June 14, 2006
Ship’s Log
June 14th 2006
Departure Location: Norrtälje, Sweden
Departure Time: 7:58 hours
Distance Traveled. 47.5 Nautical Miles
Arrival Location: Rödhamn, Äland Islands
Arrival Time: 15:30 hours
Weather: Strong Winds from the South. Cold front moved through late in the afternoon bringing intermittent rain and winds. Moderate to rough waters.
Personal Comments
Today was the first day of heavy seas and full wind as we crossed out of Sweden on our way to Finland. It was the first real test for how we would fair under rough conditions and although there were a few shaky moments, we all seemed to manage well overall. At the end of the day we came to port on Rödhamn (the so-called “red island”), which is one of the Äland Islands. Along the way we crossed another time zone.
The island is both small and austere, which gives it a simple beauty. There are rock patterns and formations all over the island from visiting tourists and fisherman. A young female artist currently lives alone on the island with her two-year-old daughter and although her husband travels back and forth from the local islands, much of her time is spent alone during the quiet months of winter. However, at the beginning of the summer the tourism picks up and there can be up to 70 boats a night in the harbour. One of the greatest pleasures of the island is the authentic wood burning sauna which we enjoyed last night. Jonas, our captain, led the charge down to the icy water every few minutes. As we headed back to the boat at 11:30 the sun was just setting and we got our first view of the full moon.
Research Comments:
Today, while leaving Norrtälje we passed through what Vinci refers to as the bay of Alje, which was where the Acheans gathered their ships before setting sail to Troy. The bay is roughly seven nautical miles long and in passing through it we officially began our voyage to Troy.
During our sail out of Norrtälje we read through the catalogue of ships and calculated how many ships each of the twenty-nine cities listed in the Iliad contributed. In total we counted 1,186 ships. Sailing through the narrow passage we imagined what it must have been like for all of these ships to be harboured up and down the bay and speculated about the weather conditions that they would have experienced (since it would have been eight degrees warmer overall). We also wondered how they would have foraged for food over such a small area of land. It is no surprise that after trying to feed this many people (some of the ships could hold up to one hundred and fifty people) they would have been desperate for wind and would have been eager for Agammemnon to sacrifice his daughter as the prophets recommended.
posted by VTEAM06 @ 7:04 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Can't wait to hear your next post! From your itinerary page..RE:14 Delet/Teili archipelago = Delos, sacred island where Apollo was born and from thence then made his way north to the land of the Hyperboreans (“those who live beyond the north wind”) on a chariot driven by white SWANS (165).
Some links on SVAN or Earth-Matar in ancient Finland:
http://www.bocksaga.de/Library/archive_leo/Santa.rtf
http://www.bocksaga.de/abstracte.htm
You don't need to post this if you don't want, just wanted to give you the links...
Margaret from Northwest Nowhere
As you cross between Sweden and Finland you also cross the old line between two distinctly different cultures, - that have maintained their different charateristics as cultures, - ever since the first setlements of the Fenno-Scandian sub-continent.
Present archeology have definitly proven that the first settlers of Northern Europe were incredibly well adapted for arctic climates. Thus we may safely anticipate that they shared a common origin, somerwhere prior to 10.000 years ago. Thus, as soon as northern Eurasia were ice-free they spread very rapidly - all over the northern hemisphere.
This arctic culture then evolved in two main waves, - where small but distinct and consequent characteristics developed. Not in terms of infrastructure, technology and metodology - but in terms of design, decor and art.
And language. Thus they must have been keeping their geneologies separate from each orther as well, something modern genetics have definitly proven.
When you cross from Sweden to Finland today, you will still find some of theese very same differences between the Scandinavian and the Finnish. Still - after 10.000 years as neigbours - there is still a distinct difference between the Scandinavian and the Finnish languages, designs, decoration and art...
They say that the Torne River have been the border between the Swedes and the Finns for 10.000 years. They also say that this is the only original border - between cultures - in the world, that never have been offended by a soldiers boot.
Please do not miss out on the Homeric significance of the Botnic Bay, the Torne River and the Oulu Lake, - that connected the great river-routes between east and west, covering what the old Greeks called Hyperborea.
From this region they connected directly to the White Sea, as well as to the Lake Onega and the Volga River - reaching the Caspian Sea. They also reached the Lake Ladoga from where they connected the White Sea and the Baltic trade - via the Djepr/Dvina rivers - to the Black Sea.
Note here the signigicance of what the Norse Litterature called "the first of people" (later called "gods") - namely the "Aser" and the "Vaner". Today we still carry their initials in names like "As-ia", "As-tra-kan" and "As(h)ov" - or "Ven-del" (Estland), "Van-ha" ("old") and "Vene" (Finnish word for "Russians").
From the Botnic Bay you may also find the waterways south and west -via Norway to the North-Atlantic.
There are now evident proof that they already exercised tremendous skills of seafaring - already as they spread across west-coast Scandinavia and aproached the North-Atlantic. Already 10.000 years ago they arrive in England and the Orkneys. A few years later they inhabbit Scotland, Shetland and the Feroe Isles. Tecently they found proof of the "Red Paint People" -characteristic of the first sailors around the North Sea and the Baltic Sea - already sailed to the eastern coast of North-America already 10.000 years ago, - too. Today they even found that the North American Indians share some specific gene (haplogroup X1) with the Northern Europeans - ONLY.
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Becaus of the "Norwegian connection" - across the North Atlantic -
we have reasons to belive that the midle region of Fenno-Scandia once played a very important in the trade and taffic between America, Europe and Asia - and thus bringing together information from all around the globe.
Thus we have reasons to belive that the bi-lingual Finns have been at the hart of these connections for millennias.
In his last two books the distinuished Dr. Thor Heyerdahl have explained this in many details. One of them is re-establishing the fact that the old Norse Panteons once actually existed - not as abstractions and litterate phenomenons - but as normal human beings - of royal decent and rank. It is a pity they are still available only in Scandinavian (Norwegian grammar) and not in English.
Though, some of the essential references can be found at;
www.kajaanicastle.com
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