sprays in the distance and some breaches that are too quick for most of us to catch, the seas around Sea Dragon have stayed whale-free (or at least from our perspective they have). We are quite content however and will keep you updated with our progress!
– Laura Coleman, Director of the ONCA Trust, July 8, 2014
