Day 16: Taking the Night Boat to Helsinki

As luck and life would have it, Jubie and I embarked upon the night boat to Helsinki in the port of Stockholm, Sweden at around 4pm destined to reach Helsinki at 10:00am the next morning. Armed with a food bag full of supplies including yogurt, fruit, smoked fish, flat bread, cream cheese and such, we were ready for our adventure at sea. The seas were icy and we were held up last night for more than 7 hours, no one seemed alarmed and people flooded the promenade deck for live entertainment (which reminded us oddly of cabaret shows that one might have experienced during the crash of the stock market in the twenties- scantily clad sequined ladies in flapper like garb and young dancing men in gold lamee mobster suits. All so peculiar to the two of us, who were by now well effected by our Dramamine doses and wandering aimlessly on deck. Around 9pm, as others on this boat were just beginning to party, we found out way far below all of this fun to our bunk beds in our tee tiny little room on the second level, next to the engines and the exact point on the bow of the boat where the huge ice chunks clanged and clamored all night long. Did we mention that we were two levels below the car decks with no windows nor fresh air. It took great effort to self soothe and fall asleep to the eerie sounds, fully aware that if, like the Titanic, we were going down- Jubie and I would be the first to face the cold Baltic seas. I dreamed of those that made these kinds of journeys to the “new world” years ago and wondered how they could have managed in the bowels of boats for months at a time. Ah, life on the high seas! In the morning Jubie wandered about the deck looking for a toilet (as ours in the low class sections did not work) and told me tales of groups of hung over young men walking along the promenade deck, one with a freshly shaven patch of hair missing (midnight prankster male bonding fun, no doubt). We had been informed of the delay earlier in the night, but what we did not know was that we had been halted for SEVEN hours and now were not due to arrive in Helsinki until 5pm. It seems that ice on the Baltic sea is not a common occurrence, in fact the icy seas sent at least one ferry line home last night and prompted an international news story that some of our alert followers in the states saw on BBC. During our extended confinement onboard the sea vessel Symphony, we shared a sauna and Jacuzzi with fellow passengers and were treated to a complementary buffet brunch! We were surprised and impressed by how calmly passengers dealt with this extended delay.
We were met at the docks by our Helsinki host, Liisa, and the Helsinki Channel 4 news crew who were interviewing passengers as they exited the ferry.