A surprise visitor
This happened Saturday a week ago, the 8th of September. The summer is definitively over in Norway, the sea temperatures are pretty cold. The boat was standing by anchor. Well, to be honest it was actually standing with the keel in the mud (the anchor winch has broken down, I used a rope to the anchor - haven't been doing that since our last boat - apparently I let out too little rope. With the heavy chain I can usually stay quite safe with a short scope) It was me and my friend and his son, and we had a mission to remove a rope that had gotten stuck in the propeller. Me and my friend were wearing wet suits, and then it was the son of my friend, he wanted to go bathing so he borrowed my sons swimwear. He jumped into the water, got shocked by the cold temperature, got out of the water at once, and curled himself into a towel.
The photo below was taken in the spring, but it's from the same place - one of my favorite anchoring places, as it's relatively idyllic yet quite close to the nearest train station. It's a narrow strait between two islands; Saraholmen to the left and Borøya to the right (mainland ahead).
After we (honestly, my friend) had successfully removed the rope from the propeller, we showered - first him and then me. While I was standing in the shower, my friend was knocking and telling that we had gotten a visitor - a swimmer that "was too exhausted to swim back". I told him to offer her food and tell her that the captain was in the shower.
That was quite fascinating - I've never experienced having guests coming to the boat by swimming, I've rarely had strangers on board, and I've never been rescuing people (except, been helping other boats a couple of times) ... not to forget that the water really was too cold for swimming (in my opinion, at least). She came from the island Saraholmen - to reach our boat it was just hundred metres or so of swimming. But to get to Saraholmen without a boat, she must have first been swimming at least half a kilometre - probably something like 750 metres (depending on her exact route). Ok, half a kilometer of swimming is quite doable, I'm often swimming for more than one kilometer when I'm swimming ... but swimming half a kilometer at this time of the year, without wet-suit? That's pretty tough. There are also often boats going quite fast there, I'd be worried that they may not see me if I was to swim there (I've seen swimmers in Amsterdam and Copenhagen wearing yellow bouys for better visibility).
So she was supposed to meet with someone on Saraholmen, but this other person didn't come. She had some luggage with her in a watertight sack, including a cellphone, but she said that she had underestimated and taken too little equipment and food with her.
We had just been heating a tin of ravioli. She didn't say "no" when she was offered the food, but she also didn't eat it (eventually I ate her portion).
There were some other things she said and did ... like asking if we thought it was possible to stay overnight on the island (me: "sure, with enough equipment, food and clothes - but remember it's promised a lot of rain!"), and after consuming this ... "maybe if I can borrow a fishing rod and some warm clothes, I can stay overnight". I had already been offering her a hot shower, I certainly did have some warm clothes, but the thought of her wearing my clothes until the next day trapped in the rain on the island ... no, I didn't like that. After I finally found the fishing rod,she started nagging for bait. She suggested that maybe a tin of anchovies would do? Next thing, she somehow managed to pierce a small hole in the tin before changing her mind, she was not going to fish with the anchovies. And then she suggested that maybe she could eat the anchovies. They went down very fast, without bread. She muttered something about this being "cheating", possibly since she was eating fish that she didn't catch herself. And now she wanted to fish from the dhingy together with the son of my friend - the son of my friend should teach her fishing. At some point my friend had decided ... "this person is crazy", and further he decided she was no good company for his son. He didn't say it out loud, but I could read it between the lines in everything he said from that point. The lady had to be taken to land, the faster the better.
It was on my agenda to go with the dhingy to buy fuel for the dhingy (together with the child, since he liked to go fast with the dhingy) - on the way I could drop her off at the mainland. Now I was sort of only waiting for her fishing session to end. Since my friend clearly wanted to get rid of this person, I pushed on to continue with my agenda and get her to land the fastest possible. The idea of going together with the child was dismissed right away, I think it was only because my friend didn't like him to be together with this person.
She wanted to "learn to use a small boat", so I showed her how to start it and left her to do the steering. She got back to land at the place she wanted to be dropped off, and it was no big detour for me.
The whole thing was a bit surrealistic, but also a bit funny, it was something out of the ordinary that we will remember for a while.
Mrs. James Bond? :o)
What an unexpected experience and an odd one at that. Trusting you all well enough to just come aboard, be safe and not be immediately thrown back into the water or worse. Able to kind of worm her way into things or possibilities through suggestion. Attempting to get her way when she really had no reason to expect anything from anyone. The fact that she did think it was okay to do any of those things, in spite of her desperate or at least unfortunate sounding circumstances. Realizing it might not have been the first time she'd done something like that. And if true, seeing that she was woefully unprepared for anything she was doing. The fact that she could swim in cold water over whatever distance without a wet suit.
I've had people come up on me that I swear came out of nowhere and then seemed to just disappear the same way. Yes, at night, and with obstructed view, but you called your experience surreal and that's what it reminds me of. :)
This is Norway, we have a bit different culture.
I was laughing a bit with my Polish friend the other day about Swedes ... like, for one thing, hitch hiking in Sweden is nearly impossible. There is another story I read on a Norwegian that got water flowing into his sail boat so he immediately set the course to more shallow water while he was pumping and trying to resolve the problem. Out comes a Swedish land owner, waving his hands desperately saying ... "you're not allowed to sink here!"
I don't like begging and I don't like people begging. I believe most people begging does it not because they have no other way to survive, but because it's profitable to beg. I even feel a bit upset about them ... I feel I don't have any available time and so many things to do, but they're just sitting there the whole day doing ... nothing! What a waste!
Some consider hitch hiking as begging, but I see that a bit differently. It's a bit strange that we generally have a very high threshold for asking for help if we have any kind of personal problems, but quite low threshold for asking for help if we have vehicular problems - flat starter battery, car stuck on ice or in the snow, keel stuck in the mud, boat drifting towards the rocks due to engine problems ... of course we help each other and of course we ask for help (though, it seems to me that this willingness is being reduced over the time - and I've been to New York once, I wanted to help someone stuck on ice, they thought I was a madman, I was not allowed to help). I remember once we were out biking and we were extremely thirsty. Drinking water from the tap is for free in Norway, but still ... ringing the doorbell at some random house and ask for water, that really felt like begging. In the end we asked someone that was out in the garden, we didn't want to drink the water from the urban river, so we sa no other option. We got two very small glasses of water, and it felt like it would be a loss of dignity to ask for a refill ... so we left from there still thirsty.
I suppose there are some cultural differences. I can see it going a lot of ways here, including how you described it. More likely, though, the attitude of your friend would be the prevailing reaction and much sooner. She wouldn't have been allowed to hang around as long as she did, and she might have still ended up on the island. :)
Yeah, begging is a tough one. There are times where people are in definite need, though, like a flat tire on the side of the road. I've had that happened to me, and was amazed at the help I got. I didn't even have to ask. The fact that there really wasn't a place to pull off the road on a busy freeway probably helped. :)
The larger cities, like New York or Chicago are probably going to be that way. People just have that kind of attitude. Some person broken down or stuck could easily be a ploy to rob people or worse. There are still plenty of other places though where that wouldn't be the case. I live in a predominantly rural area where people are stopping to do whatever they can at the sight of an accident or some other kind of need. And they're quick about it, too, without hesitation.
I think those of us who have been taught to be responsible, to be prepared, to be as self-sufficient as we possibly can feel bad about when things don't go as planned and we end up needing help. Those who do it for a living or who blithely go around doing things they have no real business doing because they believe they can rely on or impose on the kindness of others—those folks are the ones I have more trouble with than not. I don't run across many like that, fortunately.
a very beautiful place! and the water is like a mirror...
brrrr.... to jump into the water now?? very brave!
we've rather cold weather now as well, not typical for this time of the year, very rainy and windy, Norway must be even colder I guess..
What an unusual out of the ordinary experience tobixen. A good one to write about so you have it forever to remind yourself that it was real!
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