Hagbart Waage

We won’t be going out on the ocean today. Our current boat, Blasius II, leaves with half of the guides to go to the company’s second location in Stø. Good thing I already snagged one of the company’s jackets from the crew room on the boat yesterday.

The new boat for the tours from Andenes arrived late last night. Hagbart Waage. It has a sheltered top deck with some tables and lots of chairs, and a spacious front deck, which I like a lot because you can get quite close to the whales. Moreover, we have a lookout for the guides. I dig it at first, but out on the sea, it turns out to be quite windy and you get very, very cold up there in no time. Besides that, I prefer to be closer to the whales.

But today, Hagbart Waage is definitely not ready for a tour yet. That boat hasn’t been out with passengers in a while. It stinks like fish, the chairs are dirty, and the saloon is an utter chaos. And guess whose job it is to clean this mess? Yes, mine! That’s not what I signed up for. But I guess sometimes this is also part of our work. And at least I’m not alone and can split the tasks with one of the guides. I guess getting through a shitty job together is a. Special kind of bonding.

We sweep the top deck, wipe the chairs and railings, and clean the life jackets for the kids. By then, at least the top deck and front deck look presentable. Which brings us to the saloon. Piles of paper, broken light bulbs, used paper cups, screws, tools. Why are people not capable of cleaning up behind themselves? So we try to tidy up the room as good as possible, leave the seemingly important stuff in one corner for the crew to put away later, vacuum the room, wipe the floor, and then we are good. It was a hell of a job, but in the end, we did it much faster than expected.

Hagbart Waage